A Spy at War by Charles Beaumont

Published by Canelo on March 27, 2025

My favorite spy stories pit British or American spies against Russians. For an obvious reason (his name is Putin), Russians are making a comeback as the favored spy novel villains. The titular war in A Spy at War is between Russia and Ukraine, making this the first spy novel I’ve read that focuses on that conflict.

My favorite spy stories challenge the reader to guess the identity of a double agent or mole. A Spy at War follows that tradition.

Former British spy Simon Sharman now works in the private sector. He fled the UK after a series of “suspicious events” involving a hedge fund manager. Those events were the subject of A Spy Alone, in which Simon investigated Oxford graduates who went on to be influenced by Russian money. Simon has traveled to Ukraine on a fake Italian passport and is posing as a journalist using a fake Polish press card.

Simon is pursuing Chovka Buchayev, the Chechen assassin who killed his business partner, Evie Howard. Simon intends to kill Chovka but other interested parties want Chovka to defect. They regard Simon as the perfect person to recruit him. The story builds tension as Simon approaches the front line with the belief that Chovka wants to meet him. When the mission goes awry, Simon needs to identify the insider who betrayed him.

The plot leads to a tense if predictable scene that forces Simon to choose between using Chovka for his intelligence value or surrendering to his rage and putting an end to Chovka’s life. In a typical American thriller, the protagonist would pull the trigger and be done with it. I always appreciate a good moral dilemma in a spy novel, particularly when characters actually care about morality.

Chovka receives more characterization than is common for a thriller villain. “Chovka was a survivor, not a hero. Survivors figure out which people have power and make themselves useful to those people.” At several moments in the story, Charles Beaumont demonstrates how that attitude shapes Chovka’s life and decisions.

Unlike Chovka, Simon’s decisions are influenced by values other than greed and convenience. Simon is portrayed as a man suffering from burnout, a weariness with the life he has chosen, who nevertheless uses his experience and intellect to assemble clues as he learns more about his former colleagues from Oxford.

When his story isn’t focused on Simon or Chovka, Beaumont treats the reader to dry British humor in his descriptions of bureaucratic meetings where decisions are made or manipulated. Russian assets are working to undermine British support for Ukraine. It takes a couple of sharp women — including Sarah du Cane, an Oxford professor who serves as an advisor to the British government — to thwart him.

The focus on Russia’s attempts to manipulate public and political opinion about Ukraine gives the novel some currency. The novel takes place in 2022, before the recent change of administration in the US, but its reminder that Russian propaganda is a potent tool of war might be even more relevant in 2025. The argument for selling out Ukraine — “Ukraine can’t win so we should let Russia keep the bits it’s already taken” — sounds depressingly familiar. "You don't have the cards" is how Trump put it.

In the novel, Russian propaganda includes a claim that western contributions of money for the war are being skimmed by Ukrainian oligarchs. The rumor is picked up by bloggers and bots, then amplified until it becomes the basis for policy at the hands of the Russian asset in the British government. Again, the discussions seem spot on. Espionage has always relied on disinformation, but social media provides perfect networks to spread lies until they are mistaken for reality. We all know that, but this is one of the best treatments of the subject I’ve seen in a spy novel.

While A Spy Alone isn’t an action novel, characters are often imperiled. The plot moves quickly. The ending is something of a cliffhanger, although it isn’t difficult to guess how the next novel in the trilogy will begin. I could be wrong, but the ambiguous outcome of Simon’s confrontation with Chovka can only go in one direction if Simon still has a story to tell in the last novel of the trilogy.

It might be helpful to read A Spy Alone before reading its sequel. I didn’t. While A Spy at War explains critical events that took place in the earlier novel, I had the sense that I was missing context. Fortunately, any gaps in my understanding of earlier events in Simon’s life did not impair my ability to enjoy this bridge novel in the trilogy.

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Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on December 3, 2024

Gabriel’s Moon is the sort of book that Hitchcock would have filmed. It has a plot he favored — an innocent man is caught up in a cloak-and-dagger world, manipulated by people he thought he could trust until they try to kill him, forcing him to use his wits to survive.

The story takes place during the Cold War. It builds on evidence that President Eisenhower ordered the CIA to assassinate the Congo’s new Prime Minister because of his paranoid belief that Patrice Lumumba was too cozy with communists. The CIA has never been a friend of democracy.

