I was already aware of the post-Fleming Bond novels by John Gardner and Raymond Benson that Rowan had lifted passages from, and of course of Robert Ludlum's novels, from which he'd also stolen, but there was one author he'd ransacked extensively who I'd not come across before: Charles McCarry.
In the end, though, I decided that to do so would represent an affront to the authors Rowan had ripped off – not that they'll care a fig what I think, mind you, but it's the principle of the thing – and determined instead to investigate some of the original works Rowan had filched from. Inveterate collector that I am, I have to admit I did toy with purchasing a copy of Rowan's pilfered concoction, the recalled-by-the-publisher paperback edition of which is currently fetching silly money on eBay. (Rowan has since explained his actions to Jeremy.) The story has been making headlines in newspapers and magazines over the past week or so, but it was via spy novelist (and friend of Existential Ennui) Jeremy Duns's blog that I learned of it, as Jeremy had written a blurb for Assassin of Secrets before realising what Rowan had done. Markham's Assassin of Secrets, whereby Markham – or, to grant him his proper moniker, Quentin Rowan given his transgressions he doesn't deserve Kingsley Amis's pseudonymous surname – lifted almost verbatim great chunks of other writers' spy novels and constructed his own piece of espionage fiction out of them. Now, until very recently I'd never heard of Charles McCarry – I've only really become interested in spy fiction in the last couple of years and have a lot of catching up to do – but the author popped up on my radar as a result of the controversy surrounding Q.
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