A Spy Inside the Castle
An intricate novel that possesses continual intrigue, A Spy Inside the Castle is about tangled power structures and winding political plots.
M. B. Courtenay’s high-stakes political thriller A Spy Inside the Castle is about espionage, secret societies, pernicious hierarchies, and those fighting to forestall chaos.
Ethan, a security analyst at a top private intelligence agency in the US, is known for his exceptional intelligence and pattern recognition. After an ill-timed public prediction of political and economic collapse, Ethan is recruited to join a covert espionage project in order to weed out a mole for a European terrorist organization. Also at play is a powerful superintelligence, ARCLIGHT, that’s “capable of ingesting human behavior, systemic data, and historical precedent—and projecting not guesses, but paths.” In arriving at the home base of ARCLIGHT, Ethan encounters a labyrinthine conspiracy whose architects and participants are foreboding.
This is an intricate thriller, with several layers of complexity to each of the different narrative arcs. ARCLIGHT, for example, can see both backward and forward in time, and there are multiple jumps in the narrative’s timeline as a result. The perspective also pivots often between people and periods to assess individual backstories and motivations.
Among the focal cast is Lisa, a secret society agent and a high-level player in the US government; Diana, a burned US agent who’s stationed with ARCLIGHT; and Larry, the secretary of state, who has ulterior motives when it comes to weeding out the mole. Each person displays calculated, clear intelligence, shrouding their true motivations to the degree that befits each interaction best. Doubts are sown: It is impossible to place full trust in any person, and the sense of mystery grows with each scene. Indeed, each shift reveals monumental discoveries, and each personal decision has dire, often irreversible consequences.
The narrative’s center is sometimes lost behind deep backstories and long setting descriptors. Still, its sense of intrigue is continual, and it does an able job of exploring the power of individuals in fighting against corruption, even when they’re standing against incredible odds. Further, the prose is sharp, unfolding a world of deception, ulterior motives, and daggers in the dark with skill. In spite of the book’s somewhat rushed ending, its lasting sense of the formidability of power structures is chilling.
A Spy Inside the Castle is a fascinating thriller about those who hold power, those who are fooled into thinking they hold power, and those who fight against corrupt power structures.
Reviewed by
Natalie Wollenzien
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
