Like many before him John Michell has drawn on a long career to give others an insight into his former trade in the form of a fictional work. In The Lone Wolf at Cover he has produced a classic spy story built around the flawed loner, Joe Lambert. There are some lively moments alongside much introspection by Lambert.

The story is told in the first person which makes it easy to see everything from Lambert’s perspective but at times the author has found it necessary to describe events elsewhere. He does that by referencing a future interview with a defected foreign spy which I found challenging at times.

As a character Lambert is believable and understandable; some readers may even have an affection for him. The other characters are adequate for the story but with the exception of Liliana most lacked warmth and depth but this was to some extent because we were relying on Lambert’s view of them.

I enjoyed reading about the various locations that Lambert travelled to and I note his tendency to give them authenticity by including local place names and activities. This is a good technique, provided the information is correct. Unfortunately for some of the events in my part of the world there were several errors. Yes, they were trivial and they were inconsequential to the plot but I found them irritating and they totally defeated their purpose. I also have a concern that if the information relating to my local area was not correct, then how accurate was the detail about the other countries?

If you are a potential reader who lived in the south-east of the UK in the sixties, seventies or eighties then you will easily spot the inaccuracies. If you’re not, then I won’t spoil the story for you.

As with all good spy novels the plot gets complicated towards the end with several possible outcomes. Given the flawed detail and the awkwardness of the reported information from the defected spy I cannot give The Lone Wolf at Cover a wholehearted recommendation. I have awarded three stars.