Cover image of "Every Spy a Traitor," an unfunny farce

Does a farce need to be funny? Wikipedia defines farce as “comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable.” To me, it seems doubtful that Alex Gerlis set out to create a farce when he wrote Every Spy a Traitor. He’s an accomplished author of espionage fiction. And there is little humor in the novel. But the plot Gerlis weaves around his protagonist, Charles Christopher Cooper, is in fact, exaggerated, extravagant, and improbable. The story is cleverly crafted, of course, and well written. And it’s full of fascinating detail about the practices of the NKVD and Stalin’s purge in the 1930s. None of that is funny in the least. So, the book is an unfunny farce.

And here’s why: Cooper will accidentally become a spy for both the Soviet Union and Great Britain. And not as a double agent. But with neither service knowing about his link to the other. Believe it or not, that’s exactly the story Gerlis tells.

Two Soviet spies in MI6

Actually, two spies dominate this story. The hapless Christopher Cooper is one, and we follow his absurd progression through recruitment by both the NKVD and MI6 and then his frantic efforts to keep each knowing about the other. But there’s another man, and he’s not the least bit absurd. We know him throughout by his Soviet codename, Archie. He’s a wealthy aristocrat, a Cambridge graduate, and highly placed in MI6. The NKVD regards him as an excellent source of top-secret information. Of course, the two men’s lives will intersect. But they do so in surprising ways.

Every Spy a Traitor (Double Agent #1) by Alex Gerlis (2024) 397 pages ★★★☆☆

Photo shot inside the NKVD's Lubyanka Prison, a scene in this unfunny farce
A view inside the Lubyanka Prison, situated in the “basement” (actually, the top floor) of the headquarters of the NKVD and its successor, the KGB. A critical scene in the novel takes place here. Image: Ints Kalnins – Business Insider

Visiting Stalin’s most frenzied purge

What’s most interesting about Every Spy a Traitor is Gerlis’ deep dive into the history of Stalin’s purge of the intelligence service. The story is set in 1937 and 1938, and much of the action takes place in Moscow or in Soviet embassies and consulates elsewhere in Europe. We witness the purge through the eyes of NKVD officers and other Soviet officials as they see colleagues hauled off, one by one, to the basement of the Lubyanka. And we even get a glimpse in the notorious prison itself—including an execution there. Along the way we learn a good deal about the spycraft of the NKVD. And Alex Gerlis is known to be a meticulous researcher, so it seems safe to trust what he writes as at least very close to the truth.

He’s also on solid ground in his portrayal of Archie, the aristocratic spy. MI6 in the 1930s had a full complement of privileged and sometimes aristocratic Communists, most famously the Cambridge Spies. The agency was clueless for many years, and the most prominent of the lot lasted in sensitive positions into the 1950s.

That said, however, I would have enjoyed the book more if the story at its heart hadn’t been so laughably unlikely.

The bigger picture

A dozen years ago Alex Gerlis launched an outstanding series of WWII spy novels. Unfortunately, after those four books, his later work didn’t measure up. Every Spy a Traitor, while better than some of those he’s written in recent years, still doesn’t demonstrate the talent he showed in that inaugural series.

About the author

Photo of Alex Gerlis, author of this unfunny farce
Alex Gerlis. Image: author’s website

Alex Gerlis was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1955. He received a degree in Law and Politics from Hull University and, after working for several years as a political researcher and journalist, joined the BBC as a researcher. Over the next twenty years he worked for BBC News and Current Affairs. He left the BBC in 2011 to write full-time, and has since authored twelve spy novels and two nonfiction books about the Normandy Invasion. Gerlis is married with two daughters and lives in west London.

Previously I read and reviewed six of the author’s earlier spy novels. You’ll find them at Top-notch spy novels from Alex Gerlis. I especially recommend his first effort in the genre, The Best of Our Spies (An extraordinary World War II spy story grounded in historical fact).

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