Back before the end of the Cold War, Solomon Dortmund was a British asset behind the Berlin Wall. These days, he’s very old and he’s retired to London, where MI5 pays him a small pension. But Solomon’s still very alert and a habitual watcher of people.
So when he sees an old-school drop take place in a favourite Marylebone restaurant, he immediately recognises it for what it is. He admires the tradecraft. And he reports it to his MI5 handler, John Bachelor.
Bachelor's a barely competent MI5 agent who’s slowly circling the drain. He’s facing financial ruin, has lost his home and the only notable success of his career - an operation that inserted a Double Agent into Germany's secret service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - was reassigned to someone more capable.
Perhaps Solomon’s report will give him an opportunity to do something noteworthy. Or perhaps, as he has before, Bachelor will simply screw it up.
The story is followed by another novella, The Catch. It also leads back into the main Jackson Lamb series, acting as a prologue of sorts to Joe Country.
The Marylebone Drop contains examples of:
- All Abusers Are Male: Averted. Hannah requests a move from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills because her manager’s behaviour (late night phone calls, gifts, requests for private meetings) is making her uncomfortable. Nash immediately assumes the manager in a man, Pynne corrects him. And Hannah is lying about all of this anyway, trying to get a role that’s more useful to her BND handlers.
- The Alleged Boss: Pynne is Hannah’s MI5 handler and he thinks he's in charge, but she’s easily manipulating him and many of the decisions are actually hers.
- Anachronic Order: Downplayed and discussed. The narrative makes it clear that the drop at Fischer's may have been chronologically after the Regent's Park meeting, but that those who know believe that Fischer's is where it really started.
- Bad Boss: Subverted. Hannah’s boss appears to be sexually harassing her, but Hannah - a Triple Agent - is lying in an attempt to get a role that’s more useful to her BND handlers.
- The Bad Guy Wins: By the end of the story Solomon’s dead, Alec Wicinski’s been framed for possession of child-porn and MI5 has moved Hannah Weiss to the Brexit office, still unaware that she’s a BND triple agent.
- Code Name: Hannah Weiss, MI5’s double agent in the BND, is randomly assigned "Snow White" as her code name. It seems a little too close for comfort.
- Double Agent: MI5 is running Hannah Weiss as a double agent in the BND. Or at least they think they are.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: MI5 think Hannah Weiss is a double agent spying on the BND. The BND know she’s a triple agent spying on MI5.
- Frame-Up: Wicinski is framed for possession of child porn - downloaded onto his laptop by a BND hacker - after Hannah reports his name to her handler.
- Fright Deathtrap: An unintentional version. Martin Kreutzmer is interrupted when searching Solomon’s flat, so hides in a wardrobe. When he’s discovered and bursts out to flee, the shock’s enough to kill Solomon.
- The Handler:
- As first seen in The List, John Bachelor is at the least important end of the scale. He looks after "the milk round", elderly foreign assets who’ve retired to the UK.
- Richard Pynne is the new and inexperienced handler who’s taken on Hannah Weiss, the Double Agent Bachelor recruited at the end of The List.
- Peter Kahlmann (who's actually just a cover identity for Martin Kreutzmer) is Weiss’s BND handler, who’s far more competent than Pynne or Bachelor.
- He Knows Too Much: Wicinski's unexpected search through MI5's files for Kahlmann’s name puts him into this category for Kreutzmer, who's not taking any chances.
- House Squatting: Bachelor decides not to report Solomon’s death to MI5 and moves into his flat.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Hannah’s existence as a Double Agent is mentioned in the promo blurb, which effectively spoils the first Bachelor novella, The List.
- Loose Lips: Hannah’s inexperienced MI5 handler, Richard Pynne, tells her that someone’s run a search on her BND handler, Peter Kahlmann. And, later, he tells her who it was. Which allows the BND to discredit Wicinski via a Frame-Up.
- Real-Place Background: The titular drop takes place in Fischer’s, a very real Viennese cafe on London’s Marylebone High Street.
- Sinister Spy Agency: The BND. Framing Wicinski for possession of child porn is pretty hard to morally justify.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The waiter in Fischer's who asks Peter Kahlmann if his uncle's friend managed to get in touch. Which sets Kreutzmer, who's using the Kahlmann cover identity, on Solomon Dortmund’s trail.
