Cover design by Sybylla © |
Jan McKemmish
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A Gap in the Records is about spies. But these are no ordinary spies. In a world where women are unnoticed, women make excellent spies. Gathering information, attending functions or taking a simple holiday by the beach, these women are to be reckoned with. From Paraguay to Paris, from Hong Kong to Pine Gap, the women are watching and interfering.
A Gap in the Records by Jan McKemmish has come back into prominence as ASIO, the CIA and MI5 all increase their powers. First published in 1985 this novel brings together the spy thriller, innovative fiction and the political innuendo of international relations.
‘As intriguing and surprising as the mystery it describes, A Gap in the Records opens up a startling space where there was once familiar lines dividing spy stories from feminist fictions, lyricism from political thrillers, humour from literary theory. Here, in a work of rare formal beauty, a fascinating story is pursued across a contemporary landscape of scandal and paranoia, conspiracy and corruption – and in the process, Jan McKemmish invents a new kind of fiction.’ —Meaghan Morris
It's a saxaphone-before-dawn time
It is a mystery
Patience is a handy skill for a spy
In this particular company
In which we meet Mary Stevens
The Glebe poets
Robbing the dead
The plot (I)
Points of view
The structure moves in response
Parsley
A criss-cross of plots and plans
The poet had written the complete seascape
Dealing with death
A Fact. Some Notes. A Postcard.
The plot (II). Mary Stevens in Paris.
Instant coffee
The plot thickens
Clandestiny
The plot thins
One night stand
Mary Stevens in London
Susan was forty-three
Joan was in a flat spin
Black flag in a landscape
The end of something
Territory: World
All rights:Spinifex Press 
