Brian Moore, Lies of Silence ****

I first read Lies of Silence back when it was published in the early 1990s, and even since I have regularly thought back on its awesome setup. The manager of a hotel in Belfast lies sleepless because he plans to tell his wife that he is leaving her. Before dawn, however, IRA terrorists break into his house and tell him he must drive his car, rigged with a bomb, onto the hotel property. They hold his wife hostage to ensure that he doesn't inform the police. He does report the bomb at the last minute. Is he a hero for doing the right thing or a heel for risking his wife's life rather than his own?

I refer to this scenario as the "setup" but it actually covers the entire first half of this short novel. The back half doesn't maintain the intensity. Both times I read the book I was disappointed that Moore focuses more on the social issues (should innocent citizens testify against terrorists?) than the personal ones (how does the wife interpret his betrayal?). To me, the most interesting character development would be the tension between his public heroism and his private sense of mercenary motives. I appreciated the later chapters more on this second read since my expectations were properly set.

Lies of Silence tells a very cinematic story, if a now somewhat dated one. When I read it I can't help but imagine how I would adapt it into a film. Needless to say, I would refocus the denouement.

Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game ****

The Great Game describes the 19th-century rivalry between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia for control of central Asia. Britain saw the region as an exposed flank of India; Russia felt a manifest destiny to control the continent. Rudyard Kipling popularized the expression "the Great Game" in his novel Kim.

It's an exciting adventurous story that takes place against a backdrop of exotic cultures and extreme landscapes. Khiva, Bokhara, Samirkind, Chitral; the Karakum and Taklamakan Deserts, the Pamir, Karakoram, and Himalaya Mountains. The story includes secret spy missions, daring escapades, treachery, extreme conditions, sieges, and battles. I enjoyed learning the history and the geography, both of which I was largely ignorant about. 

Hopkirk's writing is very matter-of-fact. He underplays the drama of many episodes. He doesn't attempt to portray the personal character of his many heroes, which makes them hard to distinguish. Which intrepid adventurer was that? Especially in the early going, many of their deeds felt similar.

I referred regularly to the included maps. They gave a good sense of the relative positions of the cities and Khanates, but I wish they had provided better topographical detail. The dramatic landscapes played a critical role in military assessments of the risk of invasion.

It seemed to me that over the century of conflict, Britain typically relied on treaties with their "buffer states" while Russia typically occupied them "temporarily." Given the capricious nature of rulers, the Russian approach resulted in more permanent gains. There was also a persistent difference in attitude between the political and military portions of both governments.