Emerald Decision by "David Grant" (1980)
Emerald Decision
is the second of two novels written by David Grant. Perhaps it
wasn't published under the name Craig Thomas as it didn't include
any of the recurring characters which he'd established in the first
four books. (Or perhaps it's because
there isn't an animal in the title!>
In fact we get two books
in one. Both stories unfold together and in some places
cleverly mirror each other's action. In 1940 an Anglo-Irish
spy called McBride is uncovering German U-Boats and agents in the
South of Ireland. In 1980 his American son is doing research
for his latest in a string of popular history books. Were the
Germans preparing to invade Ireland? For both men there
are those who would rather the truth remained
uncovered.
The book was inspired by the experiences of Craig Thomas' father
who served on minesweepers in World War II. certainly the sections of the book describing the minesweeping
operations stand out as among his most vivid and memorable passages.
This book remained out of
print until 1987 when the publisher Collins started to print Thomas' books
starting with Winter Hawk. Their paperback imprint,
Fontana, had previously published Emerald Decision so
now a revised edition appeared with the name Craig Thomas
prominently displayed.
Changes inside mainly involved the changing of the date 'October
1980' to 'October 198-' and references to the 1985 Anglo-Irish
agreement were inserted to make things more topical. This required a little rewriting
to remove references to Northern Ireland politicians being direclty involved in talks at Leeds castle
against a backdrop of IRA violence. Personally I think the original version works best as a
reminder of a specific point in recent history.
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