Secret Service

August 19, 2019
Senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson, the heroine of this tense spy thriller from Bradby (The White Russian), receives information from a trusted source that Russia’s three top foreign intelligence chiefs will meet in Istanbul on the super-yacht of a billionaire Russian oligarch. Surveillance of the meeting reveals the impending resignation of the U.K. prime minister and the possibility of a mole, code-named Viper, within the Secret Intelligence Service. The investigation threatens to implicate a number of high-ranking British government officials, including Kate’s boss, Ian Granger, and education secretary Imogen Conrad, Kate’s husband’s boss. Or is it misinformation planted by Kate’s source to frame her as the counterspy? The author reveals a rarely seen facet of secret agents: the domestic side. Not a clichéd Jane Bond, Kate is a mother to two teenagers, daughter to a spiteful mother sliding into dementia, and wife to a civil servant who may be working for a traitor. Ops go sideways, betrayals abound, and good people die. Bradby keeps the reader guessing to the last. Fans of cerebral spycraft in the vein of le Carré will enjoy this outing. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management.

September 15, 2019
Russians meddling in British politics. 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. Old wine in a new glass, slightly past its prime.

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Starred review from November 1, 2019

Bradby (The White Russian) uses current-day political fears to great effect in this new spy thriller. Kate Henderson, an M16 senior intelligence officer, has been tipped off to a meeting of powerful Russians, oligarchs, and governmental power brokers on a Russian oligarch's yacht. She obtains audio that indicates the Russians are working to infiltrate the highest levels of British government and place a pro-Putin prime minister in office. Assisting in the plot is a treasonous English asset code-named "Viper." Though her immediate boss is convinced this is just another red herring from the Russians, Kate is given the go-ahead to investigate. Now she and her team are in a race against time to find Viper and prevent the Russians from inserting their "man" at the top. VERDICT Bradby's journalistic and screenwriting background is fully evident, as the story is well researched, compellingly complicated, and perfectly paced. Fans of Stella Rimington and Olen Steinhauer will love this offering. [See Prepub Alert, 5/13/19.]--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2019
The Russians are coming?back to spy novels. The Cold War might be over, but the digital war is raging, first in the headlines, and now in fiction. Bradby draws heavily on the daily news in this compelling thriller about a potential head of state in service to Russia. Kate Henderson is an MI6 officer who's sitting on a very hot potato. Intel gathered from a bug on a Russian oligarch's yacht suggests that a candidate for prime minister in Britain may be a Russian agent. But is the intel real, or is it a setup, designed to embarrass MI6 and promote chaos in the West? For Kate, the situation is doubly explosive as the presumed agent's opponent for PM is a family friend and the employer of Kate's husband, Stuart. She's also the woman with whom Stuart had an affair, revealed in a video that may have been leaked by the Russians to improve their guy's chances for the top job. A further complication: Kate's source is a Russian with whom she almost had an affair of her own, making her belief in the legitimacy of the intel all the more suspect. And, oh, yes, there may also be a mole in MI6, working the Russian connection from inside. That's a lot going on in one novel, but Bradby makes it work, driving home the quintessential espionage theme of betrayal as it permeates all aspects of Kate's life, professional and personal. There are resonant echoes of le Carr� here?in the way the betrayals reach from marriage beds to the seats of government?but there is also a distinctly contemporary feeling in the idea that truth, even when it's discoverable, may no longer matter.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)