Making sense of Ian Rankins Westwind: ‘Lots of people seem to be trying to kill me of late. This one was a civil servant.’
First published in 1990, Westwind is an entertaining espionage thriller that was to be Ian Rankin’s airport bestseller sitting alongside Robert Ludlum books. This is one insight from Rankin’s candid introduction to the book. The introduction is superb, do not dare skip in order to get straight into reading the book. The introduction is a vital part of the book. What you get from reading Rankin’s introduction is an insight into Rankin the writer before he became a household name. We find him researching satellites and writing what he hopes will be a breakthrough book. It was not to be, sales were sluggish to say the least and the book got forgotten with only a few Rankin fans holding a copy. It was an interaction with a fan that triggered the process for the books re-release. This is recounted on Scottish Television website (STV). Essentially the fan held the book up to Rankin
“I said I had just finished reading Westwind and I thought it was quite good and he just looked at me and said it was rubbish,” John said.
“I said it thought it was quite good. He said he would maybe give it a wee re-read then. I didn’t think he would, I didn’t expect it to have the knock-on effect it has had.”
What first strikes you about Westwind is its setting, a nineteen eighties world featuring an isolationist America that is withdrawing US troops from Europe which includes the UK. Protests rage but not all in the UK cheer US troops out with some demanding they stay. The main character is Hepworth who works at a station in England that has the feel of a run-down NASA flight control centre. Hepton and those at the station are in charge of a highly advanced British satellite called Zephyr. Westwind, imbues a feeling that Heptons work as a ground technician is not terribly exciting. Any error however small would be a welcome distraction even a cause for excitement. One such error occurs when the satellite goes out of contact for a few moments. A fellow station worker after the incident is so affected he goes on sick leave from the base. As a decent colleague Hepton visits him out of concern and curiosity concerning what happened during those three minutes the satellite went out of view. This is the beginning of a fast-moving plot that has its geography in England, earth’s orbit and America were a space shuttle crashes. Among the American crew is one Briton, Mike Dreyfuss who survives with some knowledge of what is really going on. Like all good books in the thriller conspiracy genre, what we as readers might think is going on is pretty bad but what the author reveals over the course of the book is much worse.
The satellite going dark, the ground station loses sight off for three minutes is the starting gun for the plot to swing into action. Hepton steps into a world of intrigue were nobody are what they seem to be, even the doctors. Hepton is our guide through a world with security services characters that are more Harry Palmer than James Bond. Expect rough methods. Characters move from a polite word to killing someone. You can see Rankins crime writing coming to the surface in passages like this flourish
“he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun, so close he could swear he could see the bullet resting at the end of the long, long chamber. The gun seemed to speak.”
The book has received a lot of attention for the geopolitical world it inhabits that has an eery relevance to our current era. More impressive though is that Rankin wrote a great thriller that is pacy and filled with characters some who would not be out of place in a classic Rankin crime novel. Even Westwinds civil servants are to be feared as this line from the book reveals.
A man just tried to kill me. Lots of people seem to be trying to kill me of late. This one was a civil servant.
