Just Finished Reading: A Frenzy of Merchantmen by Brian Callison (FP: 1977)

It was a game of cat and mouse, a game of chicken, a tit for tat played with deadly earnest. But sooner or later a mistake would be made and sooner or later it was. As a Soviet merchant ship refused to stop and be boarded by a Royal Navy destroyer fired a shot across her bows – and missed. A freak accident caused, it seems by a freak wave and a bounce across an uncertain sea. The shell, aimed carefully ahead of the Soviet ship, ended up in the wheelhouse and the Captain lost a leg and then his life. Tit for tat and the Baltic Sea was closed to all British ships. An undoubted bluff needed to be called and a covert arm of the Royal Merchant Marine was directed to call it. Newly appointed captain Brevet Cable is instructed to sail into the Baltic and provoke a diplomatic incident. Completely unarmed and at the mercy of three Soviet destroyers eager for blood he surrenders his ship in an East German port and is unceremoniously ejected, along with his crew, back into the arms of the West. Mission accomplished. Only not, far from it. Cable has a new mission, an urgent one, a matter of life and death – quite possibly for millions. Cable must return to East Germany and retrieve his ship before the device hidden in its bowels starts a war no one wants. So, a parachute jump behind the Iron Curtain and the assistance of a Neo-Nazi resistance group. What could possibly go wrong?

This was a total impulse buy when I was looking through some novels of naval daring-do. Most such books seem to congregate around the Napoleonic Wars or, if you’re lucky, the War of 1812. Few, it seems are based in either World War and even less in the post-War period. So I snapped up this Cold War thriller hoping for the best. It is a book very much of its time. I don’t think there’s a single female character in it. It’s very much men doing what men do – fighting against seemingly impossible odds on missions that no one can be told about. Tales of heroes but, of necessity, hidden heroes. It was a bit clunky in places and rather amusingly dated but, despite the silliness in places, was actually rather entertaining. The sea sequences where very well done and suitably dramatic. The uprising and street fighting in the East German port were equally dramatic despite being very unrealistic at times. The main character was fun and would’ve been even better if the author hadn’t kept mentioning that his apparent heroism was largely for show rather than being truly heroic. But he still had some great lines and is someone I’d like to read more about – in further adventures which I’ll be trying to track down. Definitely a fun read. More Cold War thrillers to come.