Remember the
Robert Redford movie in the seventies called Three Days of the Condor? It
was based on James Grady’s book, Six Days
of the Condor which I remember reading in 1976 and wishing for a larger
selection in this genre. Nearly forty
years later, Grady surfaces again with his Condor character in Last Days of The Condor. Condor is a
silver haired, broken down ex-CIA whistle blower now living with all the physical
ailments of a modern day baby boomer plus a mental struggle to sort fiction
from reality.
The Condor’s
civilian name is Vin. After a heart
attack and some problems with his memory, Vin is assigned to the Library of
Congress to sort through books from military bases, deciding what to archive
and what to pitch. He frequently feels
he is being followed and sometimes he is since a Homeland Security team is
assigned to monitor him. One day one of
the Federal agents assigned to him is murdered in his Washington D.C. apartment. Vin goes on the run with only a few dollars
and a pocket full of prescription pills.
Faye Dozier, the other Homeland Security agent assigned to his keeping
quickly finds him but they are attacked by unknown assailants. She becomes suspicious of her superiors and
their motives. With nowhere to run, they
impose on a fifty something woman, Merle who also works at the Library of
Congress. They invade her apartment and
she surprisingly welcomes the intrusion… deja vu for Six Days of the Condor fans. Now Vin and Faye must go on the
offensive to figure out who is after them and why before the assassins find
them.
Last Days of the Condor is a thrilling page turner and
believable Washington conspiracy tale. Yet
in many ways it is a rewrite of Six Days
of the Condor, forty years later. So
I ask you, would you rather read about a young, naïve hero cleverly out
smarting the intelligence community or a sixty something hero burdened with a
heart condition, an enlarged prostate, and memory loss? I’m afraid youth wins out again.
Thanks to Net Galley for the advance copy.
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