Undiscovered Scotland

 

We like to think our book reviews on Undiscovered Scotland are objective. Just occasionally, achieving that becomes more challenging than usual. We should therefore start this review by declaring an interest. "Friend or Foe?" is written by a member of the team here at Undiscovered Scotland. The potential conflict of interest goes even further than that, however, because the book is published by Arachnid Press Ltd, which is very closely related to Undiscovered Scotland.

So, with all that out in the open, if we'd simply stumbled across "Friend or Foe?" by Ken Lussey, would we recommend it? Well, yes, obviously: or we'd not be involved in its publication. But then you'd expect us to say that, wouldn't you? Rather than seek to give opinions, we'll confine the rest of the review to a description drawn from the publisher's blurb.

"Friend or Foe?" is a fast-paced thriller set largely in south-west Scotland during World War Two. It’s late June 1943. Bob and Monique Sutherland’s journey home from Malta is interrupted, first in London to hear Soviet claims of a German spy in Scotland and then by a shoot-out between US military units in Lancashire.

Having returned to Edinburgh, they remain only briefly before travelling with a Military Intelligence 11 team to Galloway to track down the spy. How best to catch a ghost who may already have uncovered vital military secrets? Can they find him before it’s too late?

When two Soviet agents arrive in Galloway to help, Bob and Monique need to work out the difference between friend and foe. Does the German spy exist, or is he a Soviet invention intended to lure MI11 into danger?

"Friend or Foe?" is available as a paperback from the publishers and all the usual sources. It is also available as an eBook from Kindle, Kobo or Apple. It is a standalone novel and is the seventh of Ken’s thrillers set in Scotland and beyond during World War Two to feature the same central characters.