The Smoke by Tony Broadbent (2002).
This
book has everything lines up.
1. A handsome and brave
hero who happens to be the best cat burglar in the city.
2. MI5 and Russian secret
service going at each other.
3. The top gangsters in
London and the worst criminals in the world each trying to kill our hero.
4. A young and beautiful
woman trying to escape to the free world.
Honestly, you can't assemble the better setting for
the mystery than this.
With rich atmosphere of war-torn London (1947)
as a background, again, mystery just can’t get better than this.
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layers. – Jethro. Anyone out there who happens to be interested
in the technique of break-and-enter around 1947 will get a full lecture of all
the details and secret know-how from our hero, Jethro.
He is an extremely
smart and street-smart guy who learns everything from the street of London.
Born July, 27, 1916.
Won couple of medals for outstanding courage (saving quite a few shipmates from
sinking ship).
He works as a
stagehand, sort of laborer behind the theater during his off-days as a cover,
but in real life, he secretly owns several buildings and also is a co-owner of
the Victory café where his sister is working.
When he is scouting the
next target (rich houses), he normally goes there with a little painting easel
and sketches/paints the several pages of the place. And then, he spends months
for observing places, trying to recognize the pattern and making the actual
breaking-in plane.
He also has uncanny
ability to read and detect the movement of the other side of room just by
gently place his hand to the door and listen which of course helps him numerous
time avoiding the jail time.
He talks a lot about
what he does or knows, so just by listening whatever he says, you will learn
everything about cat-burglar such as
what to look for, how to work with all the tools and when to run, things like
that.
Also, through Jethro, who
is a highly intelligent guy with keen observation skill and vast knowledge
(College educated!!), you will experience the actual life of London in 1947
like reading an encyclopedia of that period. A lot of everyday activities are
described in every chapter. The author’s claim that he does tons of research
about this period is, judging by the book, totally justified. Research rules!!
Barry. Jethro’s brother I
law. A tough cap driver who knows every corner of the city and everyone around
it.
Loves his wife to
death.
Seth. Ex-navy fight
instructor who plays guitar for a travelling band.
He saves Jethro’s life
by beating up several tugs who tries to kill him and becomes the best friend of
Jethro.
A man with few word,
big heart and honor. A really cool and honest guy you can trust with your life.
He carries a hammer for
protection. A HAMMER!!
Joanie. Jethro’s
sister and part owner of the Victory café. A beauty with heart and attitude.
Ray Karmin. Part-Russian,
half-Viennese Jew. The best fence in London though few people ever know of it.
The father figure to
Jethro who teaches him everything out there to know about to become the best
cat burger and jewelry thief in London.
One of very few man
Jethro trust with his life.
He is a gentleman
scholar in British museum during the week ( highly educated and incredibly
intellectual )and “Buggy Billy” who sells pesticide in the underground market
during the weekend.
It is through Ray’s
words, the author explains all the important backgoung information of the
period: Politics, spies, war, immigration and crimes.
Welsingham. The
ex-military intelligence now running MI5. The one who decides to
hire(blackmail) Jethro.
Bosanquest. Welsingham’s
right hand man.
And all the bad guys
including gangsters and spies whom I won’t mention in here because there are
just too many of them.
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lace. – London, England,
1947, right after the war, where you can find everything, I mean EVERYTHING to
make any book or movie out of this world exciting.
Let me give you some
examples. There are cat burglars, prostitutes, organized gangs, lots of them,
illegal clubs, police and secret police that regular police force don’t even
know its existence (ghost police, they call ).
Then there are spies from sides, again lots of them, assassins for hire
(most of them are enjoying the booming business).
Then backbone of all
these is A HUGE BALCKMARKET in which all the businesses/companies that matter
at that time including legal ones, do their actual work during those difficult
period.
“The Smoke” is the
nickname for London which was re-building itself after the war, pumping lots of
smoke out to the air, supposedly making the city stinking and horrible to live
in. But if you read this book, you somehow get the opposite impression. Just
read what Jethro thinks about his city.
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lot. –This book is roughly
divided into two parts.
1. Jethro, the best cat
burglar and jewel thief in London, brakes into the Russian Embassy to steal a
few precious jewelers. But on his way out, he picks up couple of extra stuffs
including one ordinary looking black book.
2. His best friend and
mentor, Ray, finds out that the book could be a secret military code, and
instead of just throwing it away, starts to ask questions about it in the
British Museum out of pure patriotism.
3. That caught the
attention of MI5 and now Jethro is blackmailed to go back to the Embassy again
to steal the other half of the black book which contains the answer to all the
codes.
4. To make the story more
interesting, there is a beautiful Russian secretary who wants to defect to the
west. And this is the first half.
5. The second part finds
Jethro deals with gangsters who want his service and Russian spy/assassins who
want to kill him just to even the score which is much more grim and bloody than
the first half.
However, this book has
a really good ending with the promise of the sequel which makes me drooling
with expectation, because it is not easy finding book this interesting.
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erdict. – I already explain
thoroughly why this book is great, so I’ll just skip to the conclusion.
Tony
Broadbent delivers an extraordinary mystery with fact, thrill and lots of
unique characters.
With
great story and amazing research,
simply
put, this book has it all!!
