Alias Emma by Ava Glass

Emma Makepeace isn’t her birth name. That’s Alexandra, born in London of a Russian widow. Her father was a fairly high-up Russian government employee whose love of country and hatred of the Russian leaders led him to work for the British to help save his country. The KGB were coming after him, so he got his wife out to the UK before he was arrested, tortured, and killed. Alex was born in the UK, went to University, joined the military (intelligence), and plucked by Charles Ripley into ‘The Vernon Institute,’ a secretive counter intelligence unit of MI6. She had wanted to be a spy since childhood.

Michael Primalov is a pediatric oncologist. Elana, his mother was considered a traitor to mother Russia. She was Russia’s top nuclear physicist, but managed to get out of Russia when Mikhail was but a baby and MI6 settled the family in their version of witness protection. He too grew up English, but rejected living in secrecy, went to med school and became an oncologist.

The KGB/GRU is not known for being very forgiving. They will hunt down traitors until the traitor has paid the dues. Four former colleagues of Elena, also living in the UK, have been murdered recently. Elana is the sole surviving member of this research group but her whereabouts are unknown. But Michal/Mikhail is living and practicing medicine in London. The Russians want to get him to draw out his mother from hiding.

Ripley assigns Emma to contact Michael to convince him to come with her and return to protective custody. Previous attempts have failed so Ripley thinks someone closer to Michael’s age might fare better, especially now that the Russians are getting terribly close.

A couple of attempts at talking with Michael have failed, but Emma sort of ambushes him on a morning jog. That didn’t go well, but she did identify a couple Russian agents on the same jogging path. She goes a bit undercover as a hospital nurse to talk further and now sees one of the thugs dressed as an orderly. Too close. Michael begrudgingly must go with her.

Off they go, on foot, trying to get to the MI6 offices on the Thames River. The cross-town route degenerates into a deadly cat and mouse game pushing Emma and Michael though sewers, the Thames, dumpsters, drunk night owls, multiple Land Rovers tracking their movements and a ton more.

You can probably guess that Emma eventually gets Michael to MI6, but the real story is the ‘why’ behind the Russians dogged hunt for Michael. That you’ll have to find out for yourself. I didn’t see it coming.

Looks like Alias Emma is Ava Glass’ first novel and it’s a barn burner. Just in her late 20s, Emma is a boss. She takes on each attempt on Michael’s life head on. Sometimes she wins, other times she has to slither out to fight later. Each contact with the Russians is worse than the previous. I’d guess that 80% or more of the book is the 24hr pursuit by the Russians.

I liked this and I hope that it’s just the beginning of an Emma Makepeace series. It’s that good. But it did remind me of a movie. In the late 1970s, a cult movie of sorts was in wide release. The Warriors. About a NYC street gang leader who tried to organize all the street gangs and control the city streets. But he gets assassinated, and The Warriors are blamed. The movie was a string of street fights between the Warriors and the gangs chasing them down the streets and subways as they fight their way home to Coney Island. My roommate at the time was a Bronx native and he just blasted the movie as being entirely unrealistic. He said if anything like this story every did happen, the Warriors would’ve just stolen a car and driven home. Case closed. On one level, that’s this book. Emma and Michael fighting their way across London instead of just stealing a car and driving to MI6.

But that wouldn’t have been any fun. Ava Glass’ version is fun.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance review copy. Due to be released Aug 22, 2022.

 

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