Spy's Honour

Ireland, France, Germany and Hungary comprise the vividly rendered principal locales in this episodic, adventure-filled yarn about the early days of the British Secret Service. In 1912, a nearly bankrupt British officer, Matthew Ranklin, is reduced to being a mercenary in the Greek army and subsequently dragooned into the employ of a Bureau whose existence no one will acknowledge. Dispatched to capture an Irish anarchist, he joins forces with the spirited Conall O'Gilroy, when O'Gilroy decides to switch sides from the Irish nationalists to the British Empire after inadvertently killing a mate. In Paris the pair becomes a trio, as ``American enchantress'' Corinna Finn steps in when they run afoul of a French Royalist. Subsequent triumphs occur at an annual regatta in Kiel, Germany, and in Hungary, where they foil a plot involving the Archduke Ferdinand (thinking they have staved off the threat of world war). An assumed identity by Ranklin adds delightful complications, while lively dialogue and plotting in the best espionage tradition keep events moving briskly. Evocative period details increase the book's charm, as does Lyall's subtle underscoring of the question implicit in his title-in the world of a spy, exactly what is honor? (Jan.)