‘Chalk Marks’ Best of 2023

CHALK MARKS / OPINION / ENTERTAINMENT — In a January long past, in one of those places that has dozens of words for snow, I was walking through a frozen field considering how every degree of cold resulted in a different sound as a foot tread through snow. 

I had clocked four different chords in the last hour, which was a good thing. The first rule of cold weather operations is that freezing cold is always better than wet cold and crunchy snow better than slick slush. You can move faster, see further, and the colder it is, the fewer casuals out and about.  I had been on the move for the better part of 12-hours, surveillance free and just chewing up mileage and staying ahead of the clock. Sun shining and no surveillance, there was nowhere I would have rather been as I approached a railway line and the picturesque forest that lay on the other side. Just a few short miles through the forest and I would be where I needed to be and ahead of schedule as the sun set. It was as good as it gets on the street.

An hour later, sun waning, I could still make out the rail line embankment behind me. I was behind schedule and had broken the second rule of cold weather ops – never start sweating when the temperature is dropping.  The forest hid an icy bog that had warmed in the sunshine, turning surface into sucking mud that made every step feel like leg day. The forest ran forever to my right and left, and truth was, I had to go straight.  Fighting the mud and picking a path that wouldn’t sink me had me exhausted, stressed and behind schedule. I was at risk of missing my ops window (unacceptable) and knew that my sweat would soon turn to frost and hypothermia and frostbite were in play (acceptable but…bad). I felt that panic surge unique to the stress of espionage operations, and at my lowest moment asked myself the question countless ops officers in similar situations had muttered, “How the hell did I get here?”

In my case, there was a clear answer, albeit unhelpful in the moment: “Because of John Le Carré and George Smiley.”  Le Carré and his finest invention Smiley arguably have had more influence on the popular perceptions of Cold War espionage and spies than any other artist, historian or government. Well before I was old enough to watch Bond seduce women and bartenders alike, my mother gave me a copy of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. By the end of that novel, I wanted to be a spy, and specifically Le Carré’s version of a spy.  No sports car and tuxedos needed, I wanted to be a whiskey drinking, cigarette smoking, standing-on-a-bridge-in-the-fog type of spy.  After Le Carré, came Len Deighton and all the books and films that offered the verisimilitude of espionage, rather than the heroes of high thrills.

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There were a lot of cover stops for me between that first Le Carré and the bog at sunset, but I wasn’t alone in my generation of case officers in having been inspired by the notions of high stakes, risk, and service to country that was romanticized in Cold War popular culture.  This is the pervasive power of art and culture in shaping imagination and ambition. Each generation of intelligence professionals have their own popular perceptions of the role, reality, and value of a life in espionage, much of it based in the popular culture they grew up with. Those joining the CIA after 9/11, will have their own canon of books and films that resonated with them, and this evolution continues today in this particularly muddled time where the volume of espionage content is endless.

I have kept this in mind as I compiled my Chalk Marks Best of 2023. I am particularly interested in highlighting stories that do at least one of three things well, and ideally all of them together.

First and foremost, I appreciate works that highlight the tradecraft and sensibilities of espionage and intelligence professionals. The mechanics of a chalk mark, the stress of living under cover – these essentials are the foundation of espionage stories, and their inherent drama and risk account for the enduring appeal of espionage popular culture. I also prioritize espionage stories that offer a quality of production and storytelling that can’t help but influence popular perceptions of spies and the role of intelligence in everyday life.  And finally, I am interested in new contexts or new stories that add to the canon of spy culture and expand the conversation about espionage and intelligence professionals. 

2023 was a good year for all the above in all genres, with a great balance of classic Cold War thrillers and fresh formats and storylines, particularly from international perspectives. I suspect these are trends that will continue in the near term, and I am very glad to be able to enjoy the show. 

TV

If I were to place one espionage offering above all the others in 2023, it would be the HBO Max show Spy/Master.  Loosely based on Romanian Intelligence officer Ion Mihai and his entanglement with multiple intelligence services, Spy/Master is prestige chalk marks entertainment, rich in tradecraft, counterintelligence and atmosphere, with tremendous production value and sublime attention to historical detail. A Romanian spy’s description of a smuggled American toaster in 1974, is a favorite moment. The scenery, the fashion, the technology, and the tradecraft all highlight the time and place when Cold War espionage and the stakes of success and failure were at their apex. Spy/Master is complicated in a good way, but balanced perfectly by macabre moments and characters that feel real to the time and place, to include fascinating portrayals of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu and a wayward CIA case officer in Bonn, trying to make his career with the double-edged sword of a “walk in.” 

