Operation Angus (2021)

Behind the Novel: 8

Revisiting Angus and Daniel after 11 years

My first two novels (The Best Laid Plans (2008) and The High Road (2010) both featured the exploits of the accidental MP, Angus Mclintock and his trusty sidekick Daniel Addison. Courtesy of the Leacock Medal in 2008, Canada Reads in 2011, the CBC Television six-part miniseries in 2014 and the stage musical in 2015—not to mention a heaping helping of good fortune—more Canadians have read those first two novels than any of my others, for which I am eternally grateful.

Not wanting to be pigeonholed as a political satirist, after The High Road, I decided I wouldn’t write any more Angus/Daniel stories but would try writing comic novels set in different worlds about other issues. So for the next eleven years, I wrote five more novels (as you know if you’ve joined me on this Substack journey), none of which were about politics (links below to posts looking at the story behind each of those novels).

I wrote about the space program, Canada-US relations, ageism, and sexual discrimination in Up and Down (2010). I wrote Poles Apart (2015) in support of feminism, and Albatross (2019) to explore the tension between success and happiness. One Brother Shy (2017) took a look at the scourge and consequences of online bullying and the search for family. And in No Relation (2014), I wrote a family saga about an aspiring writer who lives with the weight of his father’s expectations, and the burden of a very famous name.

So, eleven years after last hearing from Angus and Daniel in The High Road (2010), why would I recant my earlier pledge to leave them in peace, and all of a sudden bring them back for another turn in the spotlight? Good question.

Why bring back Angus and Daniel?

I mentioned in an earlier post on the Power of Book Talks, that a reader had emailed a year or so ago informing me that I’d then just given my 1,000th book talk. He reported that he’d painstakingly counted my book gigs on my website’s “Appearances” pages. I had no idea.

Recycled collage from an earlier post.

While I didn’t know I’d yammered away at audiences large and small over 1,000 times, I did know that at every single one of those talks, someone always stood up in the Q&A and asked me…

I’m not kidding. It happened every time I’d give a book talk, regardless of what novel I was presenting. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled that, somehow, the crusty Scottish engineering professor, and all he brings with him, had taken up residence in the hearts of so many readers. So in 2019, I finally asked myself, “why am I fighting this?” Why don’t I just bring him…

So, in 2021, I did just that… but with a twist.

A comic thriller, not a political satire

I decided not to write another political satire but to thrust Angus, Daniel, and the rest of the gang, into a completely different world, though largely set in the familiar surroundings of Ottawa, Parliament Hill, and the riverside town of Cumberland. This was a deliberate choice I made to change things up, not just to challenge myself as a writer, but also to avoid repeating myself.

You see, much of the humour in The Best Laid Plans and The High Road is firmly rooted in the reality that Angus is a fish out of water. This scenario of the stranger trying to navigate in a foreign land has been fodder for comic novelists for generations.

But, after those first two novels, Angus has gained quite a bit of experience in his new world of politics, policy, and government. Parliament Hill is no longer the mysterious black box that it was before he was miraculously and unexpectedly elected. In short, in the third novel, Angus is not a fish out of water anymore in the political sphere.

So, to bolster the comic potential in the third instalment, I needed to renew the fish out of water credentials, not just of Angus, but Daniel, too. So I threw Angus, Daniel and their crew into the crucible of international intrigue along with an assassination plot against the Russian President set to unfold in Ottawa.

The writerly challenge was to try to craft a thriller of sorts, and still make it funny. As I started working on the novel, I realized it was going to be harder than I thought. The tension, high stakes, danger, potential bloodshed and death—you know, the fate of the world hanging in the balance etc., etc.—do not lie easily alongside humour and laughter. That became my lofty goal in penning Operation Angus. You’ll be the judge as to whether I’ve succeeded, but I sure had fun trying.

In the same vein…

There aren’t many funny thrillers, but I’ve come across a couple that I enjoyed. Look these up if you like a little laughter with your high-stakes thrillers.

Two funny thrillers worth checking out.

The title

I confess, I had help coming up with the title of the novel. I figured that, when returning to characters you haven’t written about for more than a decade, it made sense to include the name “Angus” in the title. I hoped loyal readers would see the new novel in their local independent bookstore, notice the name Angus in the title, celebrate the return of our conquering hero, pull the book—maybe two or three!—off the shelf and walk directly to the cashier. That was my theory, anyway. But what about the rest of the title? Angus returns? Angus again? Angus is back for a third adventure? Ummm, no.

I was stuck for a while on the title until I received a completely coincidental email from a guy named Phil Gurski. He had no idea I was just embarking on writing a comic thriller. Phil was looking for my help in marketing his own nonfiction books about terrorism, which had done well, but not as well as he’d wanted. Oh yes, and by the way, Phil Gurski had a long career in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service—that’s right, CSIS—and had also spent time as the intelligence advisor to the Privy Council Office.

He wondered if we could meet for coffee when he was next visiting Toronto. You can imagine, I agreed immediately. We met at a Starbucks downtown and hit it off. We talked about his books and other measures he might take to elevate their profile and sales. Then I proceeded to pick his brain about how CSIS and other intelligence agencies function and how I could concoct my premise so that it least approached plausibility. Of course, he never shared specific mission-related details, but he does understand how intelligence agencies operate. Needless to say, it was very, very helpful and allowed me to tweak the storyline to be more realistic.

CSIS veteran Phil Gurski and some of his books.

It was Phil, who in the course of our conversation, suggested the title Operation Angus given that almost all intelligence agencies around the world, including MI6, call their missions, “operations.” I thought it was the perfect title and still feel that way. Deep thanks to Phil for his insight.

Writing the novel

I worried that, after a decade, I might not be able to find those characters again. Wrong. I was happy to discover they were all still just where I’d left them back in 2010, still taking up space in my head and my heart. I had a blast bringing them back to the page.

How Operation Angus was received

With thanks to booksellers and readers, Operation Angus opened on the bestsellers list and stayed there for about four months. Although it’s tough entering the market a week after the latest Louise Penny novel, but we were pleased with the results.

Three days after publication, Operation Angus entered the bestsellers list at #4.

It even briefly re-entered the list in February following an interview segment I did with the wonderful Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter. You can click this link or the image below to listen.

Somehow, Operation Angus even topped the Vancouver Sun’s International New Releases bestsellers list. We’ll take it!

Then in December, Operation Angus appeared on the CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction of 2021 list. You can check that out by clicking or on the image below and scrolling down, down, down, till you find Operation Angus.

So, in the face of a continuing pandemic, my team at McClelland & Stewart (and I, too) have been very pleased with the performance of Operation Angus. Sales continue apace as we plan for the release of my ninth novel, A New Season, this coming August.

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