Book Review: Banshee, Lindsay Rumbold, Resolute Books
‘We’ve found out what Banshee is,’ Booth switched her gaze between the two men. ‘Are you ready for this?’
Woods frowned. Alex exchanged a glance with him. ‘As we’ll ever be.’
Flight Lieutenant Alex Farnsworth finds himself ordered to investigate an unidentified body recently unearthed by site developers in a bunker on a decommissioned RAF site in Warwickshire; RAF Martinford. Early in the investigation, it is established that RAF Martinford had been used as a base for testing modifications to Vulcan bombers in the early 1960s. As Vulcan bombers were designed to carry nuclear bombs, Banshee plunges us back into the tensions of the Cold War era.
Published by Resolute Books (www.resolutebooks.co.uk)
All the above is established in the opening two chapters; the sense of intrigue and jeopardy in Banshee builds inexorably from start to finish.
On a personal note, I loved being taken back into the world of these monstrous flying wings and the inner workings of an RAF squadron less than twenty years since the end of WWII. Banshee transports us back to the secretive world of the nation’s nuclear deterrent force, the camaraderie, trust, and conflicts between ground and aircrew, and it all conspires to reconnect the relatively sophisticated twenty-first century with what has and what has not changed in the sixty intervening years. Like many boys, I spent a good deal of my time assembling Airfix models of Spitfires, Lancasters, Messerschmitts, and the American and British fighter planes and bombers of the 1960s and 1970s, including Vulcan Bombers, but this was the first RAF novel I’d read for decades, and it didn’t disappoint.
Rumbold has skilfully interwoven chapters set in 2022, with Alex Farnsworth leading the investigation with the assistance of various experts and the close attention of Quentin Ponsonby from the security forces, with chapters dealing with the events of 449 Squadron at RAF Martinford in 1964.
1964 Austin Healey 3000
Throw into the mystery of an unidentified body, forceful personalities, conflicts of loyalties, an Austin-Healey 3000, and a Rover 2000, hints of a romance, and the role of secret services, and you may think Banshee is an excuse for a James Bond-style romp into the world of post-War international espionage – but you’d be wrong. What you will find, is a carefully constructed story with believable characters and circumstances that retain the excitement of a well-researched Cold War thriller without conforming to over-egged fantasies or becoming bogged down in unnecessary technical detail.
I was as caught up in the tragic events of 1964 with 449 Squadron as I was with Alex Farnsworth’s 2022 investigation with Quentin Ponsonby. I like a good plot and a riddle to solve, but Rumbold’s characters in Banshee also serve as a close study of human beings under immense pressure: their motivations, hopes, fears, and longings are all smuggled into its pages successfully without intruding on the plot.
I’ve only seen one Vulcan bomber in flight; an unforgettable experience as it roared up from low altitude, climbing at 6000 ft per minute leaving the ground and air around me shaking and rumbling and my ears battered. Banshee reminded me of that display of awesome power.
