The Shadow in the Sea

Like the the previous book I reviewed, The Shadow in the Sea is an obscure Cold War spy thriller from the early 1970s about a Soviet super-weapon and a daring mission to infiltrate Soviet territory to investigate and sabotage it. Written by the forgotten Welsh author Owen John and published in 1972, this is the fifth novel in John's series about Scottish super-spy Haggai Godin. No suave James Bond knock-off or grim Quiller-like killer, Godin is a giant oddball of a man who eats to excess, loves brandy, laughs often and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of everything related to his profession. The son of a Russian émigré, he speaks Russian like a native and is a master of disguise and social manipulation.

The first thing that grabbed me about this book is the cover. The beautiful illustration, of a man dangling from a rope just below the edge of a cliff, a grappling hook barely holding him, rifle strapped across his back, with a huge, menacing submarine lurking in the sea far below, is the kind of classic men's adventure cover art that Fawcett Gold Medal paperbacks were famous for. If you like this kind of artwork, browse all the Gold Medal covers by clicking the book numbers on the left side of this page.

As Shadow opens, a lighthouse operator reports seeing a huge black submarine briefly surface off the coast of Wales. Based on the unusual description and the fact that British Intelligence thought they had accounted for the whereabouts of the entire Soviet fleet, this leads to concern that the Soviets have a new sub prowling around U.K. waters of an unknown design. To solve the mystery, the agency's top operative, the ultra-confident and -competent Haggai Godin, volunteers to undertake an infiltration mission into northwest Russia to investigate a submarine base and find out what's going on. Accompanying Godin as usual will be super-spook Colonel Mason of the CIA.

The dynamic duo infiltrates Soviet waters by fishing trawler from Norway, Mason hiding the boat in fjords to avoid Soviet patrols while Godin goes ashore alone to reconnoiter the base. Godin's first challenge is to climb the four hundred foot cliff (!) up from the sea pictured on the cover, which he does by firing a grappling hook attached to very long rope over the cliff edge, then climbing without any special gear—just sheer strength and willpower. It's an exciting scene, but one which let me know early on that this wouldn't be a highly realistic espionage adventure.

Godin dons the winter uniform of a Soviet soldier and proceeds east toward Murmansk by bus, using his genius for disguise and socializing to gain information and blend in with the locals. So bold and confident is Godin that he prefers to draw attention to himself, using his mastery of "yo-nin" overt infiltration to walk right into the base, rather than "in-nin" covert creeping around in the shadows. Without providing any spoilers, let's just say that the way Godin infiltrates the base and gets information about the top secret sub is rather far-fetched, but entertaining. He does manage to discover the nature of the sub and the insidious mission it is embarked on.

The most tense and exciting part of the novel was Godin's escape from the naval base and exfiltration from Soviet territory. Walking many miles cross-country in the bitter cold of a Siberian winter, evading security forces, attacking them only when necessary, using deception to get assistance from local villagers—I like how Godin applies the "make war by way of deception" motto of real spooks and ninjas, rather than taking on large armed forces single-handedly and defeating them without taking a scratch in the manner of Mack Bolan and other over-the-top shadow warriors. While Godin's methods weren't always totally believable, and he was a bit too confident and competent for real life, they didn't quite turn the book into a cartoon for adults like some men's adventure/espionage series.

Meanwhile back in the UK/USA, spooks are working overtime to decode intercepted signals to and from the sub, and a desperate strategem is devised to attempt to avert the dastardly intentions of the vessel. I won't say any more, except that, like The Tashkent Crisis, the climax was a bit of a letdown compared to the infiltration and exfiltration scenes, and the super-weapon seemed a bit science-fictional and far-fetched for 1972.

All in all, this was an entertaining but not stellar read. I may try more Haggai Godin novels if I run across them, but I probably won't go out of my way to acquire them. Recommended for fans of old-school spy/adventure fiction.

Get a copy of The Shadow in the Sea here.