For the Good of the State by Anthony Price

Starting with a deliciously and uncompromisingly convoluted discussion between two characters which leaves the reader struggling to work out what it all means, and building up to a violent confrontation in a bleak stretch of British countryside, For the Good of the State is bursting with examples of Anthony Price at his best.

Once again the British secret services are up against not only the KGB but themselves as series regular David Audley faces plotting from both a rival institution on his own side and from a KGB making the transition to the world of Gorbachev and Perestroika.

Once again too Price’s pattern of switching around from book to book the character through whose eyes the action is scene pays dividends, but as ever too Audley is really at the centre of the events. This time round David Audley is visibly ageing – an all too rare progression in book series which follow the same characters over decades. The action also appears to centre around him, although once the plot pans out and you figure out at the end what everyone was really doing (mostly), you realise how much that appearance of Audley at the centre of events was really a mirage.

The real activity was propelled by the multiple motives of those around him and in the end Audley was largely a passenger, albeit one smart enough to pull off an impressive bureaucratic trick near the end. Which is part of the appeal of Price – not only the cleverness of the plotting, but his reliance on motives, intrigue and office politics seasoned with historical background and the occasional short bursts of violent tragedy rather than gadgets and incessant action.

If you like this, you might also be interested in The Defection of AJ Lewinter.

Got a view on this review? Then please rate it on Amazon.

Buy For the Good of the State by Anthony Price here.