Author Alexander McCall Smith is a Scottish legal scholar and prolific fiction author, perhaps best known for his 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' series and his 'Isabel Dalhousie' series. This amusing two-part book is a departure. 'The Private Life of Spies' contains tales about espionage, and 'The Exquisite Art of Getting Even' contains anecdotes about revenge.
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'The Private Life of Spies'
In the author's note, Smith observes that the spy stories are part fiction and part non-fiction.
📕 Nuns and Spies (England, 1943)
In 1943, Conradin Muller is a German man, fluent in English, who's recruited into the German Intelligence Service. Conradin has to take a three-month-course to learn about short wave radios and such, and to be taught 'how to behave like an Englishman.'
The behavior lessons include things like drinking tea with the little finger extended, and using the word 'jolly' as much as possible. For instance, if asked how you are, you reply 'I am jolly fine.' If asked what time it is, you say, 'It is jolly nearly twelve o'clock.' If something bad occurs, you say 'This is a jolly bad show.' And so on.
After the training course, Conradin is dropped into England with a nun's habit, and 'Sister Conradin' inadvertently finds himself the resident of a convent.
📕 Syphax and Omar (Algiers, 1924)
Syphax Brahimi and Pantaléon Dubois are rival spies in Algiers. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, Pantaléon follows Syphax. And on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Syphax trails Pantaléon.
On their birthdays, the two spies sit down in a café and share a birthday cake.
The story explains how this unconventional state of affairs came about.
📕 Ferry Timetable
Fergus Andrew Mactavish is a Scottish farmer who's about to lose part of his best field for a new road that was approved by the town council. In anger, Mactavish performs an act of treason, which has unexpected results.
📕 Donald and Yevgeni (Shanghai, Moscow, Washington, 1934 -1947)
Due to a confluence of circumstances a British diplomat called Archibald Clark Kerr is gifted with a Russian valet named Yevgeni by Stalin.
Many years later, in Washington DC, Kerr becomes acquainted with a member of the British Diplomatic Service called Donald Maclean. Donald suspects Yevgeni might be a Russian agent....but the truth is much more complicated.
📕 Filioque (Rome, 2022)
Pierre Citroën is a student at the French Pontifical College who's written a paper about the filioque controversy - a difference of opinion about the Holy Spirit between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.
When Cardinal Tommaso di Montalfino learns of Pierre's interest in the filioque, the Cardinal invites Pierre to lunch. This leads to Pierre being offered an important position after he graduates, but there may be an ulterior motive.
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"The Exquisite Art of Getting Even"
📕 Vengeance Is Mine
Murdo lives on a Scottish island called Mull and has a fishing boat. When Mull isn't fishing, he uses the boat to take visitors out and about.
Mull is a placid place until a flamboyant newcomer, Robert McCoy, arrives and flaunts his big red car and fancy new house.
As the story unfolds, someone is wronged, and there are consequences.
📕 The Principles of Soap
David Thoreau is an aspiring actor who makes a friend named Henry in acting school. Henry isn't a great actor, and becomes the target of cutting remarks from a fellow pupil called Virginia. Years after acting school ends, these three people come together on the set of a television show.....and things happen.
📕 Cavalleria Rusticana
Rose and Colin marry and buy a house with a large garden in the lovely Edinburgh suburb of Balerno.
The newlyweds are taken aback when they learn their neighbors have a big, rambunctious, barking dog Monty, who has no boundaries. All this leads to a series of unfortunate actions.
📕 One, Two, Three
Sam gets a degree in English literature and goes to work for a publisher. A big part of Sam's job involves editing (rewriting) the novels of Brock Maxwell, a very successful author who can't write.
Despite his writing challenges, Maxwell is arrogant, condescending, and nasty.
In time, there's an opportunity to take Maxwell down a peg.
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I'm a fan of author Alexander McCall Smith and always enjoy his stories and erudite philosophic insights. In this book, Smith depicts the more lighthearted aspects of espionage, and discusses the morality of revenge vs. forgiveness. Smith prefers forgiveness. I'm probably not as kindhearted, though I might hold a grudge in lieu of full-out revenge (sometimes). 🙂
Rating: 3.5 stars
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