Gabriel Dax is a London-based travel writer. He’s also something of a part-time spy. His brother Sefton works for the Foreign Office and, although they are not close (“both of them recognized their essential incompatibility”), Sefton occasionally asks Gabriel for a favor — hand delivering a small package to someone in Copenhagen, for example. Gabriel’s work, including a position with a leftwing magazine, gives him an excuse to travel, and he doesn’t mind earning extra money by performing clandestine tasks that seem reasonably safe.

Gabriel is working on a book about rivers, juxtaposing familiar waters like the Mississippi and unfamiliar (to the British anyway) locales like Hattiesburg. Rivers are a familiar metaphor for the flow of a life, and Gabriel recognizes that his own runs “underground, more like a sewer than a river.”

A writing assignment for the magazine takes him to Léopoldville, in the newly independent republic of the Congo, where an old friend from university is now the Minister of Health. He records an interview with Lumumba, who rambles a bit about Eisenhower’s plot to assassinate him, spearheaded by three names Gabriel doesn’t recognize. After Lumumba is murdered, the tape recordings prove to be more dangerous for Gabriel than any clandestine work he does for his brother.

Flying back from the Congo, Gabriel notices an attractive woman reading one of his travel books. After he encounters the woman again, he learns that their meetings are not a coincidence, that she — Faith Green — is also a spy. Soon he finds himself doing favors for her. Faith sends him to Spain to purchase drawings from an artist and deliver them to someone else. The "someone else" turns out to be Kit Caldwell, the CIA station chief in Madrid. The tasks pay well and Gabriel gets a buzz from working undercover.

As the story progresses, it becomes unclear whether Caldwell is a good guy or a bad guy, but Gabriel helps him when he seems to be in a pickle, perhaps because he senses that labels don’t matter in the shadowy world of espionage. Caldwell seems to be a decent person regardless of his ideology. The truth about Caldwell comes as something of a surprise, but there are bigger surprises to come. That’s one of the joys of spy novels; characters are so often not what they seem.

The story opens with a fire that burned down Gabriel’s childhood home. Gabriel has always lived with the belief that a candle in a moon-shaped nightlight in his room caused the fire. He has untrustworthy memories of seeing his mother on the kitchen floor and knowing that she was dead before he was rescued. His adult sessions with a therapist to treat his insomnia give the reader insight into his personality. Gabriel recovers important memories after following his therapist’s advice to learn more about the events surrounding his mother’s death, developing a critical story within the larger plot.

Gabriel’s personality evolves during his relationship with Faith, about whom he becomes a bit obsessive. Gabriel gains self-confidence as he overcomes obstacles, including near-death experiences, but is he sufficiently confident to deal honestly with his attraction to Faith? The question becomes moot when he discovers her true nature — and his own.

Ultimately, Gabriel’s Moon is about the birth and maturation of a spy. By the end, Gabriel would like to return to his life as a writer, but like joining the mob, once you enter the world of espionage, there’s no way to leave. Perhaps that means that Gabriel Dax will turn up again. As a spy novel fan, I can only hope that’s true, as William Boyd knows how to mix suspense, intrigue, and amgibuity, the key ingredients of a good spy thriller.

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The Spy Who Vanished by Alma Katsu

Published by Amazon Original Stories on July 18, 2024

The Spy Who Vanished is the name given to its three parts collectively. Each part is available individually from Amazon as part of its Original Stories series. The cover shown above belongs to the first story. Kindle users who don’t belong to Kindle Unlimited must purchase and download all three if they want to have a meaningful reading experience, as none of the three parts stand alone. Together they are a novella (and also a marketing tool for Kindle Unlimited).

Yuri Kozlov is a Russian agent. Putin assigned him to pose as a defector to gain access to the CIA. He’s supposed to report everything he learns to the Kremlin if he manages to worm secrets out of the agents who are subjecting him to a friendly interrogation. Putin is particularly eager to learn the identity of a CIA mole who is suspected of having infiltrated Russian intelligence. If not for the CIA’s track record of indiscretion, it would be difficult to swallow Yuri's almost immediate acquisition of that information,

In addition to gathering intelligence, Yuri is told to find and kill a Russian defector, Maxim Sokolov. Putin wants him eliminated because he knows something embarrassing about Putin that he apparently hasn’t revealed. There is hardly reason to fear that Sokolov will spill the beans after all these years, but Putin is paranoid. It seems unlikely that Yuri can accomplish all these tasks without being killed or captured, but Putin probably thinks that's Yuri's problem to worry about.

