Elly Conway’s debut novel, Argylle (Bantam Press), comes weighted with great expectations. It’s being adapted for the cinema by director Matthew Vaughn, who calls it the start of “the most incredible and original spy franchise since Ian Fleming’s books”. There are all sorts of fun mysteries about Conway herself: who is this secretive author? (One rumour links her to Taylor Swift, which seems unlikely.)
The title’s protagonist is young and handsome Aubrey Argylle, who is chilling in Thailand when he sees a plane go down over the jungle and stages a daring rescue. His actions bring him to the attention of the CIA and he’s recruited for a deadly mission. Two things you need to know: as Argylle was raised by nomadic, drug dealer parents, he is fluent in all sorts of languages and brilliant at martial arts. His mission: to stop a supervillain Russian from getting his hands on “a priceless treasure of unrivalled opulence” stolen by the Nazis – the recovery of which would make him the most powerful man in the world.
It’s all hugely melodramatic, rather silly and very entertaining, particularly when Argylle’s training for the mission steps up and he’s sent to places such as Monte Carlo (where “the most famous lighting choreographer in the world” awaits) and remote Greek monasteries (“a seemingly impossible feat of perseverance and engineering”). Heir to Fleming is pushing it – I was outraged when, undercover in Monte Carlo after weeks of training under false identities, Argylle and his partner refer to each other by their real names. Did Conway write this while “working as a waitress in a late-night diner”, as her author blurb says? Or did it come to her “in a febrile dream” while recuperating from an accident, as her author’s note has it? I can’t say, but be prepared: the hype is going to be big.
I love a good unreliable narrator story, and Araminta Hall’s One of the Good Guys (Macmillan) is among the best I’ve read in ages. It starts from the perspective of Cole, who has moved to the coast after his marriage ended. He’s heartbroken to have lost Mel, and is trying to make a fresh start without her. He’s caring and thoughtful, one of the good guys, and we, and Cole’s new friend, Lennie, a reclusive artist, hear all about how Mel hurt him as the story progresses. “I want nothing more than to support and empower women, but surely that doesn’t mean that I should lie on the floor and let them walk all over me,” he muses. And: “I know, historically, it’s been hard to be a woman but, my God, it’s hard to be a man right now.” We also learn of the two young women who have been walking the coastline as part of a protest about male violence; we see their confrontation with Cole as he tries to keep them safe. Hall is fantastically good at upending expectations and pulling the wool over her readers’ eyes, so I can’t say much more without giving things away – but this exploration of female rage isn’t what you think it’s going to be.
In Ashley Elston’s First Lie Wins (Headline), we are introduced to Evie Porter as she’s meeting new boyfriend Ryan’s circle of friends and being relentlessly quizzed about her life. We quickly learn that this isn’t such a bad idea: Evie isn’t who she seems. She’s engineered her way into Ryan’s life after her boss, the mysterious Mr Smith, makes Ryan her latest target. But then she meets a woman at a party who appears to have taken on Evie’s real identity, and she begins to realise her boss might be playing her. Elston moves the story back and forth in time, allowing us to see how Evie fell into her life of crime, and watch as her past starts to catch up with her. This is twisty and fast-paced, and Evie is an enjoyably skilful operator.
The Alaskan wilds are the setting for Marie Vingtras’s compelling Blizzard (Mountain Leopard Press), ably translated from the French by Stephanie Smee. Bess, the nanny, has stepped out into a snowstorm with the young boy in her charge; she lets go of his hand and loses him. “I can’t see a thing. The snow’s whipping up from the ground in swirling gusts and if I look up to the sky, it’s a total white out. The air itself has been leached of colour, as if every shade has faded away, as if the whole world has been diluted in a glass of water.” The few neighbours in this remote location brave the blizzard to help look for him; Vingtras tells each of her short chapters from their various perspectives, slowly revealing the secrets they all hold as the desperate search goes on. Winner of the French Booksellers award, it is a chilling, tense read.
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