DNF. topped reading @55% ( )

When there is more time, I plan on getting back to my old favourites, especially the really longer reads - 500 pages or more for preference: “War and Peace”, “Canterbury Tales” in the original language, “The Bible” - some astonishingly good stuff in that, “Kalevala”, the Finnish epic, if only in translation, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” - eight volumes, but getting there, “Beowulf” in Old English - now that really sends a shiver up the back (’Under misthleothum, Grendel gongan.’) The usual Shakespeare and Dickens. Wodehouse, and many, many others. We have over 5000 print books in the house, and every one a winner, in whatever language they are in (three at the last count, so plenty of choice).

I’m an omnivorous reader of the plough on to the end regardless school, which when applied to Proust turns out to be a good thing, but when applied to some contemporary Spy Fiction knock-off it leaves one feeling soiled. I usually read them until my mind is thinking about tomorrow’s dinner, or what such and such said earlier on Signal. Stop...shake head...try again. Same result; close book for night. Try again another night. Same process...call it a day and move on to another book. And then comes Charles Cumming’s spy fiction…I have a whole-hearted epicurean single minded focus on "Enjoyment" even if it’s over 500 pages like “Judas 62” is…can’t wait for the next Lachlan’s installment. ( )

Excellent, just as good as Box 88. ( )

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
Absolute quality.
Well written and researched engaging from first to last page, this is the second of the Box 88 series and hopefully the next is almost ready because I cannot wait for more. While there are numerous references to the previous book in the series this could easily be read as a standalone story, but do yourself a favour and start at the beginning. Cerebral clever descriptive narrative, atmospheric descriptive intelligent with characters so believable you feel like a part of the plot, totally immersed in the action and involved in the nuances and subterfuge of this excellent spy story.
Completely recommended. ( )

I was rather surprised to see some of the reviews for this novel saying that it was even better than its predecessor, Box 88. I felt that this must be quite an exaggeration, having thought that Box 88 was one of the best spy novels I had read for a long time (and I read a lot of spy fiction). I was, however, entirely wrong, and this novel genuinely is even better than Box 88.

It picks up not long after the previous novel ended, with lead protagonist Lachlan ‘Lockie’ Kite, London Head of Box 88 (a secretly funded intelligence organisation working under similar remits to the CIA and MI6) learning about the death in America of a scientist. He had been Russian, and had defected to the West during the Cold War, taking his expertise and insights with him. In America he had been given a new identity, and had worked out the rest of his career. He had, however, been tracked down despite the safety measures put in place, and a Russian assassin had managed to deliver a fatal dose of Novichok. It becomes clear that he had been a victim of a retaliatory attack commissioned and organised by the Russians, following on from similar outrages against Alexander Litvinencko, Sergei Skripal and Alexei Navalny. A highly placed Box 88 mole in the Russian intelligence servicefeeds back a copy of the so-called ‘Judas list’ setting out the names of targets of similar individuals whom the Russian authroities consider either as traitors or threats of another variety. The dead scientist had been included in the list. More alarmingly, his is not the final name in the list, and the other targets include another scientist whom Box 88 had succeeded in exfiltrating from Russia some thirty years previously, and (the last entry) the cover name used by Lockie in that earlier operation,

This sets the scene for the main action of the novel. It is, in effect, two stories for the price of one, as Cumming sets out the earlier operation in which the young Lockie went to Russia, tasked with finding, and then assisting the escape of, the scientist. Interspersed with this is the current day response, and the operation to foil the Russians pursuit of targets Judas 61 and 62. Cumming is excellent at maintaining the tension, and both stories keep the reader with bated breath. His characters are always well drawn, and his plots soundly constructed, and the book resonates with plausibility. I am now desperately hoping for a further instalment – the one downside of buying a book on publication day and reading it as soon as possible is that the wait for its successor seems uncomfortably long. ( )