Found is the debut novel from Will Erikson. It is set in 2003 in the chaotic aftermath of the coalition invasion of Iraq. Told in the first person, the protagonist, Harry Smith, is a junior officer in the UK intelligence services who is deployed to Iraq as part of the effort to track down Sadam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the existence of which has been used to justify the invasion of the country.
Smith is, however, filled with guilt over his involvement with the intelligence gathering that led to the production of the infamous ‘sexed up dossier’ of evidence that was presented to the British Government and its allies which seemed to confirm that the risk from Sadam Hussein and his WMDs was very real. He, like many in the intelligence community, already knows that there are no WMDs to be found and the efforts to search for them are really an elaborate and large-scale smoke and mirrors campaign to maintain the fiction of a just war.
Posing as an army officer, Smith’s role in Iraq is ostensibly to search for the weapons, but he has actually been tasked with covertly seeking out and securing a number of Iraqi scientists who had been part of Sadam’s weapons programme. His mission is complicated both by the lack of support he has access to, and by the presence of a CIA kill squad who are intent on eliminating the same group of scientists.
It is soon apparent that other forces have played a part in his deployment to the warzone. Nothing is as it seems and it is not clear who he can trust and who he must not. Why is a senior US general so interested in his mission? Why does the UK really want these scientists? What will the presence of an old MI6 adversary in Iraq mean for him? And who really is the woman acting as his logistics support officer?
Written by an insider, the book is full of the rich detail you would expect from an author with personal experience of his subject matter. Erikson writes eloquently about the inner workings of the invasion force with all its faults and foibles. The tension and danger in Iraq feel very real, as does the angst and introspection of Smith as he tries to work out how he can do some good amongst all the bad.
Much of the book is devoted to painting a picture of the complex, multinational coalition headquarters that is quartered in Sadam Hussein’s palaces and, in many ways, this book feels like it is setting the scene for the action-packed sequel that must surely be planned.
This book will appeal to anyone who is interested to know more about this dark and difficult chapter in relatively recent world affairs, or who would like to learn more about the fascinating interface between espionage and military action.
Found, by Will Erikson is out now. Adam Staten is the author of Blood Debt.
