In The Thick Of It

The British music critic Quentin Dart and his fiance Alexandra Matviyko, a Ukrainian with a past, are involved in a dramatic sequence of kidnaps and escapes. The plot first develops in the UK against a background of political intrigue and an escalation of policy differences between Washington and Westminster, relating to the build-up of terrorist activity in the Middle East, Asia, and Chechnya. As Quentin and Alexandra attend a performance of Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin at London's Royal Opera House, the conductor Petya Gubin is murdered in his dressing room. While suspicions grow regarding Gubin's fringe activities in the US, the murder is investigated by Scotland Yard and the FBI. Conspiracies surrounding the movement of large amounts of cash are unearthed, and Quentin gradually begins to understand more of the murky and puzzling chain of circumstances into which he has become involved. Alexandra is abducted while they are in New York together, and he becomes entangled with Dominique, a French concert violinist and the daughter of a known terrorist.

Three years later, Quentin is reunited with Alexandra only to have their new-found happiness dashed when he is shot and he has to undergo emergency surgery. Meanwhile Dominique has apparently taken up with members of an insurgency group run by her father, particularly the Italian twins Giovanni and Susanna Pronti. The group strangely includes a police officer, Elena Terrani, seconded by the corrupt Venice Chief of Police, Enrico Cervello, both of whom Alexandra meets, in surreal circumstances. While in a coma Quentin has vivid dreams about the activities of the group, their relationships and affairs, of being kidnapped and subjected to torture in Venice, and ultimately of being rescued by Alexandra.

With a number of set pieces full of high drama, notably including a multiple car chase by the shore near Coney Island in New York, a violent gun battle after a memorial service in a Russian Orthodox church on the streets of Manhattan, a gripping torture scene in the crypt of a church in Venice, an attempted rape in a hotel room in Newquay and a dramatic night-time chase on the Towan beach, the action never lets up, culminating in a final 'surprise twist' ending. With the author's insight into complex and intriguing characters, In the Thick of It should be on everyone's "must read" list.