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ComicWhen espionage and science fiction collide
Against the backdrop of the Cold War, the 29th work of “Blake & Mortimer” takes the reader through a universe of spies tinged with science fiction experiences. Eight exciting hours in Berlin…
The 29th opus is a great vintage.
Blake Mortimer Editions
Berlin, 1963. Its Cold War atmosphere, its wall of shame, its den of spies and the visit of the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. But, exactly, is he the “real” president? In the center of the plot, Captain Francis Blake, returning from a detour through Lake Geneva, Switzerland, his adjutant, Professor Philip Mortimer, who arrived from the foothills of the Urals, not forgetting, of course, the notorious Colonel Olrik, who reappears, always ready to weave the most demonic plans. Eight breathless hours, which could have changed the face of the world…
Unquestionably, the 29th installment in the Blake & Mortimer series is a great vintage. In the prestigious tradition of the founding father, Edgar P. Jacobs, the screenwriters José-Louis Bocquet and Jean-Luc Fromental set themselves up as worthy successors, while Antoine Aubin lets his “Jacobsian” style speak for itself. The whole universe of the great classics (“The Secret of the Swordfish”, “The Yellow Sign”) finds itself in the scenario of “Eight Hours in Berlin”, which oscillates between science fiction and espionage, always supported by a narrative, certainly abundant, but of absolute scientific, historical and geographical rigour.
From Jules Verne to John Le Carré
As often, the story is double and the connection between the two is thin. The discovery, in the heart of the Urals, of seven coffins containing corpses with torn skin while he is conducting an archaeological mission will lead Mortimer to a mysterious sanatorium with Soviet overtones, hidden in the mountains. At the same time, a defecting spy is shot at the foot of the Wall that cuts Berlin in two, and utters, before succumbing, a strange word: “Doppelgänger” (“double” in German). Word repeated by the head of the West German secret services before being himself killed under the eyes of Blake on the shores of Lake Geneva.
The link between the macabre discovery and the massacred deserter bears a name: Julius Kranz, an evil East German surgeon who specializes in electrosurgical manipulations on the human brain. Circumstantial ally of the evil Colonel Olrik, more than ever hungry for conquest and power, Professor Kranz is secretly preparing the greatest hoax in the history of humanity … As Jean-Louis Bocquet says, “Eight hours in Berlin echo the great classics of spy literature. Perhaps we tried to mix the Jules Verne of our childhood with the John Le Carré of our adolescence? Or when historical hyperreality collides with the hyperfantasy of the imagination.
• “Eight hours in Berlin”. Jean-Luc Fromental, José-Louis Bocquet and Aubin Antoine. Blake Mortimer Editions, 16.50 euros.
If you are into all things espionage, fact or fiction, dig spy thrillers, novels or films, and like Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, Len Deighton’s Harry Palmer or even Mick Heron’s Jackson Lamb then you had best read the enigmatic and elusive espionage thriller Beyond Enkription. It’s the first stand-alone novel in The Burlington Files series based on the life of a real spy Bill Fairclough, aka Edward Burlington, who was an agent for MI6 (codename JJ) and the CIA.
Beyond Enkription (intentionally misspelt) is set in London, Nassau and Port au Prince in the seventies pursuant to Edward Burlington infiltrating a global organised crime syndicate while unwittingly working for MI6. After some frenetic attempts on his life he was relocated to the Caribbean where, “eyes wide open” he’s recruited by the CIA and is soon headed for shark infested waters off Haiti. The protagonist has been likened to a “posh Harry Palmer.” Indeed, Len Deighton could be forgiven for thinking he co-wrote this monumental thriller.
Interestingly, you may not have heard of The Burlington Files before, but time will remedy that. Just like Mick Herron’s Slough House series, The Burlington Files series was rejected by know-all publishers who probably thought they understood espionage having read about 007. Nevertheless, in real life Fairclough and his handler (Col Alan Pemberton CVO MBE) crossed the paths of many spooks who have been written about or written about espionage such as Oleg Gordievsky, Greville Wynne, Oleg Penkovsky, David Cornwell, Graham Greene, Kim Philby et al.
Pemberton’s People in MI6 even included Roy Astley Richards (Winston Churchill’s bodyguard), one eccentric British Brigadier (Peter ‘Scrubber’ Stewart-Richardson) who tried to join the Afghan Mujahideen, Peter Goss an SAS Colonel and JIC member involved in the Clockwork Orange Plot concerning Prime Minister Harold Wilson and even the infamous rogue Major Freddy Mace, who highlighted his cat burgling and silent killing skills in his CV. Beyond Enkription is a must for all espionage aficionados and the spy tradecraft is ingenious and even relevant now.