Declare by Tim Powers is a new genre for me. It's part fantasy novel, part thriller, spy story, and Catholic apologetic. The author blends everything together, even I could follow the plot.
The name comes from the spy operation, following WWII. The reader won't learn that until the last third of the book, because the background of the major character has to be established.
Andrew Hale is born without a father. Gossip has it that his father was a rogue priest. His mother and grandfather raise him in England. From an early age, he is groomed to be a spy. His godfather is some honcho in England's Secret Intelligence Service.
Andrew graduates from college and is teaching at Oxford, when he is yanked from the classroom into government service. He has to pretend he's a communist. This is before WWII. He is working in Paris with a French communist, Elena Ceniza-Bendiga. They fall in love but can't do anything about it due to the politics of the time and their duties.
The famous double agent, Kim Philby, is a character in Declare. In fact, he will be Andrew's boss. I'll tell you one spoiler: Philby and Hale are brothers, but neither one will learn this until the last chapters.
There are many supernatural elements, mixed in with Biblical symbolism and Catholicism. Philby is after a plant that offers immortality. Hale is protected numerous times by an ankh (type of cross), that he wears. Philby, being a Russian spy, is being used by the British, or is he? By now, it's after WWII and Hale and Philby are trying to destroy the djinn that live on Mt. Ararat.
Confusing? It's fantasy. Elena pops in, here and there. Elena and Andrew get together in the end and probably get married in the church, since both of them have become unabashedly pious Catholics.
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