A Stranger in Corfu
I do not know if the island of Vidos actually exists, but Preston is very exact in its location in the Corfu Straits, in sight of Corfu Town. I doubt, however, that it is owned by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) as a sanitorium/care home for burnt-out or disgraced spies, but this is the premise for this book.
At first this looks like the classic setting for a ‘closed room’ murder/mystery. The first murder, however, does not occur until p.72, and the Greek detective inspector who is called in to investigate seems more interested in covering it up. Other deaths take place and the management is quite relaxed about it all – after all, the residents were sent here to die.
Most of the narrative consists of reminiscences exchanged between residents and flashbacks remembered on sleepless nights. It is told in several timelines going back to post-war Oxford and running up to the 1990s. Several historical characters feature in the story, notably Kim Philby, and others are fictional. Although the blurb claims this is ‘a reimagining of a real slice of British Intelligence Service history’, Preston does not help the uninitiated reader distinguish between imagination and history.
The book is beautifully written with lyrical passages describing the delights of Corfu, its coastal paths and picturesque villages. It is not a thriller, rather a group of oldies reliving the adventures, perils and betrayals of their youth, killing time until whatever or whoever kills them.
