A SPY INSIDE THE CASTLE

An international act of terror, impending financial collapse, and an ancient aristocratic society converge in Courtenay’s debut thriller.

Ethan Briar is a star intelligence analyst at SOVERINT, a privatized intelligence firm that contracts for the United States government. When his keynote address predicting Germany’s economic collapse coincides with the assassination of Chancellor Armin Frei, Ethan becomes a person of interest. He’s blackmailed into accepting a dangerous mission: to infiltrate Castlemartin Manor, a gothic fortress in Scotland housing an AI called ARCLIGHT (“the world’s first quantum-seeded superintelligence, capable of ingesting human behavior, systemic data, and historical precedent”) that predicts future catastrophes, including the imminent assassination of the U.S. president. Ethan must identify the mole leaking ARCLIGHT’s intelligence to enemies before it’s too late. But as he investigates within Castlemartin’s ancient walls, he uncovers longstanding conspiracies, ancestral hauntings, and an aristocratic cabal that has manipulated world events for centuries. In this stunning debut, Courtenay mixes standard spy-thriller intrigue with gothic mystery and techno-futurism to transcend genre and create a unique piece of fiction. There is tension, however, between the novel’s more run-of-the-mill thriller elements, which seem to serve as a hook for casual readers, and its philosophical, high-minded aspirations. At the start, Ethan is painted as a tortured antihero, burdened by his talent and traumatized by a brush with death; the female characters are two-dimensional and cowed by his complicated, talented mind. The political intrigue surrounding the CIA and Frei’s assassination can read as lackluster and cliché, and the ticking clock trope is too expected. That said, when the story enters its second act and leans into its genre-bending weirdness, it becomes truly engaging and radical. Conversations about the ethics surrounding technology and references to European history add a compelling layer to the perfect blend of gothic mystery and speculative fiction.

An uneven but excitingly original spy thriller.