Yuri learns that Sokolov died in a car accident but that he married and had a daughter. Yuri’s handler conveys that intelligence, then tells Yuri that Putin wants the wife and daughter eliminated. Yuri comes to learn that Sokolov’s daughter is someone he has met, someone he likes.

Yuri is not nuanced. He doesn't do moral dilemmas. You point him at a target, he destroys it, that's his life. Yet he killed an innocent girl once and has been at least mildly haunted by it. He wonders how he will feel if he kills an innocent girl he knows. I give Alma Katsu credit for giving Yuri even this modest amount of depth.

Setting aside the improbable plot, the story works best as a psychological profile of a Russian agent who (1) feels disrespected by handlers who view him as an uneducated thug with a talent for assassination, and (2) kind of enjoys the benefits of western life, but (3) only feels at home in Russia and worries that he’ll always be looking over his shoulder for a Russian assassin if he actually defects and stays in the US. The story’s mild dramatic tension derives from that dilemma: should be stay (in the US as a defector) or should he go (back to Russia after succeeding or failing in his mission)?

While the story is nicely executed, it lacks substance and credibility. Alma Katsu’s character sketch of Yuri is convincing but the plot is not. Nor is the story sufficiently eventful or surprising to pay a strong reward to a reader who consumes all three parts. Maybe Katsu will eventually expand it into a more satisfying novel, although it’s difficult to see where else the story could go.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Ilium by Lea Carpenter

Published by Knopf on January 16, 2024

Many thrillers, particularly spy novels, attempt a slow build to a startling climax, only to disappoint. Ilium succeeds. While spy novels often depict espionage as a dirty business, few illustrate its big-picture futility as effectively as Ilium.

Edouard and Dasha worked together in Russian intelligence before they entered into a marriage of convenience. Dasha was a widow. She wanted a father for her daughter Nikki and Edouard was happy to have a daughter. In any event, Edouard’s boss told him he needed a wife, so Edouard chose one who happened to be nearby. It was easy for Dasha to say yes. Edouard’s father was one of Russia’s original oligarchs, so Edouard could offer Dasha and Nikki a very comfortable life.

Two weeks after they married, Edouard was in bed with Sophie in Beirut. He promised her a family but neglected to mention Dasha and Nikki. Sophie gave him a son named Felix but suffered a tragic end that sets the story in motion. Edouard worships Felix but Dasha views him as a reminder of Edouard’s infidelity.

Before he became a spy for the Russian government, Edouard had a successful career in the military. Although Edouard is getting old, he is such a successful spy that the CIA, Mossad, and MI6 track his every move. The intelligence agencies are after revenge. Russia may agree that Edouard’s personal vendetta has gone too far.

The central character of Ilium is an unnamed woman from London who tells her part of the story in the first person. In her early years, the narrator was empty and vulnerable, making her the perfect target for recruitment as an intelligence asset. At a party, she met a successful American named Marcus. She was 21 and he was in his early 50s. To her surprise — because she is convinced that she is not special in any way — Marcus married her. The marriage will not last long because Marcus is dying — a fact he chooses not to disclose until after their wedding. When Marcus tells her, he reveals his other life-changing secret.

Marcus wants the narrator to perform a task. Her job is simple: infiltrate and listen. Her cover identity as a fledgling art dealer is a bit more complex. The narrator tackles the job with enthusiasm because she would do anything for Marcus. She’s excited to do anything at all to enliven a life that, before Marcus, was without color or purpose.

Marcus introduces the narrator to a Lebanese man named Raja, a man who — like Marcus — is not what he appears to be. Raja creates a pretext that allows the narrator to visit Edouard’s home in Cap Ferret. Raja only wants her to learn whether Edouard is there. Since he is not, Raja arranges her return on a new pretext. This time she stays for a bit and gets to know the family. Felix, in particular, bonds with her, perhaps because he feels unloved by his stepmother and stepsister. The narrator’s task remains the same: determine whether Edouard is there and, if so, when he will be leaving.

The reader and the narrator will intuit that Raja will use the narrator’s information in a way that will not be good for Edouard. While there is little reason to feel compassion for Edouard (or for his wife and stepdaughter), he is kind to the narrator, perhaps because of her resemblance to Sophie. The reader will likely share the narrator’s fear that Felix’s life is about to be upended.

