Europe at Midnight

The second book in Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series is not a direct follow up to the superb Europe in Autumn, but rather a novel set in the universe(s) established in that first book. It opens in a vast university Campus that is more like a miniature city, where some kind of revolution has taken place. The Professor landed with the job of Intelligence Director (who introduces himself as Rupert of Hentzau) meets the mysterious Araminta Delahunty....and worlds literally collide.

The story then moves to England, a country familiar and yet not. There is no longer a United Kingdom. Europe has fractured into hundreds of states, each with its own Intelligence needs. Jim works for England's Intelligence Service when he's seconded to a secret committee called Perigee, under the directorship of a Professor Adele Bevan and a woman called Shaw. Bevan's life's work has been the study of the possibility of a parallel universe hidden within Western Europe.

This is a brilliant synthesis of espionage and near future speculative fiction. Hutchinson captures the drab, world weary LeCarré/Deighton world of intelligence work perfectly, but also manages to graft it on to a brilliantly imagined Europe where even a trans-European railway has declared itself a sovereign nation and Dresden has become a walled off city dedicated to data storage for the super rich. Make no mistake, this is a gripping thriller.

The story is labyrinthine, weaving in and out of both worlds as Jim and Rupert navigate conflicting interests. Rupert becomes a double, even triple agent, a man out of time and a man from a lost world. In a story that spans a couple of decades, Hutchinson manages to broaden the world he's created and set up what comes next. Right at the end Rudi, the Coureur from Europe in Autumn, pops up and there is the sense of something huge about to happen.

Highly recommended.