Audio Book Review

Saving The Queen: A Blackford Oakes Mystery
Author: William F. Buckley, Jr.
Unabridged Fiction

As a first time reader of the Blackford Oakes series from legendary conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr., I looked forward to a slightly different read. Oakes novels were billed as basic mystery/spy tales without all of the silly gadgetry and ridiculously unrealistic stories that abound in spy novels like the .007 series.

I was not disappointed in this regard. Buckley's writing style is intelligent, flows very well, and is intelligent without the pretense. This fact was most surprising, as Buckley's writing can at times be so over the top pretentious that it borders on hostile. That was not the case in this novel. While the story was not particularly exciting or creative (OK, it was fairly lame, but well-told in a brief book), the story was crisp and concise enough to make it worth a read/listen.

Newly recruited and trained, Oakes is dispatched to London with the assignment to weave his way into British high society with the cover of being a marginally wealthy, playboy American engineer. He excels at his assignment to the point of reaching the queen's side in no time at all, much to the delight of his handlers. The story is two-thirds how Oakes became a CIA agent and the actual mystery embodied in the title is really the playing field for this opener to how Black ford Oakes got started.

Next to Reagan, Buckley and his National Review magazine was probably the greatest influence in shaping my conservative philosophy. I recommend a reading excursion into the Blackford Oakes series. I know I will travel this road again.