Winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year. Selected by Sunday Times Books of the Year and The Guardian as Best Thriller of the Year.
Perfect for fans of John le Carré, a gripping and suspenseful spy thriller from ‘the master of the modern spy thriller’ (Mail on Sunday)
Six weeks before she is due to become the first female head of MI6, Amelia Levene disappears without a trace.
Disgraced ex-agent Thomas Kell is brought in from the cold with orders to find her – quickly and quietly. The mission offers Kell a way back into the secret world, the only life he’s ever known.
Tracking her through France and North Africa, Kell embarks on a dangerous voyage, shadowed by foreign intelligence services. This far from home soil, the rules of the game are entirely different – and the consequences worse than anyone imagines…
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007346431
Number of pages: 416
Weight: 290 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 25 mm
‘We are in Smiley country, but with extra 21st century nuance … Cumming has an exquisite touch and we should treasure him’ Daily Mail ‘A thriller that has everything you could ask for – a twisty, sexy plot, topical themes, memorable characters and plentiful spy lore’ Sunday Times, Books of the Year ‘Refreshing, plausible and effective … Best of all is the sheer pace of the narrative’ Spectator ‘You are likely to be up for most of the night to find out how this novel ends. It grips from the first page … A fast-moving treat’ The Scotsman Praise for Charles Cumming: ‘Charles Cumming is a man put on this earth to perpetuate the spy thriller’ Daily Telegraph ‘From the first page to the last it has the ring of absolute authenticity. Tautly written, cleverly plotted…it reminded me strongly of the early books of John le Carré’ Robert Harris
I hadn't read Charles Cumming before but on the strength of his latest book I shall be deliving back into his older titles. A great traditional spy yarn, but with many modern twists. Was glad to see so many of... More
It's a spy novel. It's got the regulation turns and turns, with characters turning out not to be what they seem, the odd bit of violence, some surveillance (which is where the gadgets live) and quite a lot... More
Top-drawer spy fiction here from a writer whose books just keep on getting better and better. Tautly written with authentic background texture on the security services, this is a pacy read which pulls you in via... More
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