While few may have already seen Spy/Master, Apple TV’s adaptions of Mick Harmon’s Slow Horses novels have already gained a wide audience and it’s well deserved. Season one’s patient storytelling brilliantly captured the mood of the novels and MI6 in general, but I suspect season 3 and its high thrills out of the gate will be a fan favorite. Slow Horses continues to do well with what makes it successful – prioritizing tradecraft, developing characters that both love and loathe espionage, and giving Gary Oldman more time to elevate Jackson Lamb into one of the great espionage anti-heroes of all time. Season 3 is more thrill than chill, but I continue to admire Slow Horses’ willingness to embrace the British sensibilities that differentiate MI6 from the CIA, and to emphasize the personal and professional consequences of bad tradecraft and life decisions in the world of espionage.

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I don’t think you can write about espionage pop culture in 202,3 and not highlight Taylor Sheridan’s popular Special Ops: Lioness on Paramount+. I wrote about the highs and lows of Lioness in a previous Chalk Marks column, noting then that Sheridan’s production reflected another evolution in espionage pop culture. I am confident Sheridan couldn’t give a damn about verisimilitude in espionage, but he does appreciate the sensibilities of patriotism, sacrifice and the flawed hero so often found in espionage stories. I remain skeptical of the results of merging the subtlety of espionage operations with the over-the-top drama inherent in Sheridan’s creative worlds but won’t deny, I enjoyed every episode of Lioness. 

Books

For many critics and fans, what set LeCarré apart from other espionage novelists was the quality of his writing. The same can be said for The Scarlet Papers, by Matthew Richardson.  On story alone, this would have been my favorite novel of the year, but the elevated prose, dialogue, and complex structure rate this as one of the best spy novels in years. Richardson moves back and forth between the 1940s, the present, and the 1960s, interweaving historical espionage figures, a mysterious memoir, and spy service rivalries into a reimagined Cold War thriller.  He craftily delivers genre favorites like chalk marks (literally), mole hunts, and double agents with a blend of new wrinkles and unorthodox characters. Turn the page for the mole hunt, but revel in the complexity. I read the novel first but may have appreciated its sophistication even more while listening to the audiobook. 

2023 offered several other enjoyable spy novels, of which my two favorites were Moscow X by David McCloskey and The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak. McCloskey and Pitoniak appear to be at the front of a newer generation of espionage writers that offer present day spy thrillers that track the legacy of Cold War tensions and operations into the current day.  As fiction, they lean more toward Tom Clancy than John Le Carré, but with better tradecraft and a richer understanding of espionage than Jack Ryan ever had. 

The best gift I got this year is a beautiful illustration of the limitless possibilities of espionage as a vehicle for art and storytelling. The gorgeous hardbound edition of Matt Kindt’s Super Spy offers a collection of illustrated espionage vignettes and short spy stories that bring texture, color, and atmosphere to the spooks, undercover lifestyles and spy gadgets that fill the imagination. Kindt’s art and storytelling are wonderful and his ability to tell epic stories of spies, secrets, lust and betrayal in only a few dozen panels, is something special and I can’t recommend this wonderful book enough. 

Films

The Pigeon Tunnel, Errol Morris’ documentary about David Cornwall (the true name of John Le Carré) is an excellent film and a likely Oscar nominee.  The film takes its title from Cornwall’s biography of the same name (highly recommended), but centers on a series of interviews Morris held with the author after the biography had been released and in the last years of Cornwall’s life.  Morris seems intent on finding material connections between the life Cornwall lived and the fiction Le Carré wrote, but Cornwall prefers the shadows of inference and allusion, displaying much of the irascible and opaque storytelling that defined his fiction. The Pigeon Tunnel is a must watch for fans of Le Carré and espionage culture, but I am also reminded that sometimes it’s better not to know too much about your heroes. 

My most surprising find of 2023, was the Indian espionage film Khufiya. With the majority of the spy canon focused on Russia, the U.S., and the UK, it was a pleasure to see the spy vs. spy motif in a vastly different context. Khufiya tells the story a female Indian intelligence officer’s early 2000s hunt for the mole that killed her asset. Grounded in the intelligence battle between India and Pakistan, with patriotic swipes at the duplicity of the CIA, Khufiya shares familiar themes through an entirely different lens. Khufiya is overly complicated at times, and the action scenes are more Bollywood than Hollywood, but there are chalk marks aplenty, the lead actress is excellent, ,making it a fresh and enjoyable watch.

It is customary for Chalk Marks to offer readers an ops plan for enjoying the film, show or book reviewed, but that won’t work for the year in review. Instead, let me share with you how I finished that long ago January night. I did make it out of the bog and all worked out well in the end. I have two frostbite-scarred fingers to remind me of it, and the memory is always a good one.

When I arrived home in the dark of night full of adrenaline and exhaustion, I quietly kissed each of my family members, poured myself two fingers neat of the highest-quality chilled vodka I could afford, and settled into a reading chair. I opened the finest quality Swiss chocolate bar and started reading a novel. I don’t remember which title, probably a Le Carré, because what is a better way to relax than leaving your own spy story to enter into someone else’s?  Happy Holidays from Chalk Marks! 

Suggestions for future Chalk Marks column?  Please send me a note at [email protected]

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