Carbon Game has a smart and intriguing premise - extreme-right activists from South Africa infiltrating extreme-left activism groups in the U.K. in order to manipulate an attack that will economically benefit the very people that the "lefties" stand against.
The novel is set towards the end of the apartheid era - India are demanding harsh sanctions on South Africa, America are considering following suit (it's an election year and they have to ride the way of public opinion), but Conservative Britain are lagging behind. They tentatively support some sanctions but don't really want to be a part of it.
The Afrikaaner Resistance Party, an extreme right-wing party in South Africa, want to figure out a way in which to guard their people against, what they see, increasing black rule. They concoct a plan to essentially start a civil war so they can fight for a whites-only land in South Africa. To do this, they need arms, and money to buy said arms.
Enter Michael Cranmer. A rebellious liberal during his youth, he swings completely politically right after an attack on his family leaves his mother and sister dead. Posing as a wildlife photographer, he infiltrates a left-wing pressure group in the UK who campaign for the end of apartheid. His true purpose is to persuade the group to blow up the Diamond Trading Corporation in London, which controls 60% of the world's diamonds. With that out of commission, he will purchase diamonds stolen a few months back and sell them to buy arms.
It's a good plan - but the left wing activists don't want to play by his rules.
Plot and pace wise, this is everything you'd want from a novel of this genre. Plenty of twists and turns, mental gymnastics by the investigating agents on the case, double and triple crossing by those involve, and the right amount of tension to pull you in and let you ride along without getting frustrated.
Some of his descriptions of women in the book, however, irked me. Whether it was a context thing - the novel is set in the 1980s, so presumably Montague was showing the casual sexism of the time - or some other writing intention, it nevertheless grated on me. A prime example was when one of the characters, Robyn, while waiting for Michael, idly wondered whether she should get a boob job for him. Other incidents were contained during dialogue, which made more sense than during the non-dialogue descriptions of female characters in the book, but still unpleasant.
Despite this, I was glad that I got to read this book - it was very different than others on my reading list and set during a time that is not too often written about, and it would be valuable seeing more of it. Montague has got the right balance between action, political machinations, and the concept of the heist in this novel. I would recommend it and will be keeping an eye out for future works from him.
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