The Old Vengeful

[sawyl]

Another Anthony Price novel, this time The Old Vengeful, which sets a Napoleonic naval riddle alongside a contemporary plot involve the KGB. Once again, the novel features David Audley, but this time as a motivator rather than a prime mover. Instead the heavy lifting is left to Paul Mitchell, one of Audley's protégés and, if I remember rightly, another recurring character.

When Commander Hugh Loftus, war hero, martinet, captain of HMS Vengeful and sometime naval historian dies, his daughter Elizabeth finds herself unexpected rich and attracting the wrong sort of attention. Under cover of completing the old man's history of all the warships to bear the name Vengeful, Paul Mitchell is dispatched by Audley to see what he can find out from Elizabeth. When she is attacked, Mitchell becomes convinced that the reason is more than simple robbery and that the answer lies somewhere in Cmdr Loftus' research on the Napoleonic Vengeful. The pair, accompany by Mitchell's colleague Humphrey Aske, head to France in search of answers.

On the whole, The Old Vengeful works rather well, neatly integrating the thrill of the historical chase with a contemporary — the book is set in the early 1980s — spy story involving East End crooks and KGB agents. The characters are good fun, especially Elizabeth Loftus, who seems to possess a photographic memory and a razor-sharp brain, and often works out the answers to the puzzles well ahead of the others. I also enjoyed the chance to see Audley and Faith in a domestic setting, complete with a precocious Tolkien obsessed daughter whom they quite happy leave to look after guests and cook crème brûlée while they go out and about.

But for all that, there are a few social elements that feel slightly uncomfortable. For one, great play is made of the fact that Aske is gay. Mitchell behaves quite appallingly towards Aske, but at least has the self-awareness to attribute this to a combination of homophobia and distaste for Aske's political master. Loftus starts off fairly neutrally, pointing to Mitchell that his attitude is out of date and that homosexuality is no longer an offence, but gradually Mitchell's attitude starts to rub off on her. This feels slightly odd because both Mitchell and Loftus are supposed to be of my parents generation, yet their attitudes seem one generation removed. Perhaps I'm being uncharitable: although both the characters are supposed to be academics, their disciplines and backgrounds are a world away from my parents' bohemian sensibilities and disciplines; and it may also be that Mitchell's attitudes, being a spook, are still coloured by distant memories of Guy Burgess.

Secondly, there are a few throwaway comments from Audley about Elizabeth's chances of wedlock being slim — she's described as being a rather plain-looking hockey type. This, he seems to think, makes her an ideal candidate for his department because it means that she's unlikely to leave after getting married. Did this sort of thing really still go on the 80s?

But I think perhaps my quibbles are unfair. I'm judging the novel's characters by modern standards, wanting them share my own ethics while being aware that were they do so, they would appear both inauthentic and anachronistic.