1557. The Traitor by Ava Glass

 The Traitor is Ava Glass’ second thriller about her protagonist, Emma Makepeace. It was just a year ago that East Coast Don very favorably reviewed the first novel, Alias Emma. Glass writes that “Emma Makepeace was born to be a spy.” The author explains the heroine’s background which leads her to make such an audacious statement. In fact, Emma has found her way to MI6, Britain’s CIA equivalent. Her real name was Alexandra, but she chose a new identity with MI6.

 

In this story, Emma, using the name Jessica Anne Marshall, is placed on an oligarch’s super yacht even though she is immediately suspected of being a spy by the oligarch, Sergei Krupin. The circumstances of Emma being hired to replace another employee were just too convenient. Her life was immediately in danger, but she answered Krupin’s questions sufficiently well to maintain her employment. Otherwise, she would probably have been thrown into the water to feed sharks. Krupin was surrounded by his well-trained henchmen, and Emma played her role well while looking for clues about Krupin’s involvement in arms shipments and other oligarch activities, as well as interviewing the other employee for whatever scraps of information that they had.

 

Having not read the first novel, I was a bit surprised by Emma’s fighting skills as she was able to successfully take on men who were bigger and stronger than her. It’s a good story as Emma’s life was constantly in danger, and she kept asserting herself into dangerous situations when her bosses were ready to bring her home.

 

Thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the chance for this pre-publication review. It gets my strong recommendation.