That date is significant, as those familiar with the history of that part of the world know. A month later, Lumumba was deposed in a coup and executed a few months afterward. During the interview, Lumumba had warned Gabriel that the United States, Great Britain, and Belgium (which had ruled the former Belgian Congo as a colony) wanted the Prime Minister dead. Lumumba also gave Gabriel the names of three foreign agents operating in the Congo involved in plotting against him. At the time, Gabriel dismissed Lumumba’s statement as idle paranoid chatter, but, after the coup, he realized his tape had value. That realization was reinforced when various mysterious people started contacting him. (Recent historical research suggests that Lumumba’s fears about Western governments were factual.)

The Lumumba tape is a classic McGuffin, and William Boyd could have turned the real identities of the three agents and Gabriel’s dilemma about what to do with the tape into the basis for an entire novel. However, the author drops the Lumumba storyline almost entirely after the first few chapters. Instead, the book describes Gabriel’s gradual recruitment by Faith Green, a woman who “happened” to be on the plane with Gabriel back to London from the Congo. She supposedly works for an international magazine, but it’s no spoiler to reveal she’s a British intelligence agent. She’s also aware of Gabriel’s favors for his brother and prevails upon him to do a similar favor for her on his next trip abroad. And so, Gabriel’s descent (or ascent, depending on how you look at it) to becoming a full-fledged espionage agent begins.

Much of Gabriel’s Moon reads like a primer on mid-20th-century espionage. However, Gabriel’s missions are of the John le Carre/Len Deighton variety, not James Bond adventures. The book has secret pickups and drops, double agents, mole hunts, and surreptitious photography of sensitive locations. There’s even a fairly tense situation in which Gabriel helps a fellow agent out of a ticklish situation. Gabriel’s life and limb aren’t at stake, except for one brief encounter late in the book, but national security might be. William Boyd also has an advantage that ’60s writers like Le Carre didn’t have: a half-century of historical hindsight that allows him to craft more accurate scenarios.

The book covers just over two years from the Lumumba interview through the Cuban Missile Crisis, with a brief epilogue set a year later. Readers get a sense of Gabriel’s gradual development of a moral compass, although he isn’t the most interesting protagonist of similar fiction I’ve read. The most interesting sections of the book concern Gabriel’s periodic visits with a therapist. For decades, he had been blaming himself for his mother’s death in a fire when he was a child. The therapist helped him work through those guilt feelings, and the book contains “transcripts” of those sessions. Although these interludes have little to do with the main storyline, they were fascinating to me.

I used the word “storyline” somewhat loosely in the last paragraph. Gabriel goes on several missions during the book, but each occurs in a few days in a book that spans two years. Further, his role is often secondary, a cog in the overall scheme. The result is a lack of urgency and, for the most part, suspense. It's like watching a documentary on period spycraft: interesting in spots but not riveting. Nor is Gabriel an interesting enough character to demand readers’ attention to discover what he’ll do next. Instead, most of Gabriel’s Moon is leisurely paced and a bit of a slog, even though it’s well under 300 pages.

I enjoyed Gabriel’s Moon enough to give it a four-star rating. However, those less familiar with or interested in period history may find it more difficult to read. Gabriel’s espionage adventures are interesting from an academic, as opposed to a suspense standpoint. The author does a great job of creating an atmosphere for the various European locales Gabriel visits during the book. Most of these are off the beaten tourist path, and the author makes them come alive. I suspect that Gabriel’s Moon reads like one of Gabriel’s travel books, which is more interesting in its background and detail than the plot.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.