The Limbo Line

Spy dramas usually fall into two camps. The over-the top but entertaining nonsense of James Bond and it's ilk or the tense high stakes Cold War dramas by John Le Carre and similar. Unfortunately, The Limbo Line by Victor Canning tends to fall between these two camps, and it can sometimes be a little dull.

The Soviets are running a scheme where low-profile defectors are snatched in the West and taken back to the Worker's Paradise they obviously were foolish to leave. Retired agent Manston is bought in by the secret services in a plan to uncover and destroy the Soviet network carrying out these operations. They do this with the lure of ex-Soviet ballerina Irina, who is next on the Soviet's list.

Manston starts to fall for Irina, and has misgivings about letting her be kidnapped so they can follow the trail, which will lead them to smash the scheme. Everything does not follow smoothly, the Soviets led by Oleg are a tough lot and the ageing Manston doesn't quite have his wits as he used to.

This isn't a bad book and indeed can be a perfectly decent Cold War espionage drama at times but the low overall stakes (though pretty high for Manston and Irina of course) and the slightly repetitive nature of the plot can make the book a bit of a chore at times. Luckily the two main characters are both very likeable and so you care what happens to them. This helps keeps you interested to the end.