BookBrowse Reviews A Spy by Nature: Tautly written, cleverly plotted, and with a real sense of moral anger at the cruelties and duplicities of modern espionage

A Spy By Nature, Charles Cumming's first novel, has drawn comparisons to Len Deighton and the early works of John le Carré. If we must make comparison to Le Carré, and when reviewing spy novels it seems de rigueur to do so, it would not be to the early Smiley novels but to Le Carré's more recent works such as Absolute Friends, set in the post Cold-War period when the lines between state-sponsored and private sector intelligence have blurred.

We first meet Alec Milius in a dead-end job selling advertising space in the Central European Business Review, a publication of dubious reputation*. Through a chance contact he is invited to apply to the Secret Intelligent Service (SIS). Having gone through the rigorous selection process he is placed in a covert position...