Description

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 Carre, 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 Review

`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 Carre' Robert Harris