The prolific gay male short story writer, habu, delivers the first of two volumes of spy tales spotlighting the use of male-on-male sexuality to serve intelligence gathering operations.
The easiest, most assured way of collecting intelligence is not torture. It, rather, is the “giving” to someone, who knows what you want to know, what they want most in exchange for the information they know. And it is in being especially prepared to do so if what they want the most is illicit—that is, for instance, connected to male homosexuality. And you can be assured they will give you the most useful information and continue to give it to you if you continue to give them what they want to have, but cannot acknowledge they have gotten or want to have—and holding over their heads the threat of collapsing their whole world if they don’t continue to cooperate.
These sixteen stories show an aspect of intelligence work very much in the vein of Graham Greene and John LeCarré, but delving into spy craft operations that go well beyond where either of these authors dared to go. The reality of spying is that it isn’t all Agent 007 glamour. There is a nasty, cynical, and even arousingly sexual underbelly to it, and these stories don’t shy away from showing that, or from ignoring the difficult questions of the morality of taking advantage of the vulnerability and weakness of men who have a weakness for men in the pursuit of chits in the power games of nations.
If you enjoy this collection, be sure to check out the upcoming habu’s Spy Tails 002.
