In Secret Service – Mitch Silver

Ian Fleming may be gone, but this fascinating tale of a 40-year-old secret resurrects the old master.

Raymond Greenberg of New Haven, Connecticut, is dead. As executor to his will, his granddaughter, Amy Greenberg, a young American historian, receives a letter from a Dublin bank. Due to impending closure they request he remove all valuables from a safe-deposit box held in his name. Amy is confused, as no mention of the box is made in the will. .

Someone other than her grandfather had paid for a long-term lease on the box, which was put it in her grandfather’s name. Not only that, they stipulated it not be opened until fifty years after his or her death. The contents of the box reveal nothing of value; merely a bundle of papers, a letter from the author, Ian Fleming, and a manuscript: an unpublished memoir? .

The letter tells of the writer’s brief friendship with Raymond, including a terrible secret he is entrusting to him–or his only descendant–his granddaughter Amy. .

After retrieving the inheritance from Ireland, on the flight back home, a stranger in the next seat claimed to be there to protect her. But why–why did she need protection? It didn’t make sense. Then to her horror the man is killed and the rest of the flight is terrifying as she struggles to stay alive. .

As she reads through the memoir, the story slowly unfolds. What follows is not your typical 007; never-the-less it’s a page turner as in true cloak and dagger style, Blunt and Fleming—-undercover agent for MI5–pursue their mission. .

Paintings looted by the Nazis, cold-blooded killers, characters like Winston Churchill, Wallace Simpson, the Duke of Windsor, and Anthony Blunt–later known as a Soviet spy; even the Duke of Edinburgh at a very young age, take us back before the Second World War to an age of intrigue and erotic romance. As she reads through the chapters, Amy learns the secret that threatens her life. This is the author’s first novel. I look forward to his second.