The Bell Ringers [Paperback]

** Copying my existing review so that people who weren't aware of this author won't be scared off by low ratings due to title change. This is the US edition of an excellent book that came out in the UK last year. **

Henry Porter is one of those suspense writers whom I can't help wishing wrote a lot more, and wrote a lot faster. But the I suppose if he did, he wouldn't be able to craft such well-written novels that are, to me, a model of the genre.

Porter's latest offering opens at the inquest into the death of David Eyam, a former 'spook' and onetime high-ranking British civil service officer who has, it seems, been blown to smithereens while on holiday in Colombia. Or has he? That's just one of the mysteries that his friend and former lover, Kate Lockhart, must unravel after she discovers that Eyam has left the bulk of his estate to her. But that legacy could prove dangerous, as quickly becomes apparent when someone close to Kate and Eyam is murdered. She must unravel the clues he has left behind and uncover the truth behind British government attempts to remove the last iota of privacy from its citizens in the name of security -- a system built on dangerously flawed computer programs administered by politicians and their cronies who are able to manipulate that system in pursuit of power and profits.

While conspiracy theories may lie at the heart of the plot, they never take a back seat to character, and they are handled so deftly by Porter that I never felt as if I was being preached at by the author. The characters themselves are human, with flaws aplenty, but also with courage and imagination; the villains of the piece emerge as rather shabby individuals rather than evil demons -- a satisfyingly nuanced approach. Nor does Porter neglect the ugly reality that all of those who advocate freedom from invasions of privacy must be prepared to address -- the fact that the bulk of citizens don't really care, assuming that it won't affect their lives. As Kate points out angrily to one of those she is working with to combat the government's plan, codenamed "Spindrift", "Nobody cares ... as long as they feel safe, can feed themselves and watch TV. ... The whole point of governments is that they take decisions about issues the public doesn't want to think about." Porter's counter-argument, conveyed very adroitly through the beliefs and actions of the "Bell Ringers", helps demonstrate why we should all care.

Porter envisaged this book as a bookend of sorts to his earlier novel, Brandenburg Gate, which revolved around the sudden collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and of the Berlin Wall itself. and the passage of that society into "light and freedom" in 1989. This book outlines the reverse process, one that Porter describes in his author's notes as being already underway in Britain, where CCTV cameras sprout on nearly every street corner and national ID cards aren't far away. It's a cry from the heart, but thankfully, the book that has resulted isn't a ponderous polemical treatise but a fascinating and suspenseful novel, with characters and ideas rather than dead bodies and brandished weapons driving the plot.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys this kind of politically-oriented suspense. I've rated it 4.5 stars (the conclusion was a tad too pat and Hollywoodesque), but rounded it up to 5 stars. Another of Porter's novels that literally starts out with a bang in the shape of an exploding bomb is Remembrance Day, and I'd urge you to seek that one out as I still think it's this author's best work.

After reading this book I wonder- am I going on a government list for reading this book? Is my review to be archived in my personal government file, to be retrieved when the citizenry are hauled in for violations of some secret Act? Those are some of the feelings that you might be left with after reading Henry Porter's timely novel postulating what might happen in Britain if the current trend toward government intrusion in the lives of its citizens continues. The apathy of the British public to its declining privacy is also a focus, and fear, in the novel. As a spy novel, or thriller goes, the book rises and falls. When the character Kate Lockhart starts sleuthing, there are moments of Nancy Drew to be seen. But when Porter sticks to the government itself, a creepy feeling comes up your back and you know he has his finger on the real danger facing the public- itself, and its complacency that rights long held will forever be held.

I was not taken in by the U.S. title of Porter's "The Dying Light", which I read after seeing a highly favorable review in a quality UK paper. I found it to be excellent light reading. Anyone who didn't realize that this was the same book after reading the UK edition obviously skimmed "The Dying Light" too quickly, since the American title uses the name of the principle resistance group -- the "bell ringers" -- in this 1984ish thriller set in 2020 England. So it's fairly obvious that it's the same book.

Although Porter's style is rather pedestrian and there's not much character development, his plot line sweeps you along. The book riveted my attention to the end, where the British parliamentary system smashes head-on into a would-be Big Brother.

There is a very favorable reader's review of the book at amazon.co.uk. But do look for it under the original title.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 10 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars