A reread of this book and I have to say it didn't quite live up to my memories and it definitely doesn't live up to the billing of it's more well known prequel - The Eiger Sanction. Jonathan Hemlock is in London doing a series of lectures, he has cut ties with CII, the spy organization that had supported his art habit by hiring him out to do "sanctions". But as most of us know we can never fully leave our past behind. Hemlock is drawn into the spy and killing game again but this time by a British spy agency called "the Loo" and of course no one and nothing is what it seems. Who is genuine and who is playing whom is only part of the question and we have some of the familiar twists and turns of plot that made the Eiger Sanction such a seat of the pants read. We know who the bad guy is and what he is trying to do, or at least we think we know. And we know who the good guys are, or we think we do. But we do know that there is going to be a lot of hurt going around and we are hoping that Dr. Hemlock will be dishing it out and not receiving too much of it. There are many inconsistencies with Hemlocks personality between this book and the Eiger Sanction - In the Eiger Sanction it was repeated many times that Hemlock only had 3 friends, and by the end of the book only 1 was still alive, yet he introduces Vanessa Van Dyke as one of Hemlocks "old art friends". And then there is the continued relationship with Mollie and his reactions at the end of the book. Unfortunately this book had a big yardstick to live up to and although being a good read it just didn't quite make it to the same level that the previous book was at.
This book has a brilliant title which gave me interesting visions of what Jonathan Hemlock would be up to. The title and the previous novel The Eiger sanction were enticing enough to pick up a copy and read it.This is a novel about the dark side of spy craft, it leaves nothing intact of the romanticized idea of spies in the UK, it is more than shady it is kind of awefull. The retired assassin Hemlock is doing a series of lectures in the UK and he gets caught in a situation where a dying man is found on his toilet, also known as loo in the UK. Instead of paying him to do a service a spy agency by the name of "the Loo" blackmails Hemlock into doing a job for them. Everything that happens in this book has something less than tastefulness about it, none of the characters are sympathetic, including the leading character. the story takes a time to get started and when it does nobody ends up looking good.It is a spy story that is aimed at showing how bad that world can be compared to the flashy 007 stories and their ilk.The book is well written but the story is kind of a downer, and is perhaps meant like that but it is also a step down from the previous novel which might have been a parody but did offer a far better story.Not really recommended for reading, unless you feel like a bit of soft SM.
The followup to The Eiger Sanction is a competent but off-putting piece of work, and for the unlikeliest of reasons -- it's too good for its own good. Too conscientious a craftsman to be satisfied with simply recycling The Eiger Sanction, Trevanian tried to deepen Jonathan Hemlock's character while darkening the spy skullduggery (drawing inspiration from the Profumo scandal). The chief villain, while still over-the-top, is a figure of genuine menace whose soul-deep corruption leaves the reader longing for a hot shower. The first novel's slapstick depiction of spy agencies -- these novels, remember, were written during the sordid revelations of the Seventies -- here darkens into glimpses of true evil -- the revelation about the Feeding Station is truly disturbing. But Hemlock remains a cartoon, the supporting players are hardly better, and the bracing wit of the earlier novel comes across now as mere sarcasm. The bilious mood is made worse by the author's obvious disgust with England (this was a tough time for Old Blighty, but come on!) and some pretty coarse sexual humor. Trevanian's next novel, The Main, was a big change in direction -- and a welcome one.
—Steven
I enjoy a good spy novel now and then, but I'm not a huge fan of the genre overall. As I read The Loo Sanction, I felt that this was truly a novel for those who devour everything in the genre. The novel's not bad--far from it--but neither is it exceptional. The plot of the nefarious Mr. Strange to secretly record the perverse sexual acts of Britain's most powerful people (apparently they're all consumed by their perversions) and to use these tapes for blackmail is clever enough, but many of the sexual elements are absurd rather than envelope-pushing, and Dr. Hemlock's "art" lectures, meant to parody academic jargon and pretense, fall flat. All in all, a fast read, but don't expect the spectacular.
—Johnny Waco
