A Divided Spy

Starred review from December 12, 2016
In bestseller Cumming’s nuanced, suspenseful third Thomas Kell novel (after 2014’s A Colder War), the London-based former MI6 agent, who’s been a private citizen for 12 months since the assassination in Istanbul of his girlfriend and fellow spy, Rachel Wallinger, receives a call from Harold Mowbray, a private contractor with whom he has worked on several missions. Mowbray wants to have a face-to-face chat, and they agree to meet at a Middle Eastern restaurant that evening. Over dinner, Mowbray reveals that during a recent vacation with his wife to an Egyptian Red Sea resort he spotted Russian SVR officer Alexander Minasian, whom Kell holds personally responsible for Rachel’s death. Kell sets up a trap using Minasian’s lover, Bernhard Riedle, and persuades his old boss, SIS chief Amelia Levene, to help him capture Minasian. The hows and whys of the mission slowly unfold in a perfectly constructed plot that proves once again that Cumming is among today’s top spy thriller writers. After a complicated, riveting finale, a moving coda suggests that readers may have seen the last of Thomas Kell. Say it ain’t so, Charles. 75,000 announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Luke Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit.

Starred review from April 3, 2017
At the start of Cumming’s third Thomas Kell novel, the disillusioned, disgraced ex-British spy is still mourning the death of his paramour, Rachel Wallinger, when a former associate provides him with a way to avenge her murder. Kell convinces his former boss, MI6 chief Amelia Levene, to assist him in a plan to blackmail Russian SVR officer Alexander Minasian, whom Kell holds personally responsible for Rachel’s death. Cumming’s tale—in which Kell’s story is interrupted by chapters focusing on Minasian’s romantic partner, Bernhard Riedle, or marking the progress of ISIS-inspired terrorist Shahid Kahn—is meticulously constructed. And the players are fully developed, underlined by British actor Davies’s nuanced portrayal. His Kell may exhibit grief, anger, and disenchantment with spy life, but never at the cost of his morality or heroism. The other characters sound genuine, but each with a unique hint of mendacity. Davies’s rendition captures all that without closing out the possibility that one or all may be setting Kell up for the kill. A St. Martin’s hardcover.