The Maghreb Conspiracy

When a high-ranking al-Qaeda member declares his intentions to defect, MI6 leaps at the chance to usher him under their protective wing. But when the defector’s messenger is murdered, and the MI6 field agent who’s accompanying him is kidnapped off the streets of Tangier, game plans swiftly change. Enter Michael Vaux, ex-journalist and sometimes MI6 operative. Currently house-sitting his ex-girlfriend’s luxurious villa in Tangier, Vaux is pressed into service to find the missing agent and the defector before MI6 loses their golden opportunity, and the CIA moves in to take over operations. Traversing a web of secrets and double agents who are working towards their own goals, Vaux must locate his missing comrade and unravel the secret of the al-Qaeda defector before time runs out.

Croft’s style of writing is perfectly matched to the rhythm of a good spy novel, that is to say that he moves along at a good solid pace, and his ancillary characters get just the right amount of character development-enough to make them interesting, but not enough to steal the limelight from the star of the story. Unfortunately, in the instance of Michael Vaux, a bit of limelight stealing might be in order. For being the main character in a spy novel, Vaux is surprisingly uninteresting, which, sadly, makes his story somewhat flat. He commands no tension-filled moments. He outwits no scheming masterminds. He births no innovative maneuvers in order to get information. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that his name is mentioned in the book synopsis, I would have had no idea that he was even supposed to be a main character. Croft gets points for his writing style, but Vaux simply misses the mark in every way as the rock upon which to rest the foundations of a modern-day spy thriller.