Guest Review: A Divided Spy

Summary: Thomas Kell thought he was done with spying. A former MI6 officer, he devoted his life to the Service, but it has left him with nothing but grief and a simmering anger against the Kremlin.

Then Kell is offered an unexpected chance at revenge. Taking the law into his own hands, he embarks on a mission to recruit a top Russian spy who is in possession of a terrifying secret. As Kell tracks his man from Moscow to London, he finds himself in a high stakes game of cat and mouse in which it becomes increasingly difficult to know who is playing whom.

As the mission reaches boiling point, the threat of a catastrophic terrorist attack looms over Britain. Kell is faced with an impossible choice. Loyalty to MI6—or to his own conscience? -- St. Martin's Press

Booking Pap Pap is finally back -- it's been awhile! His latest read is A DIVIDED SPY by Charles Cumming. Here are his thoughts:

Thomas Kell, a retired British M16 spy, has been depressed since the death of his girlfriend/agent a year earlier and wants nothing more than to avenge her death. He sees an opportunity for vengeance when he learns that the Russian agent responsible for her death may be vulnerable to an effort to turn him. It seems that Russian agent, Alexander Minasian, currently married to the daughter of a powerful Russian oligarch is also in a homosexual relationship with a German business man. Delivering Minasian to M16 would satisfy Kell’s desire for vengeance. His ex-boss at M16, Amelia Levene, reluctantly agrees to Kell’s plan but offers little enthusiasm or manpower support.

As Kell approaches Minasian and they play their game of cat and mouse, they show signs of mutual mistrust as well as mutual respect. As a sign of Minasian’s willingness to cooperate on at least a minimum level, he shares some information with Kell about a possible terrorist attack in a British city. It appears that Shahid Khan, a British born son of a Pakistani immigrant has been radicalized by ISIS and plans a serious attack in the British sea coast city of Brighton.

When Kell reports this information, M16 hesitates to act on it believing that Kell is being used by Minasian. Kell is now divided (thus the book title). Does he continue to satisfy his personal thirst for vengeance by working Minasian or does he attempt to stop a possible attack that threatens thousands of people? Author Charles Cumming nicely weaves these two seemingly independent issues in an exciting spy novel that contains the requisite danger and twists and turns.

I found it interesting that Kell is not the only character that is divided in this story. Minasian is divided between love for his wife and his homosexual tendencies and Shahid Khan is divided between his death mission and the love he has for the woman he met in Brighton.

A DIVIDED SPY is the third book by Charles Cumming featuring M16 agent Thomas Kell but definitely stands on its own. Not having read the prior novels, a little more background on Kell may have actually been helpful. Kell appears to leave M16 for real this time my guess is that a fourth book seems unlikely.

If you’re into spy novels, A DIVIDED SPY should be added to your reading list.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy of this novel and to Booking Pap Pap for his review.