Rating: 4/5
Review:
A good, gripping read
I enjoyed A Divided Spy, but like all of Charles Cumming's
books so far, I didn’t think it quite as brilliant as many people do.
This is an espionage thriller starring Thomas Kell, now the
subject of three of Cumming's books. He
is a damaged, world-weary agent of MI6 who at the start of the book is out of
the Service and grieving for the death of his partner. He is drawn back in by the chance sighting of
the Russian agent he holds responsible for her death. The plot sees Kell's attempt to blackmail the
man into working for British Intelligence and the subsequent psychological and
tactical developments. Interspersed with
this we get a portrait of a man planning a jihadi attack in Britain,
and as the two threads become related a very exciting plot develops.
It's very well written and structured, so I found it an easy
and compelling read. The tradecraft and
development of the plots is very well done, the first of the two climaxes is
especially exciting and the whole thing was enjoyable. Cumming is very concerned with the
psychological make-up and responses of his subjects and while this was all
pretty plausible, I did find it a little clunky much of the time. I found the set-up just a little implausible
and doubts, ambiguities and uncertainties seem to be listed rather than woven
into the atmosphere in the brilliant way of le Carré, with whom Cumming is now
often compared. Cumming is good, but I
still think he has some way to go before those comparisons can be justified.
Despite these small reservations, I found this a good, very
gripping read and a thoughtful novel in places. Recommended.
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