The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle, book review: Engaging and poised

A dramatic twist for the espionage thriller

Roy's backstory, slowly unfurls in a long trip down memory lane, all the way back to Berlin in the 1930s (Corbis)

The information that the pseudonymous Nicholas Searle was a civil servant "who spent much of his time working on security matters" cannot help but strongly colour expectations when it comes to The Good Liar, his hotly anticipated debut. There is, of course, a robust tradition of one-time intelligence officers turning their hands to espionage novels, from John le Carré (whose agent Searle shares) to Stella Rimington, but The Good Liar is no straightforward thriller. Instead it's something of a hybrid of genres – character study meets mystery meets historical fiction – a wily tale of a much larger, more traumatic and multifaceted deception than initially anticipated.

Now in his eighties, conman Roy Courtnay – a man with a past even more illusive than his author – is looking to pull off one final confidence trick, and with it a windfall comfortable enough to retire on. His mark is Betty, a widow with a healthy nest egg whom he meets via an internet dating site. This particular scam may seem as mediocre and familiar as the middle-class, middle England suburbs in which he finds his victim, but the situation's clearly not as straightforward as it first appears. Searle slips just enough pointers into the text for even the most inattentive of readers to prick up their ears.

Betty is a little too compliant, a little too unconcerned about the details, not to mention a little too clued up when it comes to Roy's potential motives. Not that Roy realises that anything is amiss – something that struck me as perhaps a little unbelievable since we soon learn how assiduously astute he has been in the past.

And here we come to the real heart of the tale: Roy's backstory, which slowly unfurls in a long trip down memory lane, following him through the dingy streets of Seventies Soho, "scratching a living" on the land in Norfolk before that, scrabbling for "an angle" amongst the wreckage of post-war Europe, and all the way back to Berlin in the 1930s.

Here I need to be as evasive as Roy himself, since to go into details would give the game away. All I will say is that Searle paces the twists and turns of the plot admirably well for a first-timer. His syntax, however, comes across as slightly forced and overwritten on occasion. These thoughts of Betty's, for example – "She must do everything she can to accept Roy's less salubrious habits, together with his idleness, for the sake of the satisfaction and security she craves" – more reminiscent of someone imitating their idea of how a novelist writes rather than capturing a realistic voice.

Not that this detracts too much from the overall enjoyment of the story, especially as both the writing becomes more assured and the plot more tightly coiled the further back in time Searle reaches. Indeed, perhaps due in part to his somewhat dated turn of phrase, perhaps simply proof of a period well evoked, but the historical sections were so increasingly engaging and poised, I'd be keen to see him pursue a period piece in its entirety next.

Viking, £12.99. Order at £10.99 inc. p&p from the Independent Bookshop