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Published Feb 2017
368 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
From the winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2012 for Best Thriller of the Year comes a gripping and suspenseful new spy novel.
Thomas Kell thought he was done with spying. A former MI6 officer, he devoted his life to the Service, but it has left him with nothing but grief and a simmering anger against the Kremlin.
Then Kell is offered an unexpected chance at revenge. Taking the law into his own hands, he embarks on a mission to recruit a top Russian spy who is in possession of a terrifying secret. As Kell tracks his man from Moscow to London, he finds himself in a high stakes game of cat and mouse in which it becomes increasingly difficult to know who is playing whom.
As the mission reaches boiling point, the threat of a catastrophic terrorist attack looms over Britain. Kell is faced with an impossible choice. Loyalty to MI6 - or to his own conscience?
"Starred Review. Nuanced, suspenseful ... a perfectly constructed plot proves once again that Cumming is among today's top spy thriller writers." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Cumming not only tells a moving human story here, he also constructs an airtight espionage plot full of unanticipated twists and leading up to a perfectly orchestrated finale." - Booklist
"Cumming writes with ruefully brittle intelligence and keeps the twists coming." - Kirkus
"Thomas Kell has become one of the most interesting and well-drawn spies in contemporary literature - a man who now deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as George Smiley, and who is every bit as discreet. ... Delicately written, with Cumming's customary subtle humor, [A Divided Spy] confirms him as le Carre's heir." - The Daily Mail (UK)
"A convincing and gripping spy thriller with a clever, twisty plot, believable characters and an abundance of credible spy lore. Highly recommended." - The Age (Australia)
"Charles Cumming is astonishingly masterful at capturing the grey and sometimes amoral world of espionage. A Divided Spy feels authentic and is a riveting read that should be devoured in one sitting." - Valerie Plame, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
This information about A Divided Spy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Toby Madden
Charles Cumming is a British writer of spy fiction. He was educated at Eton College (1985-1989) and the University of Edinburgh (1990-1994), where he graduated with First Class Honours in English Literature. The Observer has described him as "the best of the new generation of British spy writers who are taking over where John le Carré and Len Deighton left off."
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