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Secret Service

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Tom Bradby has created Kate Henderson, family woman and chief of the Russia section at MI6. A tip-off leads her and her team to begin a hazardous operation which reveals both possible Russian interference in the appointment of a new Prime Minister, that there may be a Russian agent among the candidates and that someone is leaking secrets to the Russians. The plot moves along quite nicely, the who-can-I-trust stuff is nicely done and Tom Bradby writes pretty well much of the time. It does get a bit clunky in places, and although the dialogue is generally convincing, characters do tend to lapse into pretty stilted speeches rather regularly. Bradby is also no stranger to a cliché, which gets a bit much at times with sentences like, “I’d like to bury my head in the sand, but I need to go home and face the music.” Maybe … But on most of her other favorite subjects – human rights in China, Tibet, Saudi Arabia – she has continued to be quite frequently and widely quoted.”

It’s weak character work for a protagonist who could, and should, be better. All these details may seem like complications, but they’re really just rote stabs at shading in a character, so familiar that they’re mostly a parody at this point. With a unique and thrilling narrative, readers have a front-row seat to the inner workings of the protagonist’s mind. Deighton’s debut novel was so successful that it became a defining novel of 1960s London and was adapted into a film in 1965.I think maybe, it’s an excellent book for a man to read or anyone au fait with the political systems of these countries. I think perhaps I’m a not quite so well versed, and I did get a bit lost along the way. It's quite rare to see a novel shoot itself in the foot so badly, but it's been done. (Paul Auster's Mr. Vertigo for example.) Or perhaps, not in the foot, but in the head in this case, because thriller mysteries rarely get dumber than this set up. Secret Service is a fresh-from-the-headlines thriller for fans of Homeland, Crisis and The Bodyguard.

But largely—and this is maybe the book’s biggest weakness—she is wrestling with the struggle of ‘being a woman’ and ‘having it all.’ Along with her job, Kate also juggles taking care of her two kids, her aging mother, and, for good measure, an ailing dog. There are various family problems, as well as Kate’s contentious relationship with her mother, who cheated Kate’s father with a family friend and upended their family. None of the family drama is particularly urgent or, really, dramatic, and even though Kate should have enough going on with unmasking Russian spies and saving democracy, she still comes down on herself: It's a fast-paced, easy read which plays perfectly on the fears of both the political establishment and the general population. Moving between rich, vivid locations we follow protagonist Kate who begins a covert investigation into corruption in the top-levels of the UK government but her conflicting loyalties creep into her head rather a lot. It's certainly a high-octane, high-stakes story full of palpable tension which builds and builds beautifully. There are some parallels that can be drawn between some of the cast here and those currently in the real-world political spotlight. I suspect that was intentional on Bradby's part. A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read. Unhappily, validation of the Russians’ information comes in a very short time, when the PM does reveal his illness and promptly resigns. Two candidates emerge as the front-runners to replace him: the current foreign secretary, a notorious womaniser whom no one in MI6 trusts, and Kate’s long-time friend and Stuart’s employer, the education secretary.Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. Besides this huge responsibility in MI6 and the evident dangers that it carries, Kate also has to juggle her family life and that helps give the novel extra depth - there’s her Civil Servant husband Stuart, her estranged mother Lucy, now in a care home with dementia, and fractious teenagers Fiona and Gus. As exciting as the Bodyguard, thoroughly enjoyable, well written, satisfying and left me wanting to read all his previous books! What ensues is a twist filled, fast paced thrill ride. There are many misdirections in discovering who Viper is and it really keeps you guessing. I found this book really hard to put down and read it in less than 24 hours. I highly recommend!.

Kate and her team set out to vet the two contenders who are in the running for British PM with information that one of them could be the mole, Codename: Viper. Kate must put all at risk, including her life and the lives of her team to get to the truth. Having said that it was a gripping and enjoyable read. I found it absolutely fascinating, as anything to do with politics, you’d never really know who was telling the truth, as they are all such accomplished liars, and these people rule over us. am GMT 25. The Ipcress File by Len Deighton The Ipcress File is a classic spy novel set during the Cold War Riveting...with style and energy, evocative scene-setting and strong characterisation' Financial Times

Kate Henderson books in order: the complete series:

At first, I wasn't too sure I liked that there was so much emphasis on Kate's family life, but in the end, it was for the best, as it gives Kate more depth, more dimension, more challenges than a typical lone wolf agent. In the beginning, I also wondered if the book was part of a series, as some information seemed to be missing. It was not the case, we are told everything in due time, and in fact, it prevented info dumping. Kate is unlike any other spy I had ever seen, yet SECRET SERVICE is very much like the glorious spy stories of old. Before long, he is on the run - not only from a faceless enemy, but from his own past. Which will catch up with him first? What does that say about your hero, Kate Henderson, if we can see that at first glance and she...uh...is she playing along? Or something? Well, pretty much that she's an incompetent idiot. She suspected to the point of being sure, and never told her superiors. Rav died because of her. LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS, KATE! Ah, but women are such dunces when it comes to love, aren't they. So easy to fool them. Emotions, you see! Women and their feelings....sigh...

Secret Service is a rather timely spy thriller/political intrigue story that puts Russia’s desire for influence in other country’s political elections front and center. Set in the U.K., Kate Henderson and her team are listening to a conversation when they learn that not only is the current minister resigning soon, but that Russia has a very good foothold into who the next prime minister will be. If that wasn’t enough, the team also learns there is a mole amongst the British ranks, code-named Viper, that can assist Russia and help ensure their candidate’s success. A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London. Kate Henderson is a senior intelligence officer based at the London headquarters of the Special Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6. When the Prime Minister suddenly announces his resignation due to ill health, Kate believes she has discovered a plot to infiltrate British politics, and place a Prime Minister with pro Putin leanings, right at the heart of British Government. The secret agent trying to bring about this major coup is codenamed ‘Viper ‘.

Stuart often complained he didn’t get to spend enough time with his teenage daughter, so now was his chance. Good luck to him.

TOM BRADBY is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. He has written nine previous novels, including top-ten bestselling Secret Service, and its two sequels , Double Agent and Triple Cross. The Master of Rain was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year, and both The White Russian and The God of Chaos for the CWA Historical Crime Novel of the Year. He adapted his first novel, Shadow Dancer, into a film, the script for which was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards. Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. But honestly, that's your plot, Mr Bradby? Really, you CANNOT be serious with such a blatantly predictable villain. Everything you had that man do was suspicious Mach 5 and everything out of his mouth sounded like Grade A bullshit.

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