Captain Grey's Gambit

February 15, 2022
You thought you knew secret agents, but you may have thought wrong. It's 1803, and Captain Thomas Grey is on urgent business for His Majesty's Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs. Captain is a courtesy title gained during Grey's time in the Royal Marines, from which he was recruited to work intelligence. Britain finds itself alone in Western Europe, defying the imperialistic encroachment of Napoleon Bonaparte, and Grey finds himself alone in India, relaying dispatches between diplomats and military officers. Things go smoothly early on, and most of Grey's first interactions involve the exchanging of pleasantries and niceties (tea first and foremost) that seemingly distinguish an early-19th-century spy from later counterparts. In the second book of his Captain Grey series, following Hold Fast (2021), Gelernter continues to distinguish his character from his literary influences, chief among them Ian Fleming's James Bond, with deliberate flourishes like a sense of honor that means Grey must allow his enemies a chance to live, often at risk to his own life, and a penchant for gaming--but in place of Bond's baccarat, Grey plays chess, which is absolutely central to this volume. Grey is required to travel undercover to Frankfurt to retrieve would-be defector Joseph Leclerc, secretary to Bonaparte and an invaluable prize to the British cause, from a chess tournament. Consequently, multiple chess matches are recorded in their entirety, move by move, in a gambit that risks losing some readers but that's easy enough to ignore. Pay more attention to the many rich historical details that populate the novel with obvious care. Sometimes Grey can seem too good to be true, and solutions to problems are presented rather than solved, but such is the way of things with superspies. A romantic dalliance with the past via an international man of mystery.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 14, 2022
Early in Gelernter’s superior sequel to 2021’s Hold Fast, Sir Edward Banks, England’s chief of naval intelligence, orders Capt. Thomas Grey, recently returned home from a mission to India, to appear at 10 Downing Street on New Year’s Day, 1804, with no explanation. Grey is confused when he shows up at the appointed time, only to be directed to play chess against the prime minister’s private secretary, George Atwood. At first, Atwood easily defeats Grey in one game after another, but over the course of a month Grey improves and starts to win. He later learns the match was an audition that he has passed. As the best chess player in the service, he’s being sent to Frankfurt to compete in an international tournament. That’s a cover for his exfiltration of a highly prized defector and chess champion, Joseph Leclerc, one of Napoleon’s most trusted aides, who has become disillusioned with his master. Gelernter’s clever premise matches his well-rounded and plausible lead, and vivid depictions of the developments in the conflict between England and France enhance the suspenseful espionage plot. A musical interlude at the beginning will only increase the appeal for Patrick O’Brian admirers.