Book Review 3 - The Twentieth Day of January by Ted Allbeury

The Twentieth Day of January by Ted Allbeury

Published: 1981

Pages: 224

Format: Audiobook from Audible

Listened: January 31 – February 4, 2023

Narrator: Ralph Lister

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34122331-the-twentieth-day-of-january

This is my first book from Ted Allbeury. He was brought to my attention from The Times, Tim Shipman’s top 120 spy authors.  He has Allbeury ranked high, #18.  I read up a little on Allbeury before I started the book and I’m fascinated by this man’s life.  Unfortunately, he passed away at 88 in 2005.  The only information I can easily dig up on the man is from his obituary (which is also linked above).  He served heroically in WWII under SOE (England’s Special Operative Executive) and is widely believed to be the only Allie soldier to parachute in Nazi Germany and remain undercover until the Allies arrived. 

To our detriment, because of his exceptional honor and loyalty, he refused to write his memoirs because he stated he signed an official document.  He had pledged his oath to the British Official Secrets act. Per his friend Len Deighton (who happens to be my favorite author), while working in West Germany during the Cold War, he ran agents back and forth over the wall.  The Soviets left him nailed to a table at a farmhouse (some claim he was nailed by a very delicate male organ) barely alive so that he would tell his fellow spies what the Russians did kidnapped his wife and kids and traveled to South America to get the back.  He didn’t disclose much.  Nobody really knew Ted even his closest friends like Deighton.

The book takes place in Washington DC, 1980 where across the pond, MI6 agent James MacKay uncovers evidence that the president elect, Logan Powell might be a Russian agent. 

McKay, under orders from his masters at MI6, discloses this information to his CIA friend, Peter Nolan who in turns shares it with the Director of the CIA.  The director, in an effort to be above board, the three present their initial findings to the Republican speaker of the house, the Democratic National Committee Chairman, and the Chief Supreme Court Justice.  It is then decided that McKay and Nolan should continue investigating.

The book moves along fast and is a short read/listen.  As I was reading the book, the story sounded very familiar to 2016 when Trump was rumored to be in bed with Putin.  Apparently I wasn’t alone with this thought.  The book was getting so much press, that in 2017 it was republished.   

It was a well written novel where it is obvious that the author knows the political game as well as the espionage world.  The novel has its noble and honorable characters that you root for (McKay and Nolan) with the requisite bad guys (the Armenian Russian Agent, President Elect’s Chief of Staff, newly elected Connecticut Senator, and CEO of the electronics company).  Very enjoyable book and I look forward to reading more of Allbeury’s books.

The Twentieth Day of January  ⭐⭐⭐⭐