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Summary
Summary
Over twenty years ago William F. Buckley Jr. launched the dashing character of Blackford Oakes like a missile over the literary landscape. This newly minted CIA agent--brainy, bold, and complex--began his career by saving the queen of England and quickly took his place in the pantheon of master spies drawn up by Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, and John LeCarre.
Against the backdrop of sinister Cold War intrigue, in this his eleventh outing, Oakes crosses paths--and swords--with Kim Philby, perhaps the highest-ranking in the parade of defectors to the Soviet Union. Oakes is now himself a master spy, working out of the agency and around agency rules. His romance with an able and worldly Soviet doctor provides consolation for the death of his beloved Sally. But after his return to Washington he receives dismaying news. It is inevitable that the great Soviet spy and the renowned American agent will meet again--this time, with deadly consequences.
Previous novels in the series include Saving the Queen; Stained Glass; Who's on First; Marco Polo, If You Can; The Story of Henri Tod; See You Later, Alligator; High Jinx; Mongoose, R.I.P.; Tucker's Last Stand; A Very Private Plot; and The Blackford Oakes Reader.
Author Notes
Editor and writer William F. Buckley, Jr. was born in New York City on November 24, 1925. While at Yale University, he studied political science, history and economics and graduated with honors. In 1955, he founded the weekly journal National Review where he was editor in chief. He began his syndicated newspaper column in 1962 and his weekly television discussion program, Firing Line was syndicated in 1966.
Buckley wrote "God and Man at Yale" (1951) which was an indictment of liberal education in the United States, "Up from Liberalism" (1959), "The Unmaking of a Mayor" (1966), which tells of his unsuccessful mayoral campaign as the Conservative Party candidate for New York City in 1965, and "Quotations from Chairman Bill" (1970).
Buckley also wrote best selling stories of international intrigue whose titles include "Saving the Queen" (1976), "Stained Glass" (1978), "Who's on First" (1980), "Marco Polo, If You Can" (1981), and "See You Later, Alligator" (1985). He died on February 27, 2008.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Master spy Blackford Oakes hies to Russia to thwart yet another assassination plot against Soviet Communist Party chief Mikhail Gorbachev in Buckley's 11th Cold War intrigue starring the aging but still intrepid CIA agent. Back in the U.S.S.R., he's introduced to attractive, 40-year-old Moscow urologist Ursina Chadinov by his former partner Gus Windels, a CIA agent-cum-public affairs officer with the United States diplomatic legation. Immediately smitten by Ursina, Oakes asks her to marry him, but their romance takes a backseat once Oakes encounters Andrei Fyodorovich Martins, aka his old nemesis, spy and defector Kim Philby. The plot to assassinate Gorbachev soon resolves itself, shifting the suspense to the battle between the two master spies. The struggle quickly goes awry for Oakes, who must then make tough, life-altering decisions. As always, Buckley imparts erudite sidebars about American history, literature and his famous acquaintances as he spins a lively, entertaining tale. Readers with a longstanding attachment to Blackford Oakes will be saddened by the novel's culmination, telegraphed by the title, but Buckley hints in the acknowledgments that the spy may "rise again" under the supervision of his researcher for this book, Jaime Sneider. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Blackford Oakes, who by sheer wit and charm might have won more liberals over to the conservative side than his creator Buckley ever managed on Firing Line, has been sent to Moscow by President Ronald Reagan (in 1987) to look into preventing yet another plot to assassinate Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. A previous attempt had failed, thanks to Oakes and colleagues, but the brother of one of the failed conspirators vows revenge. Oakes tackles the problem head-on but is challenged even more by his newfound love for brilliant Soviet surgeon Ursina Chadinov and his life-or-death struggle with notorious double-agent Kim Philby. Buckley purposefully if artlessly weaves real-life figures Reagan, Gorbachev, Philby, and author Graham Greene into his narrative, and he applies a credible, if rightist, historical context without seeming to lecture. Perhaps as a result, this eleventh Blackford Oakes tale is too chatty for its own good and will have to rely on the series' popularity--rather than the strength of its plot--to pull fans along. But those fans remain numerous. --Alan Moores Copyright 2005 Booklist
Kirkus Review
