In her second novel, Alex Carr mines the spy genre with mixed results. THE PRINCE OF BAGRAM PRISON deals with an interrogator named Kat Caldwell, who was thrust into the position because of her knowledge of the Arabic language. The story follows her as she goes back to the scene of an interrogation of Jamal, a young Arab boy who is used by the U.S. and — in the secondary plot — is heading back to his home after spending years in Spain.
Throughout all of this, the story switches from the present to various flashbacks for each featured character, including Jamal’s first case worker Harry Comfort, who gave Jamal his number in case of an extreme emergency. As Jamal travels back to his home, Kat is trying to catch up with him before other agents can, who want Jamal for their own purposes.
It seems Jamal fed his current case worker some wrong information, for the simple reason that if he did not, he would not be able to survive. If you seem a bit lost, you’re not the only one, since the story moves around so much — jumping between time periods and various plot threads — that you might seem a bit overwhelmed.
Carr plays fast and loose with some of her characters, introducing them and then disposing of them just as quickly. What the author does well is create a fully formed character in Kat, who comes off the best, even with all her issues. We also see the other side of the spy business with Harry, whose story goes back to the fall of Saigon. It’s very obvious that Harry knows that his time might be up early on in the narrative, as he watches some former associates fall by the wayside.
PRISON’s plot moves along smoothly enough, but it also feels a bit muddled with a few of the flashbacks not as concise as they could have been. The problem that really befalls Carr’s work is that this type of material has been covered before by others. While it might pique the interest of some, it seems a bit of a retread in certain portions. At least the introduction of Kat Caldwell is breath of fresh air in the world of spy fiction. —Bruce Grossman
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