Double Agent: From the bestselling author of Secret Service

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The recurring theme is that the British Prime Minister might be a Russian spy and that there may be a high level mole in the U.K. intelligence service.

Tom Bradby is an awesome story teller, with his obvious knowledge and research all things ‘spy’ become accessible to us and he tells a incluisve, easy to read yet thorough and immersive story Triple Cross opens with Kate retired from MI6 and trying to rebuild her shattered life, following the events in Double Agent, in the South of France. The pleasure of time with her family, however, is shattered by the arrival of the British Prime Minister and a request to re-enter the fray to determine once and for all, whether there is really a Russian mole, known as ‘Agent Dante’, at the heart of British Intelligence. Kate reluctantly accepts the task, for good reasons related to the earlier books, and finds herself commencing a dangerous investigation, which no one wants to succeed. The second in the series with Kate Henderson as a senior MI6 intelligence officer in Secret Service. The story continues from where The Secret Service ended. Kate is somewhat trying to build bridges with her two children, Fiona and Gus, though she might benefit from a parenting class. She arranges a weekend in Venice, which also allows them to meet up with their father, who was previously outed as a Russian spy, and now lives a dull life in Moscow. Their relationship has never recovered since Harry's wife's suicide, for which Sean holds his father responsible. And Harry, with his career on the verge of disintegration, needs to find him and put things right. Complicating Kate’s assessment of the situation is the suspicion that her husband Stuart, codename ‘Viper’, was not the only Russian agent in MI6. The candidates are few, Kate’s boss ‘C’, his deputy Ian, and Kate’s subordinates Julie, Danny and Suzy, a new recruit. This very limited pool of suspects seems somehow at odds with the significance of the matters in play.

Summary

But what's real and what is fake? Kate realizes soon enough that everything can be one big chess game the Russians play, with t heir goal of destabilizing the British intelligence agencies. Is the PM really working for, and with, the Russians? Is there really another mole inside MI6? Was her husband ever really the real spy? Can she actually trust anyone anymore?

The contemporary geopolitical detail is also convincing and the descriptions of the various locales from Venice to London to Moscow and Tbilisi are spot-on and quite evocative and add a further layer of credibility to the story. There is also a good cast of convincing secondary characters.Bradby's narrative is easy to follow, flowing ever so well, and his descriptions of places, emotions, action, thought processes- is done wonderfully. You get to know everyone in this novel and understand their motivation- good and bad. His ability to weave a complex yet very intriguing conspiracy is to be admired, also his ability to pull you into the story. He never meanders, never wastes time, which allows the story and characters to flow naturally with good pace. The dead girl was a nanny at the Imperial Palace, the man an American from Chicago and, if the brutality of their deaths seems an allegory for the times, Ruzsky finds that, at every turn, the investigation leads dangerously close to home. At the heart of the case, lies Maria, the beautiful ballerina Ruzsky once loved and lost. But is she a willing participant in what appears to be a dangerous conspiracy or likely to be it’s next, perhaps last, victim? Nothing good ever comes from a midnight phone call, especially from Downing Street. For washed-up spy Harry Tower, it is the worst news at the worst possible time. His son, Sean, has gone missing in troubled Iran after writing an exposé about government corruption. Kate Henderson, a senior officer at MI6, has a borscht bowl of troubles. When her team bugs an oligarch's yacht, they learn that the Russians have co-opted a British politician and that the prime minister is ailing and will soon leave office. Is this disinformation, intentionally leaked to gum up internal British politics? The detail about the prime minister's health is key: No one in Britain has been aware of any issue, and when he unexpectedly resigns for health reasons, the report seems to be confirmed. But as Kate drills down on which politician may be the Kremlin's person, it also becomes clear that there's a mole on her team, and in fact there are potential betrayals swirling all around Kate. Is her boss, Ian Granger, head of the Europe and Russia desk, genuinely doubtful, or is he dismissing her suspicions because he's the mole? Is her husband cheating on her? Is her 15-year-old daughter really having sex with the pierced and tattooed Jed, who is a few years older? And will the MI6 director, known as C, force her to reveal her secret source in the Russian diplomatic corps? Dauntless, Kate slowly unravels the twisted skeins of deceit and betrayal, and though she loses much in the process, she perseveres. If all this seems reminiscent of some of the trials and tribulations of George Smiley, well, it's a new generation.

New York, 1929, a city of speakeasies, swells and hoodlums at the fag end of the roaring twenties. It’s a hell of a time and place for a young cop to be trying to make his way in the world. My thanks to Random House U.K./Transworld Publishers and Penguin Random House U.K. Audio for an eARC and unabridged audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘Triple Cross’ by Tom Bradby in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook is narrated by Juliet Aubrey and has a running time of 10 hours, 19 minutes at 1x speed. The best book on the northern conflict since Harry's Game...An excellent read on any level. It scores heavily as a thriller and as an accurate unblinking look at what is happening right now' As with the earlier books, Bradby excels in his portrayal of the interplay of personal and professional relationships in the secret service, reminding me of Len Deighton’s Bernard Samson novels. The details of the investigation are well handled and convincing, and the characters are carefully wrought and interesting. Bradby’s depiction of Kate’s deteriorating emotional state and her questioning of her earlier conclusions is particularly well done and powerful.A similar dichotomy arises too between Kate’s super-spy activities and her concerns for her children. With one parent in Moscow, Fiona and Gus are understandably confused, but it is not always easy to sympathise with bratty teenage behaviour. Kate’s worries are understandable but again seem prosaic when set against matters of high politics. Trying to preserve what little progress has been made with her family, off Kate goes. Everything seems to be falling into place for her, pushing her in certain directions, a little too neatly. Is she being set up to reach a false conclusion? Is she being set up to take the fall as a Russian mole? Can she play the Russians into letting her husband go? Kate has a lot of masters, a lot of information, and she's playing several dangerous games at once, as she tries to close this chapter once and for all. This is the follow up to Secret Service which I loved, however I say follow up as it really is a part 2, IMO, and so you need to have read Secret Service for a lot of it to gel and make sense The book works as it is character based and thrill driven. Demands teamwork, but opens a woman’s heart trying to wear so many hats. Kate is a terrific protagonist and her personal journey is as revealing and worth sharing as the action adventure the overall plot and story brings.