The Dark Clouds Shining

By: David Downing

Narrated by: John Curless

In the fourth and final installment of David Downing's spy series, Jack McColl is sent to Soviet Russia, where the civil war is coming to an end. The Bolsheviks have won but the country is in ruins. With the hopes engendered by the revolution hanging by a thread, plots and betrayals abound.

London, 1921: Ex-Secret Service spy Jack McColl is in prison serving time for assaulting a cop. McColl has been embittered by the Great War; he feels betrayed by the country that had sent so many young men to die needlessly. He can't stomach spying for the British Empire anymore. He's also heartbroken. The love of his life, radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, parted ways with him three years earlier so she could offer her services to the Communist revolution in Moscow.

Then his former Secret Service boss offers McColl the chance to escape his jail sentence if he takes a dangerous and unofficial assignment in Russia, where McColl is already a wanted man. He would be spying on other spies, sniffing out the truth about MI5 meddling in a high-profile assassination plot. The target is someone McColl cares about and respects. The MI5 agent involved is someone he loathes.

With the knowledge that he may be walking into a death trap, McColl sets out for Moscow, the scene of his last heartbreak. Little does he know that his mission will throw him back into Caitlin's life - or that her husband will be one of the men he is trying to hunt down.

©2018 David Downing (P)2018 Recorded Books

Historical novel with a love story

The great writing that brought Europe’s entry into WWI focus and a long term romance.

better than the previous two, but

I was not enthralled by the previous books of this quartet, but this book does manage to tie the series together. Caitlin seems like a stronger character while Jack seems to have lost his focus - although that is portrayed as part of his character's journey and growth. But the characters, themselves, fail to make me care about them. Sure the ending is 'happy,' but I really did not care if Jack and Caitlin got together or not.The events of the quartet, and the main characters actions struck me as artificial to a degree.
But to be fair, this book seemed knitted together better than the previous two which bordered on being episodic travelogues. Once again, I cared more about the secondary characters, and that makes finishing this series to be as much a relief as a pleasure.

Awkward narration hard to follow

Liked the other downing books, probably better read than listened to. The narration made me stop partway through and give up.

Well written and narrated

Well written and narrated. Took me a little while to come to grips with descriptions of life in post WW1 Russia and the Revolutionary mindset. A number of twists and turns to help maintain interest to the end but a second tier book for me.

Unusual perspective

This is the final book in a series of four centered on WWI and the Russian Revolution. It makes an excellent corollary to Ken Follett’s spectacular Fall of Giants, which opens his Century Trilogy. I gained a lot of perspective on the phases and factions in the Revolution, and also relished the parts of the narrative that unfolded in such disparate locales as Belgium, San Francisco, Tashkent, Delhi and more. The protagonist’s increasingly nuanced (and eventually cynical) attitude toward the British Empire enriches these books immeasurably.