In Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson, perhaps one of the most recurring aspects of the story is that it is written like a Spy/Mystery novel. Throughout the novel, many things happen which give it cloak and dagger feel, but two cases stand out more than the others. The first is when the main character, Cayce's, apartment is broken into, and the second is when she goes to Russia in search of the mythical “maker” of the online footage. Together, these two cases accurately personify how Gibson makes Pattern Recognition seem more like a Spy/Mystery thriller, rather than just a Science Fiction novel.
The “break-in” incident in the first chapters of the novel is significant because it is the first example of the Spy/Mystery element in the story. Cayce first discovers that someone broke into her apartment when she notices a website she had never visited in her computer's browser history. After a full investigation, Cayce eventually concludes that the whole thing was instituted by Dorotea, her work enemy (aka the “bitch”). This immediately raises questions as to why Dorotea did it, and what will she do in the future. These question's present an appealing mystery, one for which Cayce has no initial answer. For the first time in the novel, the “break-in” introduces us to a sense of suspense and intrigue usually reserved for James Bond movies. This sense will permeate throughout the rest of the novel and also convinces Cayce to take extra measures against any future trespassers (she barricades the door, changes the locks, etc...).
After the “break-in,” the Spy/Mystery aspect of the story sits largely in the background until it comes back in full force in the latter part of the second half of the novel when Cayce travels to Russia in search of the “maker.” As soon as she gets out of the airport in Moscow, Cayce notices the, “Cyclopean Stalin-era buildings.... Built to humble, and terrify.” (269) This imagery, particularly the use of “Stalin,” brings a Cold War type flavor to story. The fact that the buildings were meant to “humble, and terrify” also brings fourth an ominous tone about the city. The buildings, in essence, captured the general dark feelings of the Cold War era and transplant them into the modern-day setting of Pattern Recognition's Russia.
Since the Cold War was practically the golden age of the spy, we can naturally expect some form of secret agency to pop up, and it does, in the form of the “maker” herself. Nora, the “maker,” turns out to be the niece of an extremely rich and powerful Russian tycoon Andrei Volkov. This fact in of itself makes Nora a prime target for Andrei's enemies and therefore must be tightly protected. As such, when Cayce goes to see Nora for the first time, she is escorted by bald security guys in black coats and sunglasses to a building that could have passed for a KGB interrogation facility in its' creepiness.
Later, it turns out that all the security officials in charge of Nora and her sister's security are ex-KGB agents and called, “traditionalists.” (339) These “traditionalists” originally held great suspicions against Cayce because her father, Win Pollard, was an “old opponent” (339) of theirs, and it was they who hired Dorotea to break into Cayce's apartment. These Cold War veterans, aside from having real spy roots, greatly bolster the Spy/Mystery aspect of Pattern Recognition.
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