Exposure by Helen Dunmore

Exposure by Helen Dunmore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

1960’s cold war is the setting for this spook thriller. The story line feeds directly from the events of the spy fraternity that existed at the time – gay men educated and recruited at university. Giles Holloway has a habit of taking files home but has an accident and asks a favour of Simon Callington to return a top-secret file to the Admiralty office. This is where it all goes wrong and Simon finds himself being accused of spying. Simon is the accused however the star character is his spouse Lily a German refugee. The author paints a very austere picture of life in a Britain covered in a vail of cold war suspicion. You instantly start to imagine what it would be like to live in this era (I vaguely remember it), with steam trains, landlines, smog, no TV, no computers and no central heating. This is the best part of the book as without this vivid description of life, the plot would disappear in importance and would be much better with more action.

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