Kate Henderson’s life in London seems pretty good if a tad ordinary.
She works for a multinational that sends her abroad on frequent business trips. He husband
works for the Minister of Education. A rebellious teenage daughter and a tween-age son
round out the cast.
Oh, did I mention, her multinational employer is MI6?
She works for the Russia desk. Pretty high up, too. She has
a team in the Mediterranean following the yachting adventures of the (gay) son
of an Russian oligarch. Through some clever manipulations, the team manages to get a microphone
placed on the yacht, coincidentally when the father and 2 or 3 other major political
players in Russia are discussing plans to influence upcoming changes in the
British leadership.
OK. The Russian’s play the same what-if scenarios about their
adversaries as does everyone else. Only this time, the Russian’s know exactly
why and when the Prime Minister will be stepping down – Info that even MI6 doesn’t
have. Not only that, the Russian’s mentioned a highly placed source from an
operative code-named Viper.
Sure enough, a few days later, the PM tells the country he
is stepping down due to prostate cancer. Now begins the circus of who wants to
move into #10 Downing Street. MI6 is left with two major questions. First, how
did the Russians learn about the PM’s health? Second, who is Viper? What ensures
is a complicated hunt on two fronts, one of which is a mole hunt. Both inquiries
seem to point to one of the two major candidates for the PM job as being a Russian
asset.
In the tradition of Le Carre, Greene, Deighton, Frosyth, et
al., this book is crammed with misdirections, distrust, feints and double
feints galore to drive speculations about various suspicious identities. Enough to make your head spin. A perfect choice for lovers of
traditional spy novels.
East Coast Don
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