Thursday 5 September 2013

Patrick Brigham published two novels in 2013 - This is how he has publicly expressed these two events


An author writer journalist and blogger, Patrick Brigham has published two books during the course of 2013.

His first is called Herodotus - The Gnome of Sofia, which was written in the style of P. G. Wodehouse. In it he lampoons the antics of the British Diplomatic Community in Sofia Bulgaria, after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe in the 1990's. In this instance Patrick's greatest influence was the writing of the late, great Tom Sharpe and his book Porterhouse Blue. Sharpe's story laughs at the intellectual and social snobbery inherent at Cambridge University in his day, which was undoubtedly an incubator for the British establishment. Most diplomats are of this ilk and carry their elitism into their diplomatic careers. In his blogs Patrick happily explains to a growing number of readers, why there always has to be a murder in his books, and in a humorous way,  describes the often self serving pursuits of this group of Diplomatic Civil Servants - whose mantra is, 'If you do absolutely nothing, you do absolutely nothing wrong!' - as practically meaningless. This book ends with a murder.

Patrick Brigham's second book is called Judas Goat - The Kennet Narrow Boat Mystery, and is written in quite a different genre and is much closer to his natural style. This book begins with a murder on a quiet canal in rural England, but the repercussions quickly become international. More NCIS than Agatha Christie and more Robert Ludlum than Colin Dexter, this story could practically be described as Inspector Morse meets Jason Bourne. Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre both understood the Cold War, but Patrick Brigham was also there at the end of Communism. In Judas Goat - The Kennet Narrow Boat Mystery, he explains quite clearly that many of the old Cold War Players slipped easily into the arms business and drug trade, and - already experts in money laundering - were in the frame from day one.

In this book an innocuous dead body swiftly becomes the stuff of political intrigue and interest to both MI6 and the CIA, because as the story evolves, Detective Chief Inspector Michael Lambert discovers that it directly concerns the purchase of a squadron of MiG 29's from a country in Middle Europe, and a drug related consignment of AK 47's destined for the FARC guerrillas in Colombia. No wonder our provincial English policeman is giving this case his full attention." 

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Something for A Quiet Time- by Patrick Brigham

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