SPIES IN THE HARBOR?

More fear-dredging from Homeland Security this last week. Now the potential evil-doers are unobserved coastal boaters at rest in harbors. So Tenants Harbor boaters are to watch their water-borne neighbors and be alert for — who knows what?

This is craziness — and an invasion of privacy worse than any village gossip. Fortunately, Roseledge Books has two new paperback spy novels to bring up to date the spy behavior of Phoebe Atwood Taylor, Allen Furst, and Patrick O’Brien and chairs on the front lawn in which you can sit, read about spies, and watch the harbor. Multitasking alert.

Fig. #18. Tenants Harbor tide is on the way out and always fun to ponder. Can you spot the spies?

I am so ready to enjoy this view as I read David Ignatius’ Body of Lies. He “understands the nuances of [the CIA] trade (says George Tenet) and “the world of CIA operations in the Middle East” (says Seymour Hersh). I like him after reading his “seminal” spy novel set in Beirut of the early ‘80’s.

The other new paperback spy story I’m looking forward to is Alex Berenson’s The Faithful Spy, which is set among al-Qaeda in the mountains of Pakistan. It was a NYTimes Bestseller, but even better for quality control, it won the Edgar Award.

It’s best to know more about whatever we are expected to be afraid of — and have a good time, too. But Mainers don’t need much more knowing. In my 35+ years loving Maine, I have heard tell of German spies leaving one-way footprints in harbors of Mt. Desert as their rubber dinghies float back out on the tide, and nearer the St. George Peninsula, of rum-runners during Prohibition, drug-runners in the early ’80’s, and ever vigilant Secret Service helicopters protecting the first President Bush when he vacationed in Kennebunkport. Good new stories are always a plus, though.