I Spy: The Constantinople Caper
1927, Italy and Turkey. Trey, son of American engineering magnate, T. Drummond MacIntyre II, is on a special ‘quality time’ tour of Europe with his father. Unfortunately, his father is either interrupted by business affairs or else he drags the reluctant Trey to experience Culture with a capital C. Trey would much rather be reading his favourite Black Ace magazine about the super sleuth Trent ‘Pistol’ Gripp.
Then, unexpectedly, the schedule changes. Trey finds himself on board the Orient Express bound for Constantinople. And he’s sure they’re being followed by a sinister man with a pencil moustache. Constantinople is a city with many secrets and soon Trey has a real life mystery to solve. He longs to emulate his hero, Trent Gripp, and find out who the villains are and what they want. But then events take a dangerous turn….
I enjoyed this. It’s Damon Runyon meets Agatha Christie with a large dollop of Just William. Trey meets all sorts of interesting characters, from Baba Duan, a Constantinople journalist with his fingers in a number of murky pies; via Ahmet, his father’s driver, who knows Constantinople like the back of his hand; to Arthur Stanhope-Leigh, an upper class English schoolboy who Trey fears will be a complete pill, but who turns out to be a mean shot with a catapult. Trey is soon plunged into a roller-coaster of an adventure and there isn’t a dull moment.
Graham Marks captures not only the savvy yet naïve enthusiasm of young Trey but also the febrile quality of the period. Underneath the fun of a spoof 1920s mystery, lie the threats inherent in the rise of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. In the melting pot of Constantinople, that’s an explosive mixture. For boys, 10 plus.
