Author Charles Cumming is a master at creating realistic, cutting espionage fiction and his new novel is no exception. It tells the story of Lachlan Kite, a member of BOX 88, an elite transatlantic black ops group that is so secret even MI6 and the CIA are unaware of its existence.
It's a story that moves between the past and present, starting back in 1989 when Scot Lachlan Kite is recruited for Box 88 as its newest recruit in the haze of his gap year summer, helping out at his mum's hotel in Stranraer with a view to a future career in hospitality. On his first assignment he gets to cut his teeth in France with some deep cover work for an Iranian contact. He makes it but the mission is a close call and Xavier Bonnard's subsequent suicide throws everything into question.
Fast forward to 2020 and Lachlan is Bos88 working as a hotel manager in London when he attends the funeral of his childhood friend Xavier and he is approached by someone from an unknown company asking him to travel to Iran to meet with a business contact. The trip will bring him face to face with a dangerous old contact and he agrees. But his captors are not as innocent as they seem. As they try to get information out of him it will force him to revisit a dark period of his life, reopen old wounds and reconnect with people he had hoped to forget but which he now knows he must not.
This is a very well written book that takes us on a thrill ride between the past and the present as the secrets of the elusive BOX 88 are unravelled. It is an enjoyable thriller with a good cast of characters and a strong international storyline but it's the relationship between Lachlan and his old contact that really brings this tale to life.
BOX 88 is an exciting and compelling spy thriller that will be enjoyed by those who love the genre. The plot twists and turns at a frantic pace but never lets up. The only disappointment is that the character of Lachlan never grows on you amidst all the action and we never feel like we truly know him.
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