Late last week a box showed up at my door with a few new books in it and one of them was The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross. I have to admit to having heard the authors name in the past, but to knowing absolutely nothing about the series. Since the book I was reading was boring me to tears I decided to try this one.
The cover blurb from the San Francisco Chronicle stated “Stross gives his readers a British superspy with a long-term girlfriend, no fashion sense, and an aversion to martinis.” I have to suspect the blurb was based on another book in the series and not this one since, well, he seemed to be married to this long term girlfriend at this stage…
The story is based around Bob Howard, who is an agent with the Laundry. The Laundry is a cross between the CIA, Men in Black and Ghostbusters (to be slightly over-simplistic), they are on the front line in keeping the dead … dead, the boogyman out of downtown London and in short keeping the UK (and the rest of the world) safe from all sorts of things that might go bump in the night. There is a ton of Evil out in the world and a lot more knocking at the door to get in.
Overall it was a fairly well written and truly enjoyable read. it’s the latest part in the Laundry Files series but I didn’t feel unduly lost by not having read the prior books. Howard is part bad ass, part geek and all fun, good characterizations, plenty of humor, solid action and enough plot twisting to keep you wondering.
Overall I would give it a 7.5 out of 10 stars!
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