Having left MI6 ignominiously, Kate Henderson is dragged back into spying to try to identify a mole at the heart of British Intelligence and to prove whether or not the Prime Minister is a Russian agent. This involves a lot of soul searching and examination of her priorities, along with some active espionage work in London, Prague and Moscow and it’s pretty well done in general. There are some good action sequences and a comprehensible plot, so it makes a decent read much of the time.
Tom Bradby writes pretty well and the cliché count is considerably reduced in this instalment, I’m glad to say. I did find some of the travelogue aspects very drawn out (OK, Tom, I get it – you’ve been to Prague and done your research!) and there are a couple of wholly gratuitous sex scenes which I could have done without. I also found that the considerable time devoted to Kate’s personal life became rather tedious, partly because I don’t find Bradby’s characters – including Kate – entirely convincing. I had also suspected the Shocking Denouement for some time before it was revealed.
Nonetheless, this is a very acceptable holiday read and I have rounded 3.5 stars up to 4 because 3 would be churlish and a little unfair.
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