Basil's War by Stephen Hunter

In the years before the US got involved in WWII, the Brits were doing the heavy lifting when it came to dealing with Hitler. Germany had by now overrun France and was pressing eastward against Russia. German soldiers in France knew they had it easy when it came to hostilities. Any screwup in France was a 1-way ticket to the eastern front.

Spies seem to be around every corner. Could be a storekeeper, a mechanic, a librarian, anyone. This goes both ways. And a big concern is the getting information to whichever side one is on can be problematic. The Brits have uncovered a communication chain, but they are lacking one rather important piece of information.

They need the code. They know it’s a basic cipher in the form of numbers. Messages are a set of numbers linked to a book. Let’s say the number is 2586. Get the right book. Look at page #25, line #8 and word #6. The first letter of that word makes up the content of the message. Tedious task at both ends, but effective. The Brits know that the book being used is an obscure religious text called The Path of Jesus. But using the printed book doesn’t work. What they need is the original handwritten pages by the author of which there is one duplicate, which the London-based spy uses, and one original that is safely housed in a Paris university library.

Stealing the original from the library won’t work. Once the Germans know it’s missing, they’ll just change books to something equally obscure. So, the Brits plan to send their own spy behind German lines into Paris to photograph the pages.

Basil St. Florian is Britain’s most effective operative. He has the right breeding, schooling, appearance, guile, physicality . . .  and a taste for movie starlets. The only thing he doesn’t say is ‘shaken, not stirred.’ A plan is hatched to fly Basil into a Cherbourg field used by the French resistance, find his way to Paris, sneak into the library, photograph the book, get back to Cherbourg for his clandestine flight back.

As usual, plans change at first contact with the enemy, or in this case, before first contact. Basil improvises and instead of being dropped off at the airstrip, parachutes out early. His travel to Paris and around France requires local ID papers, which he pickpockets (Basil can 'pick the fuzz from a peach') whenever needed. His first victim turns out to be a German sympathizer who reports that his papers have been lifted. Germans know that the only real reason for that is for travel. The routes for every train out of Cherbourg that evening are checked and guards posted at security at each stop looking for a man traveling using that victim’s name.

Basil’s experience tells him that new papers are needed at most every stop, so he lifts more as needed. He bluffs his way into the library, gets what he needs and now must get out despite the local French police, German abwher, Gestapo, and the SS on the hunt for a spy they know is out there, but they don't know what that spy is tasked to do.

Seems like a simple enough plot. But Hunter weaves in a bunch of subplots. Like the need to keep the German lines of communication open so they can feed false information to Berlin. Like the real reason behind the mission is less about that specific book and more about helping Stalin understand the real German plans on the eastern front. On top of all that is a German spy codenames OSPREY.

Last week, I got to wondering what Hunter was up to so I looked at his (unofficial) website and found this 2021 book. Got it from the local library. Curious. It’s a small book, maybe 6x9 inches with generous margins and senior-friendly typeface. More novella than novel. Turns out it’s an expanded version of a short story Hunter did for a 2015 series by this publisher. 

Its presentation is quite clever with chapters alternating between The Briefing and The Mission. With each new Briefing chapter, Hunter reveals a new piece of the puzzle until the rousing conclusion of the mission. But not the whole story because Hunter has multiple threads dangling that need to be tied together. Hunter knows how to tell a story that keeps the reader engaged, even a tale that, on the surface, seems straightforward. The MRB boys have reviewed most every Stephen Hunter book, every blessed one is a winner.

This is an enjoyable weekend read. And one that will keep Hunter in your cross hairs as you await his January 2022 book ‘Targeted’ featuring this MRB reviewer's favorite character: 

BOB LEE SWAGGER!