We learn in the novel’s closing pages that Edouard must be removed from the game because a mistake gave birth to a reprisal that fueled the desire for revenge. The games never end. “All the wars which were really just one war, the targeting and developing of assets, the unending plays for power and redemption, self-loathing gradually obliterated by pride in the mission, good work, ‘the long game’.”

I appreciated the precision of Lea Carpenter’s insightful prose and the elegant style in which the story is told. Here’s an example that merges insight and elegance: “War endures by design. The history of war is a history of romance and mission, of malice slapping the wrist of good intent. The history of war is a history of action, reaction, repeat. War is tragedy, and tragedy, as Aristotle knew, is a game of subtraction, a game of loss.”

The Iliad and The Odyssey provide a recurring backdrop to the story. The narrator has no education beyond high school, but she is exposed to various interpretations of Homer’s epic works as the novel unfolds. Carpenter returns to Homer at the end of the story when she argues that Priam and Achilles provide an example of men who are able to set aside their lust for war and vengeance and discover, through conversation, that they share the experience of loss, that revenge never satisfies. That lesson is ably taught in a novel that goes beyond the cloak-and-dagger trappings of spy novels to explore deeper questions about conflicts between nations and the forces that shape lives.

RECOMMENDED

Kennedy 35 by Charles Cumming

Published by Mysterious Press on November 7, 2023

Kennedy 35 is the third installment in Charles Cumming’s BOX 88 series of espionage novels. The protagonist, Lachlan Kite, is now the head of BOX 88, an off-the-books, ultra-secret organization that brings together agents from American and British intelligence agencies.

Kite is married but separated from his wife. He begins the novel in Sweden, where his wife is a physician who recently gave birth to his daughter. He hopes to spend several weeks with his family, perhaps repairing his relationship with his wife, but his plans change when he gets a message from Eric Appiah, a friend from Senegal who went to school with Kite. Appiah does some freelance work for BOX 88. If me wants to meet with Kite, the meeting must be important.

Having learned a lesson about trying to maintain a relationship while concealing the nature of his work, Kite tells his wife as much as he can about Appiah. His story takes him back to 1995. Kite was sent to Senegal with his girlfriend, Martha Raines, who was there to complete his cover as a backpacking tourist. He was to play a collateral role in a plan to kidnap Augustin Bagaza, a Rwandan Hutu who shared responsibility for the genocide of the Tutsi people. Bagaza is in Senegal with his Congolese Hutu girlfriend, Grace Mavinga, a woman who delighted in murdering the Tutsi. France was complicit in the genocide and may have an interest in protecting Bagaza to safeguard its shaky international reputation.

About half of Kennedy 35 follows Kite’s mission as he travels through dangerous cities, maintaining surveillance of Bagaza in anticipation that BOX 88 operatives will snatch him before he and Mavinga can flee the country. Kite’s role in the mission becomes more dangerous when Philippe Vauban, a French journalist with PTSD whose Tutsi girlfriend was murdered by Bagaza, suffers a psychotic episode and decides to embark on a mission of revenge.

Cumming crafts tense scenes as Kite moves from boring afternoons in a small Senagalese resort to the adrenalin rush of surveillance and tradecraft in the space of a few days. The story from 1995 ends with a shootout and Mavinga’s flight from the country.

The rest of the novel takes place in 2022, beginning with Kite’s contact with Appiah. An American writer/podcaster, Lucian Cablean, has tumbled to the story of Bagaza’s disappearance in 1995 and has heard rumors about Kite’s secret organization. To protect BOX 88, Kite meets with Cablean, learns of a friend’s death, discovers that Cablean has also been targeted, and tracks down Martha Raines and Mavinga. The second half of the novel is interesting but less compelling than the story set in Senegal.

The 1995 story works because Cumming has mastered the creation of atmosphere. The smells, sounds, and tastes of Dakar become part of the story, complete with potholes and noisy motorbikes and unreliable taxis, dance clubs populated by wealthy men and beautiful young hookers. Cumming also captures the pain of a genocide that American media barely reported. Some genocides are important to Americans and others involve victims who don’t have white skin.

While the novel’s second half features less action, Cumming does imagine a clever plan to protect the secrecy of BOX 88. While the novel is self-contained, the ending might be described as a cliffhanger, as it ends with Kite taking a disturbing telephone call that seems likely to upend his life. I didn’t need that incentive to look forward to Cumming’s next novel, as he has firmly established himself as one of the better spy novelists currently working in the genre.

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