Larkin (The Clocks)

In the novel The Clocks, Larkin is the name of a foreign agent. Investigating Larkin's network is reason counter-espionage agent Colin Lamb found himself at Wilbraham Crescent in Crowdean at the beginning of the novel.

Larkin worked at the naval station of Portlebury, not far from Crowdean. He had access to some highly sensitive documents which he had been passing to foreign intelligence. At the beginning of the novel, Larkin had already been arrested and his case is expected to come to trial in the near future. According to Colin Lamb, Larkin's main motive for betraying his country was mainly money rather than political ideals. He was thought to be a "thoroughly good chap" but not clever. He was presumably well paid for his spying and he "splashed it about". This led to counter-espionage focussing on him sooner than they might have. Indeed, Lamb admitted to his friend Inspector Hardcastle that they had run Larkin as a double agent for some time.

Nonetheless, for Lamb, the case is not complete. Although they already knew about the Portlebury end and the London end where Larkin apparently got his instructions and got paid, the links in the middle are still unknown. How did Larkin pass his information on and through whom? Larkin himself did not know because he used a form of "dead drop". He would go to a restaurant (a different one each time) and hang up his coat. There would be a similar coat on the rack. He would then leave, taking the "wrong" coat while the next link in the chain would pick up the coat with the documents in it. The documents would be photographed, and returned the same way and the same day. Larkin, using this technique, never met the person who was the next link in the chain.

As Lamb sees it, there are signs of excellent planning in this courier network that enabled Larkin's documents to be transmitted out of the country. At the beginning of the novel, Lamb is investigating this network, using a clue left by his late predecessor Hanbury.

Portrayals
In ITV's 2011 film adaptation of The Clocks, the spy Larkin is portrayed as a woman Annabel Larkin who works at the naval headquarters at Dover Castle. Her methods are more direct. There is no dead drop. She brings the stolen documents hidden in her walking stick direct to the house of Miss Pebmarsh. Fiona Hanbury, a counter-espionage agent follows her at the beginning of the episode. Larkin spots Hanbury, they struggle, Hanbury tries to break free and runs into the middle of the road and both are killed by a car. Larkin here did not lead a lavish life style or had tone to be run as a double agent. Annabel Larkin is portrayed by Olivia Grant.