Saving the Queen

A Blackford Oakes Mystery

By: William F. Buckley Jr.

Narrated by: James Buschmann

President Truman is nearing the end of his term in office, and Great Britain has a new queen. It is 1952; the Cold War is beginning to heat up, and vital Western military secrets are falling into Soviet hands. The CIA is faced with a delicate dilemma, for the source of the leaks to the KGB has been traced directly to the Queen's chambers.

The situation must be resolved, but the young Queen's self-confidence and public credibility must not be damaged. Thus young Blackford Oakes, handsome, debonaire, and audacious, a recent Yale graduate and ex-combat fighter pilot, is selected to penetrate the royal circle, win the Queen's confidence, and plug the leak. The action leads to an explosive showdown in the skies over London, one that could determine the future of the West.

©1976 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)2004 Blackstone Audiobooks

Well written, compellingly plotted

It's Buckley, so you can rightly expect pleasing prose. That alone is enough to recommend the book--it is satisfying to listen to Buckley's descriptive, engaging, stimulating writing. But I also enjoyed the realism of this spy thriller. The plot, unlike many in this genre, was believable. The world won't (immediately) end if the mission fails--but the consequences are very serious. The hero is not an unkillable ninja-assassin, but a smart, skilled, brave, but human spy. Interesting backstory that resonates at the end. If you want over-the-top fantasy in your spy thrillers, move along. If you want a very well-written, believable, and satisfying story, pick this one up.

Great book poor recording

I loved this book in the 80s and it’s still great now. But they really need to fix the recording! I am struggling to keep going because although the reader reads well he has a gross habit of audibly swallowing his spit every few minutes! Either they need a better trained reader or the ru need to edit out the spot swallowing. It’s deeply unpleasant and once you hear it you can’t unhear it!

A fun ride

OK, parts of the story are a bit contrived ... but this is a fictional thriller and do you really want to get bogged down with too much reality? Anyway, the contrivances are fun.

The criticisms that there are a few pauses in the narration seem hypercritical to me. The narrator does a very good job with men, upper-class British accents, and the superior, slightly smarmy, Yalie voices. He – and the story – move along well. Buckley's writing is, of course, highly articulate and the story is a good one.

Early Audio

A literate and playful spy novel. The audio sounded as though it had been patched together and was uneven in quality, however, it was still easy to listen to and a fun story.

Enjoyable, but a somewhat dissappointing climax.

This is the first Blackford Oakes novel I've read/listened to so I didn't know what to expect. What I wanted was an enjoyable listen while I made some long car trips and I wasn't disappointed. The novel grabbed my attention and kept me wondering what was coming next. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the novel moved along at a good clip--I was afraid that WFB might have some illusions of being a Tom Wolfe without the talent.

I liked the not unsurprising perspective Buckley brought to the early 50's when this novel takes place. While some of the spy details were over the top 007-type stuff, Buckley gave a good glimpse into the period and there was no nonsense about moral equivalence between the Soviets and the US which was of course still a popular perspective in the mid 70's when this novel was written.

What did however disappoint me was the way the plot came together for the climax of the novel. Without giving away anything, let me just say that Buckley created a situation in which the reader is expected to believe can only be resolved in one ingenious way which of course puts Oakes at grave risk. However, I could think of many ways to resolve the situation without any risk to Oakes and even accomplishing the purpose more effectively. This definitely took away from the climatic scene as I couldn't help but think it was too contrived.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book and will occasionally return to Oakes.

P.S. What others have said about the performance containing strange seconds of silence is true, but I really didn't find this detracted significantly from my enjoyment of the novel. In fact, after a while I stopped noticing it.