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BLACK WATER

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Fiction Dark deeds, neighbors naming neighbors BLACK WATER By Louise Doughty 352 pp. Sarah Crichton Books Reviewed by Sarah Morgan Graham Greene said, “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets in the future.” It’s almost as though Louise Doughty studied this quote or perhaps all of Greene’s works. She certainly pays homage to the man in her extraordinary psychological spy novel, Black Water.  The lead, John Harper (his current alias), had a tough life before joining what he refers to as “the firm,” a Dutch security company that gathers information and carries out covert ops for multinationals doing business in hotspots around the globe. Harper is a solitary man with no binding ties, a “shadow man.” A spook. Everyone close to him has either died or abandoned him. There is a failed marriage and a child who died just days after birth. His mother was an alcoholic, his only close relative, a black civil rights attorney—his step-grandfather—must release h...