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Saving the Queen

A Blackford Oakes Mystery

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Saving the Queen

By: William F. Buckley Jr.
Narrated by: James Buschmann
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About this listen

 President Truman is nearing the end of his term in office, and Great Britain has a new queen. It is 1952; the Cold War is beginning to heat up, and vital Western military secrets are falling into Soviet hands. The CIA is faced with a delicate dilemma, for the source of the leaks to the KGB has been traced directly to the Queen's chambers.

The situation must be resolved, but the young Queen's self-confidence and public credibility must not be damaged. Thus young Blackford Oakes, handsome, debonaire, and audacious, a recent Yale graduate and ex-combat fighter pilot, is selected to penetrate the royal circle, win the Queen's confidence, and plug the leak. The action leads to an explosive showdown in the skies over London, one that could determine the future of the West.

©1976 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks Espionage Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Royalty Fiction Mystery
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While the book is competently written and the narrator is fine it’s content is a lot to be desired, often making blatant political statements without any rhyme or reason. Often times throughout the story I thought that the characters was suppose to be an exaggeration, maybe even a spoof of American exceptionalism or of a McCarthy era spies but it was presented with absolute earnest that I often had to pause to absorb what I heard because of how ridiculous it was. After a while I realised that Blackford and the supporting characters weren’t really a characters; rather they are self-inserts to inject the authors own politics into a genre which they thought needed to drink the same Red Scare kool-aid they did.

Compared to its contemporaries at the time, this portrays neither the nuance nor depth that this period of the Cold War had outside whatever political echo the author found themselves in writing this book. I would not recommend.

Authors self-insert character.

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