In his glasnost-era curtain call, Blackford Oakes comes off not so much world-weary as simply weary. The opening of this 11th outing finds Oakes (A Very Private Plot) in the Oval Office circa 1987, asking President Reagan to give him the okay to go snooping around Moscow. Oakes thinks there might be an attempt on Gorbachev's life, something the U.S. wants to scupper in the interest of keeping a moderate in the Kremlin. Once he's on the other side of the Iron Curtain, it's a pretty sedate affair, with Oakes getting a lot of his intel from Gus Windels, the Ukrainian-born CIA operative who poses as his son when they travel together, and sparking up a romance with the brainy and much younger Russian doctor Ursina Chadinov. The plot on Gorbachev doesn't amount to much, which leaves plenty of time for Oakes and Chadinov to verbally spar over dinner and for Buckley to lob some muted jabs at misplaced Cold War-era Western liberal sympathies for the Soviet regime. Things pick up a bit when legendary Soviet double agent Kim Philby (one of several real-life people who pop up now and again) enters the picture and smells something fishy about Oakes's cover story, setting up the inevitable showdown. Buckley clearly wants to be considered in the ranks of great literary spymasters; if he didn't, he wouldn't invoke Our Man in Havana so incessantly, even including an incredible scene where Reagan rhapsodizes about the book we're reading. But the comparison with Greene essentially ends at their shared Catholicism. While it's refreshing to read spy fiction that doesn't feel the need to end every chapter with a sniper's bullet or a car bomb, the author's failure to plumb much emotional or psychological depth leaves a great void. A muted ending to a less-than-thrilling spy's career. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Blackford Oakes is back, and this time he's wrestling with Kim Philby. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Ronald Reagan, at ease with himself as ever, satisfied himself yet again on summoning the memory of his dealings with Blackford Oakes in October 1986. He had done the right thing. But now, December 1987, Oakes had put in for another meeting with the president.Their 1986 meeting had had to do with a plot to assassinate Gorbachev. A group of young Russians, weary and demoralized by the brutal Soviet war against Afghanistan, had planned to kill the Communist leader. Oakes, veteran CIA agent, was in secret and unshared touch with a Soviet defector he had long experienced as antagonist, but who was now a hidden ally.And so Reagan had had to ponder the agonizing question: Is it the business of the United States to get in the way of a plot by native Russians trying to get rid of Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and dictator?Reagan had inclined, at first, to do nothing-let the Russians look after their own affairs. Gorbachev was certainly an improvement on his predecessors, true. Yet he was a blooded successor to a line of tyrants that had begun in 1917 with Lenin, followed by Stalin, a thirty-year curse. And then there had been Bulganin and Khrushchev and Brezhnev, another thirty years among them, followed by Andropov and Chernenko ("elderly guys," Reagan mused, "-about my own age"). They didn't serve for very long, but they did carry on the bloody Afghan war launched by Brezhnev. A war that Gorbachev, soon after his selection as general secretary, vowed to fight to the end.Should President Reagan do nothing? Say nothing-when he got word through Oakes that an assassination had been plotted?Reagan sat on the intelligence. While weighing the question of intervention, he reminded himself that the young conspirators were perfecting their plot. What finally influenced him had been the summit at Reykjavik. This was his second meeting with Gorbachev, and this time he sensed that Gorbachev was different enough from other Soviet leaders to be worth going to undiplomatic lengths to protect. So he called Oakes in and told him to intervene. To abort the assassination. If necessary, even if it meant exposing the ring of youthful plotters. Yes-if necessary-even if it meant exposing the deeply hidden Soviet asset, the clandestine defector who had tipped off Blackford Oakes.That was fourteen months ago, but Blackford vividly recalled the day the president gave him the order. Reagan had come right to the point.He told Oakes-his mouth slightly contracted, as was habitual when Reagan was spitting out instructions-that the plot was to be suppressed. Having made the critical decision, Reagan wanted the whole thing to go away. The very last thing he wished ever to be reminded of was that he had once given orders to betray a band of young Russian patriots. After all, weren't these people to be likened to the July 20th plotters against Adolf Hitler? Likened to, well, the Romans who finally did away with Caligula? He stopped him Excerpted from Last Call for Blackford Oakes by William F. Buckley All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
