It’s hard for a novelist to add twists or drama to the real-life spy cops scandal. Guardian journalists exposed a secret web of undercover police, the so-called Special Demonstration Squad, who infiltrated protest groups. They maintained split identities for years, developing intimate relationships with their unwitting targets, in some cases even fathering children, before abruptly vanishing. The scoop prompted an official inquiry and widespread revulsion. What a novel can do, perhaps, is round out the emotional resonance behind redacted transcripts, journalism and legalese.
In Alice O’Keeffe’s second book, free spirit Skylark and her perfidious partner are loosely based on the testimony from women who were duped. Interspersed in the story of this intimate betrayal are excerpts from the SDS’s actual “Tradecraft Manual”, together with fictional briefings between Dan Greene – UCO (undercover officer) 122 – and his handler, DI Wells. This foregrounding, while creating abundant irony, vitiates any suspense; unlike Sky, we know he’s a phoney from the off.
Sky is instantly attracted to buff, mysterious Dan when he starts turning up at climate protest meetings, although she does register that most of her fellow protesters have skinny vegan physiques rather than bulging biceps and a rigid posture. Dan and his handy van are quickly accepted by the likes of wannabe circus performer Bendy Aoife and The Rev, a radical sculptor and Sky’s fellow escapee from suburbia (real name Rupert). That everyone on the alternative scene is in the process of radical reinvention only helps the infiltrators to blend in.
Dan prefers to have sex with Sky in total darkness, for reasons that eventually become clear, although benevolent Sky simply assumes that, like others in the movement, he’s a damaged soul suffering a past trauma. The protest scene in the 90s, with its pop-up raves and joyful disruption, is lovingly evoked, but as the direct actions become more violent, Sky is happy to retreat into home life, although she finds Dan’s unexplained absences baffling. Reporting back to DI Wells, Dan is deceiving both sides, repeatedly denying that he’s involved with a “weary”, but the psychological pressure is beginning to tell.
Even with the benefit of the inquiry, motives were hard to fathom as the largely unrepentant UCOs slithered back into the gloom. Sky’s trajectory through growing doubts, a shocking reveal and the shattering aftermath of betrayal is keenly expressed, but Dan remains little more than a cipher. A deeper delve into his troubled psyche and hidden motives would have enriched the novel. O’Keeffe’s telling is respectful and moving, but a vital piece is missing.