Emma Makepeace is pulled from a current case to look into the death of a MI6 operative. Found in a suitcase, his death has the hallmarks of teaching a lesson. Emma's handler Ripley is suspicious, but eventually has Emma on board a Russian oligarch's super yacht to determine which men are involved in these schemes. A little Below Deck, James Bond and a traitor in their midst made this an intriguing read. ( )

Emma Makepeace #2!
Emma is assigned to go undercover to investigate a Russian oligarch. She is shocked to find that their is a third man they should be investigating, and that it could be someone inside MI6. Emma gets close, but is pulled from the operation. She refuses to give up, and is shocked to discover the traitor.
I love Emma, and her gutsy response to danger. She also shows emotion, compassion, and grit as she does her job. I like the fast pace of these thrillers and am looking forward to book #3. Emma is the heroine we all love to support!
Would have been 5 stars, except it was obvious to me who the traitor was throughout the book - though I still loved it! ( )

(2023) A followup to the very good Alias Emma, but not quite as good. Emma gets assigned to the yacht of an arms dealer in order to determine how and with whom the man is working on his deals. Kind of a locked room situation. Moves a lot slower than the first book, but enjoyable nonetheless. Washingon Post: There is, within spy fiction, some consternation that the genre has typically favored male writers and protagonists, content to leave women in the shadows. Thankfully, writers such as Ava Glass, Alma Katsu, I.S. Berry and others are stepping out of those shadows and using their real-life experiences and considerable narrative powers to reframe the field. Glass?s new novel, ?The Traitor,? is a case in point.

?The Traitor? delivers everything fans of spy fiction could want: an absorbing plot, shadowy characters, page-gripping tension. A follow-up to Glass?s 2022 ?Alias Emma,? the novel continues the story of young British secret agent Emma Makepeace as she investigates a Russian oligarch suspected of killing an MI6 operative, and the thriller rarely relents from its brisk opening pages.

Ava Glass's ?The Traitor.? (Bantam)
Emma Makepeace?s investigation ? and, yes, her self-invented last name is a bit on the nose ? leads her to work undercover as a crew member on the oligarch?s luxury yacht, all the while snooping and hoping not to be discovered. Confined to the boat, she?s soon unable to contact her superiors and has to navigate an assortment of staff members, questionable colleagues of the oligarch and his mistress. And, as she soon finds out, there is absolutely no one Emma can trust.

In pandemic-fueled thrillers, the danger is in the house

Much of that is because Glass ? a former crime reporter and civil servant whose given name is not Ava Glass ? has crafted such a wonderful character in Emma. She?s mission-oriented but vulnerable. Loyal yet informed by past experiences of the dangers of nationalism. Pragmatic and compassionate, and it is this compassion that occasionally threatens her and the undercover operation ? but Glass never plays it as a weakness. It?s that compassion, coupled with a realistic, keen intelligence, that sets both Emma the agent and Ava the author above their peers. ?At its heart,? Glass writes, ?spying is lying. ? There?s always a chink in their armor where you can plunge a sword.? But it?s Emma?s hesitancy to draw her sword, displayed by her discomfort when she lies to those she likes, that wonderfully complicates both her mission and character. There?s real weight and resonance here, and the constant threat of Emma losing an identity she so desperately needs.

Glass?s prose is crisp but never lazy, the descriptions telling without being overwhelming. (A mammoth skyscraper is described as a ?vertical city,? a dangerous criminal?s contempt turns ?the expression on his scarred face into a gargoyle?s leer.?) Side characters, such as the oligarch?s girlfriends and bodyguards, as well as the agency staff supporting Emma?s mission, are fully formed. The end of one chapter propels readers to the next, but without artifice.

This was utterly implausible, but very readable and entertaining. Emma goes undercover on an oligarch's yacht to obtain evidence about a chemical weapons trade partnership and to try to identify the third man. Unfortunately I worked out who the third man was fairly early on. I'm also confused about

SPOILERS

why Jon allowed Cal to be captured and why on earth the Russian government agreed to a trade at the end. What use was Jon to them? He wasn't even working for them...??? ( )

Being a part of a small British intelligence unit has a certain mystique, its members have a certain, let’s just say, something close to a death wish, as their lives are in constant danger. Never knowing who can be trusted, their grey matter is always on high alert turning over the possibilities and potential for disaster. What a way to live. Emma Makepeace is the youngest intelligence officer in this cadre and she is tasked with sorting out a very delicate situation. This wasn’t my first encounter with Ms. Makepeace as she made quite an impression when I read “Alias Emma”. This installment of the “Alias Emma” series is equally fraught with just about everything that is dangerous, sinister, and slightly unfathomable. She is bright enough to recognize fear in herself, and an overpowering need to understand and successfully complete her missions and therein lies the problem. She does not know how to stand down, not for anyone or anything. She does know how to lie, pretend to be someone else, con her target to take what she needs to accomplish her goals and protect her adopted country. It appears that she loves the action as if this is what she was born to do.

There are many characters to sort out in this story, some with difficult Russian names, others with the names you would ascribe to any British citizen, and all need to be referenced and remembered because they keep showing up. The story is tight and twisty as the setting changes from one country to another but the use of “this might be their last chance” was used too often. Once is believable, three or more times is superfluous and strains the probability of any situation. Betrayal is to be expected, so what happened?

Many thanks to Bantam Books and NetGalley for a copy. ( )