Agent Provocateur: A Flight of Fancy

Jeffery Lee Satterfield

Mar 2010 · AuthorHouse

About this ebook

London. June, 1897. When Herron Strangways sees a man killed by a locomotive, he dismisses it as part of the rotten day hes been having.

Then he learns the victim was a secret agent whose death was murder, and Herron is the chief suspect. To save his own skin, he must elude the police and the real killers while untangling the clues to a plot to assassinate the Queen.

First, he must locate a woman he glimpsed briefly at the train station, who may unwittingly hold the key to unlocking the conspiracy. But who and where is she?

He must also discover a connection between terrorists planning a coup against the British government and an unidentified object flying over the United States, if one exists.

Herron has three days. He should live so long.

Ratings and reviews

1897. The Empire is observing Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and the population of London has doubled. The book begins with a 2-page prologue that shows the novel's dual excitement/tongue-in-cheek nature. On page one (chapter one), Herron Strangways, an egotistical young skirt-chaser, witnesses an accident in a train station. A man falls off the platform and is killed by the train. Herron thinks this is merely another dreary happening in the rotten day he's been having. It bothers him only in that it interfered with his wangling an introduction to a young woman he's been eyeballing. Then Herron he learns the death was murder. And the victim was a secret agent trying to uncover a conspiracy to assassinate the Queen. Meanwhile, the police (who are in the dark about the conspiracy) suspect Herron may have had a hand in the man's death. The conspirators, for their part, are afraid Herron may know too much (which proves how little they know of him). Eluding the police and members of the conspiracy out for his hide, Herron is forced to piece together the random clues he's been able to pick up. To save his own skin, he must unmask the conspiracy . Yet Herron must break from cover to find the young woman he noticed on the train platform. She may hold the final key to the conspiracy. But which side is she on? Is she involved with the secret agent? Is she one of the conspirators? Or is she, like Herron, an innocent bystander swept into a dangerous world of meaningless clues and misdirection? And is there a connection between this murder and a UFO "mystery airship" seen flying across the Unites States during the past year? Is the airship danger, or deception? When all the loose ends converge, the novel has a surprising and literally explosive climax. Herron Strangways himself is an unlikely (and unwilling) hero. A selfish roue, a coward who doesn't care who is killed so long as he makes it out alive. The other main characters (Angelica, Stoker, Hawkins, Chubb, Jessup, Lady Calthrop and Lugner) are all quirkily distinctive. Angelica is a strong, bright female character who carries the second half, when Herron disappears into the hands of the conspirators. The story is good, and has many twists in it. The novel can probably be classed "light steampunk" -- though that's really too narrow to encompass its breadth. The book and its characters show a healthy interest in science, in different forms. The books first half is mentions old or discarded sciences (eugenics, Martian canals, the pre-Copernican universe &c.). The last half is practically science faction, presenting technological possibles of 1897: typewriters and bicycles (which save the day) as well as nascent automobiles, wireless telegraphy, and even remote control. The airship dominating the second half is science fiction. The explosive climax is pure alternative history. Though most of the book has its tongue firmly embedded in cheek, it also has a serious side (people do die, often graphically). The book has an underlying theme of freedom. Herron has never given it much thought (except that he believes the newspapers when they say freedom is the right of every Englishman). Yet everyone Herron meets has a different idea about freedom. Does it come by social contract? Is freedom a gift of God or inherent in nature? Or is man a prisoner of his biology, making freedom less important than control? The novel does have a few editorial, proofreading or type-setting concerns, but nothing too egregious.

About the author

Jeff Satterfield writes from his 38-acre estate an hour's drive from Atlanta. His first novel was the fairy-tale fantasy HONOR BRIGHT.