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What at first sight appears to be a cash-in on the recent success of Winter in Madrid, turns out to be the start of a new wartime spy series in the tradition of Eric Ambler and Alan Furst.

The title does not lie, and the setting is indeed Cadiz. It is 1944 and while the war rages across Europe, in neutral Spain Cadiz is a geographically, socially and politically far-flung corner where nothing much has happened since it ceased to be the centre of the world 500 years before. This is a forgotten place, sun-scorched, impoverished and run by a faceless military. It is a world of informants, arbitrary bureaucracy, bribery, severe shortages and a kind of resigned acceptance. Into it steps British diplomat Peter Cotton, fresh into his first posting and immediately sent to clear things up following the accidental death of his predecessor. However, relations between Britain and the Franco dictatorship are delicate and the diplomat’s death may not – inevitably – be quite as it seems. So many of the ingredients for a good atmospheric spy thriller are present and correct, yet The Maze Of Cadiz doesn’t quite come off. Monroe’s style, echoing Alan Furst, is deliberately understated and low key. Unlike Furst though, the absence of action in The Maze of Cadiz does not serve to rack up tension levels or to create an oppressive atmosphere . Also the story, while enjoyable, is fairly slight with an improbable turn or two thrown in toward the end for good measure. The result is that The Maze Of Cadiz is unfortunately, not actually that mazy.

On the other hand, Peter Cotton is an appealing series hero. In this his first outing, he is a naive abroad, a wounded army captain recovering both from his injuries and  grieving the loss of his fiance in an air raid. However  beyond bonding with the local sinister Senor Fix-it, encountering a drink soused diplomatic couple and crossing a moral rubicon, Cotton does not actually have to do a great deal to sort out the mess.

There are deliberate echoes of Furst and Ambler and to CJ Sansom’s Hemingway love letter, Winter In Madrid, but ultimately The Maze of Cadiz falls a little way short of these exalted levels. Instead The Maze Of Cadiz is a partial success that leaves me looking forward to the next Peter Cotton outing in the expectation it will be better than this.

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