A Friend in Barcelona

Sidney Allinson is the editor at the Royal Canadian Military Institute
and author of The Bantams: The Untold Story of World War I.

Here’s that rarity by a Canadian author, a good slam-bang wartime
thriller. Though this country has produced scores of excellent factual
military histories, there has not been much home-grown fiction on the
subject. A Friend in Barcelona is a suspense novel that enjoyably
combines naval combat, espionage, and a long chase. Mackay is
particularly good at describing U-boat operations and everyday life
during World War II in Britain and Spain. He also captures well the
atmosphere of a prisoner-of-war camp in England (though officer POWs
were not in fact required to perform manual labor, as he describes). In
the current “against-the-grain” literary style, most of the British
characters are portrayed as being venal, incompetent, or unattractive,
while the German officer on the run is an admirable, resourceful quarry.

Though Mackay has done his World War II homework for the most part,
there are a few inaccuracies to quibble over—including the fact that
Barrow-in-Furness was far beyond the flying range of JU 87 Stuka dive
bombers; he also gives some Royal Navy men U.S. ranks (“Lt. j.g.”).
However, we can look forward to reading more adventures by this
promising new Canadian writer of thrillers.