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A review by halfmanhalfbook
The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming
5.0
It is 1992, a few years after the cold war and in a hospital in London late one night, a low level diplomat, Edward Crane is declared dead. But Crane was much more than that, and not everything is as it seems.
A decade and a half later, Sam Gaddis, an academic with a particular interest in Russia, suddenly has a mountain of debt to pay. The huge tax bill, and demands from his ex wife means he needs to land a lucrative book deal. An old friend hints that she is onto the story of a lifetime, that she has discovered that there was a sixth member of the infamous Cambridge spy ring. He agrees to help with the research. But both the British and the Russians want this secret suppressed, and within a few hours she is dead from a heart attack.
With the blessing of her late husband, he picks up the investigation. His research is flagged at the heart of the British Secret service and the wheels are set in motion to counter what Gaddis is trying to find out. As he contacts people that knew about Crane, the Russians are not far behind, and they are taking steps to ensure that no secrets are ever spoken again.
He is contacted by a man in a nursing home, who hints that he knows about the enigmatic man, Crane. With his details and the records of a Russian journalist, Gaddis is closing in on his scoop of the century, but the threat to his life is ever more perilous.
Cummings has written here a magnificent spy thriller. He has plenty of tension, a plausible plot that rings almost true, and a way of writing that means that you connect with the main character Gaddis. It has a good pace too, even though it is just over 400 page in this edition, I zipped through this in no time at all. It has all the hallmarks of a classic spy novel too, cold war history, double agents, tradecraft and secrets. Cumming has also managed to convey that feeling of fear that as Gaddis suddenly realises that he is in way deeper than he imagined was possible.
Great stuff. Will definitely be reading all his others.
A decade and a half later, Sam Gaddis, an academic with a particular interest in Russia, suddenly has a mountain of debt to pay. The huge tax bill, and demands from his ex wife means he needs to land a lucrative book deal. An old friend hints that she is onto the story of a lifetime, that she has discovered that there was a sixth member of the infamous Cambridge spy ring. He agrees to help with the research. But both the British and the Russians want this secret suppressed, and within a few hours she is dead from a heart attack.
With the blessing of her late husband, he picks up the investigation. His research is flagged at the heart of the British Secret service and the wheels are set in motion to counter what Gaddis is trying to find out. As he contacts people that knew about Crane, the Russians are not far behind, and they are taking steps to ensure that no secrets are ever spoken again.
He is contacted by a man in a nursing home, who hints that he knows about the enigmatic man, Crane. With his details and the records of a Russian journalist, Gaddis is closing in on his scoop of the century, but the threat to his life is ever more perilous.
Cummings has written here a magnificent spy thriller. He has plenty of tension, a plausible plot that rings almost true, and a way of writing that means that you connect with the main character Gaddis. It has a good pace too, even though it is just over 400 page in this edition, I zipped through this in no time at all. It has all the hallmarks of a classic spy novel too, cold war history, double agents, tradecraft and secrets. Cumming has also managed to convey that feeling of fear that as Gaddis suddenly realises that he is in way deeper than he imagined was possible.
Great stuff. Will definitely be reading all his others.