Book Review by Martha A. Woodham
Fox, Anthony Gardner, Ardleevan Press, 2016, 313 pages. Available through Amazon.Set in a dystopian future, Fox by Anthony Gardner is a bizarrely imaginative look at the topical but unrelated themes of high tech government intrusion, politicians running amok, pandemic disease, and I don’t know what else. Oh, yes, foxhunting, too, but I think it all means England had better lift the ban on foxhunting before things really get out of hand.
Gardner, an Irish author and journalist based in London, takes the reader on a cheeky romp through the English countryside as good guys and bad guys chase each other in search of…well, a lot of things.
A deadly disease, fox flu, is ravaging Europe and must be prevented from reaching Great Britain. Foxhunters like Frank Smith have been enlisted to kill all foxes, including those who have made English cities home. Frank, MFH and huntsman of the new Hyde Park Hunt, spends his early morning hours galloping after hounds down dark London streets in a new urban version of foxhunting.
In the meantime, biochemist Christophe Hardy is in China, smuggling Bibles to the outlawed Brothers of Light, a Christian group under pressure from Beijing. Christophe stumbles across the latest in Chinese surveillance technology, an injectable nano-camera system called Mulberry Tree. When he is asked to smuggle a syringe out of China, he does so in the best cold war spy style.
A paranoid British prime minister makes a deal with the vice-president of China to buy the surveillance technology for use against his own people, using the fox flu as an excuse for secretly giving folks Mulberry Tree vaccinations. The Chinese happily agree because, of course, they control Mulberry Tree and now will be able to spy on British citizens 24/7. Mulberry Tree is the ultimate James Bond kind of gadget. As the British prime minister plays right into Chinese hands, the Brits will be like dogs wearing microchips.
For Matt Dunstable (Christophe’s brother-in-law), a prison escapee jailed for non-payment of taxes, it’s had to imagine life in Britain becoming more unjust. The taxes he refused to pay were for road maintenance, schools, police, and fire fighting services. Dunstable was arrested in his shell of a home which had burned out because the fire department couldn’t find his address. And the police, during a chase, were unable to apprehend the thieves who stole his tools because of the wretched potholes in his road. He was found guilty of nonpayment, nevertheless.
Of course, a fox gets through the Eurotunnel. Despite the best efforts of Smith and his sexy whipper-in, the fox—pregnant, wouldn’t you know—hops a ride across England in the boot of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s chauffeured limousine, destroying his very expensive wardrobe.
Other characters include some really wacko animal-rights activists; two high-style Chinese assassins who drive a Bentley and go to London’s best parties; a beautiful missionary; a spiteful civil servant, Jennifer Pettifer; Lu, the Chinese owner of the world’s most unusual catering venture, the Pu Dong Pudding Company; Lu’s schoolboy son, who has been raised as an English gentleman and says “ripping” a lot; a Master of Foxhounds who lives in the prerequisite decrepit stately mansion; and a few other good guys and bad guys.
Oh yeah, and Frank is the unenthusiastic star of a reality TV show about his hunt whose producer is obsessed with fox-kills and ratings.
The miracle of this novel, the second for author Gardner, is how he manages to bring all of these characters with different agendas together so things work out in the end. But somehow he does. All the loose ends tie up, all the right people pair up, and Britain is saved, for now. But don’t expect too much foxhunting.
Posted March 26, 2016