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Novel invites reader into chase in Kuwait
By Margaret Barno
Correspondent
Published November 8, 2009
“Condition Black,” by Gerald Seymour, Corgi Books, 444 pages, $10.99
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Beginning with the Prologue, the author, Gerald Seymour, breaks the mold or more accurately, ignores grammatical codes in “Condition Black.”
The first sentence begins with “She,” which has nothing preceding to identify whom the word refers. The grammatical error is intentional as are others in the book.
Double spaces throughout the book are techniques used by Seymour designed to catch us off guard.
He invites us into the chase, as if he were saying, “Pay attention Agents, your lives may depend upon doing so!”
The year is 1990, and Saddam Hussein is preparing for the invasion of Kuwait.
He’s directing his leading henchmen to destroy opponents and looking for nuclear scientists to assist his regime in developing needed weapons, especially bombs.
One such person is known by his initials is COLT. An Englishman, who is an avid animal rights activist, but ruthless killer of people, is sent home from Iraq to visit his dying mother.
While there he has another task, to convince a dissatisfied, frustrated, desperately lonely British nuclear scientist to join “a team” in which his contributions will be recognized and encouraged.
He is promised laboratories, financial resources and a new beginning. Where, at what country or institute or at what salary, are not revealed.
Days before that contact is made, an American FBI agent Bill Erlich is walking with a fellow agent when his companion, a CIA operative, is gunned down.
This murder activates CIA/FBI agencies to identify the person responsible, as well as do what’s necessary to prevent further incidents.
Deaths in England and other countries, are eventually all attributed to the work of Colin Oliver Louis Tuck.
The death also brings out old authority issues between agencies. The most significant is what information is shared with whom.
Character credibility in the book is compromised when Erlich shares some information with his girlfriend, a CBS field reporter stationed in Italy and a British Intelligent liaison to Erlich, James Rutherford, routinely discusses sensitive data with his wife.
Both men assume, of course, that what is shared will go no further than the room in which they were discussing it.
There are so many characters in the book. Remembering who’s connected with whom, and the probability that there may be more far reaching connections, I found it helpful to keep a list.
As for me, I’m happy I’m living where I live and do what I have done and to some extent — still do — help make people’s lives better and help them discover good strengths they didn’t know they had.
I’m also very relieved the book was a novel, though for some across the world it’s all too real.
Margaret Barno, a retired social worker, lives in Pflugerville.
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