Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Ilium

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

Ilium is the debut novel by author Lea Carpenter, a espionage thriller with the prose of literary fiction set just after the opening of the 21st century in Europe as the third act in an ongoing play of espionage is opening, and a new asset is needed to bring the play to a close.

Enter our unnamed protagonist, a female orphan with a naive sense of romance and no money. She falls in love with a man who owns the house her mother worked in while she was growing up–the one which used to have a garden she fell in love with and dreamed of owning for herself. The man, who is older than her and used to have a reputation as a career bachelor, decides to settle down with her. Right after he does, he tells her two little secrets: he’s dying, and…

This is how our unnamed protagonist is swept up in a plot to gather intelligence on a former Russian operative living in France, near Cap Ferret in a highly-protected compound. First she is there to listen. Then she is there to listen, watch, and process. Then she is there to listen, watch, process, and learn.

I loved the story, as a whole, and the characters. If you read my reviews you know I love spy novels and spy stories. So I thought this would be a win overall. However, the prose style really threw me off. While I can understand Carpenter’s narrative style choice here, it really didn’t suit me well as a reader and I felt it made the story messy. It also slowed down the pacing, which I felt did the story a disservice. I know that as the story leans more toward literary fiction it’s not beholden to the conventions of a standard thriller; therefore, it isn’t held to the same standards of tension and suspension that thrillers are. That doesn’t mean a reader expects there to be so much slowing down for the sake of narrative construct.

It’s a solid read and worth checking out, but not something I’d go out of my way to buy. If you can find it for sale or in a library you might want to give it a go, though.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Espionage Thriller/Literary Fiction