William Boyd once wrote a Bond novel, Solo, but Gabriel Dax, the spy in The Predicament, is, unlike Bond, only reluctantly in the espionage business and really would like to devote himself full time to his other job, as a travel writer. Right now he’s finishing off his book on rivers, which serves as a useful cover for whatever country he’s being sent to by his beautiful MI6 boss, with whom he’s having an intermittent affair.

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