Firefly by Henry Porter

Mysterious Press, 480 pages, $27 (c2018)

Henry Porter is one of my favorite spy authors. That is, as far as I know, Henry Porter is not a spy but he’s a heckuva writer of spy fiction. My guess is that he is an under-the-radar writer in the U.S., but he shouldn’t be. His writing doesn’t need translation into Americanese like the Britishisms of other British spy writers. Porter is a journalist and obviously au courant about British and European affairs. He imbues his works with a larger sense of politics and corruption at play, but his focus is at a very human level. More people need to read him.

Paul Samson is an independent investigator, sometimes hired by his ex-employer, MI6, to go where his smaller footprint might be more useful than the clodhoppers of MI6. This proves to be the case when Paul’s interests turn toward a thirteen-year-old migrant, Naji Touma (codenamed “Firefly”), a Syrian refugee, who might have, improbable as it sounds, important information about a terrorist plot. Paul manages to track Naji through Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia, following Naji’s desperate attempt to reach Germany. 

Why Germany? Paul has yet to find out. He begins with a thumbnail psychological sketch of Naji by a psychologist working with an immigrants’ camp in Greece, Anastasia Christakos. Naji is undoubtedly bright, determined, and capable of extreme stealth. He also manages to acquire a wicked throwing knife and should not be underestimated in that regard. Besides the information from Anastasia, Paul finally manages to contact Naji’s sister, still with the rest of Naji’s family in a migrant camp. It becomes clear that Naji is still in deep danger from the Syrian terrorists who precipitated his family’s flight.

What Henry Porter does well is to give his characters depth without oversharing their lives but with enough sense of how they are different from "normal" people. For example, Paul plays the horses to fill in the financial gaps left by his investigating business. He feels empathy for Naji and desires to protect him even when called off by his original employer. The race between Naji’s enemies and Paul (and his eccentric resources: wealthy Denis Hisami and vulgar Vuc Divjac) to find Naji in the Macedonian wilderness is thrilling. Porter describes Naji with greater force throughout the book, and it finally becomes easy to see what the fuss is all about. Porter also endears Naji’s travel companions, slightly older Ifkar and dog Moon, to his readers.

Porter is a keeper.

MBTB star!