Secret Service by Tom Bradby #AVirtualCrimeBookClub #20ReadsofSummer

What if you knew the next Prime Minister was a Russian spy?

Book blurb

The world is on the brink of crisis. 
The Cold War is playing out once more on the global stage.
The Worlds’ governments will do whatever it takes to stay at the top… 

To those who don’t really know her, Kate Henderson’s life must seem perfectly ordinary. But she is in fact a senior MI6 officer, who right now is nursing the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb.

Kate’s most recent mission has yielded the startling intelligence that the British Prime Minister has cancer – and that one of the leading candidates to replace him may be a Russian agent of influence.

Up against the clock to uncover the Russian mole, Kate risks everything to get to the truth. But with her reputation to uphold, her family hanging by a thread and a leadership election looming, she is quickly running out of options, and out of time.

My thoughts

Whilst not my favourite crime genre I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this book. It was well written from a writer who has getting on for twenty books to his name and holds no punches. This writer likes to be realistic on what is likely to happen to his characters and this was definitely the case with most of this books characters. The exception at first appears to be the lead character – Kate – who seems to have two different characters but then this is a spy thriller so I suppose that’s to be expected!

I liked Kate and, although a small part of the book I liked her daughter Fiona too. Rav, Kate’s second in command, was a great character their relationship was professional and close in the way you would expect when working in possibly life threatening situations. Still the book also showed that this kind of life can be both thrilling and mundane which gave it a realistic air.

I was not surprised by who was working with the Russians although again this character didn’t necessarily seem the type – again isn’t that the point when hiding in plain sight?

This is the first of a trilogy and parts of this story will run through the series so there may be questions left unanswered at the end.

This is an enjoyable read which fans of this sub-genre should like and I would certainly recommend it to them and also to those who like to dabble in different genres why not give this a go?

I would also just like to say how lovely it was of Tom Bradby to join our book club last evening it is always so good to hear from the author. Check below for a link to the recording and how to join in.

Book: Purchased

Published: Penguin | Imprint: Corgi | 09/01/2020 | ISBN: 9780552175524

Author

Tom Bradby is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. As a broadcaster, he is best known as the current Anchor of ITV’s News at Ten, and presenter of all recent overnight election and referendum programmes on ITV. In his first year in the job, he was named Network Presenter of the Year by the Royal Television Society.

He has been with ITN for almost thirty years and was successively Ireland Correspondent, Political Correspondent, Asia Correspondent (during which time he was shot and seriously injured whilst covering a riot in Jakarta), Royal Correspondent, UK Editor and Political Editor – a job he held for a decade – before being made the Anchor of News at Ten in 2015.

His 2010 novel, The Master of Rain, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year, and both The White Russian and The God of Chaos for the CWA Historical Crime Novel of the Year. He adapted his first novel, Shadow Dancer, into a memorable film directed by Oscar winner James Marsh and starring Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson and Andrea Riseborough. His script for the film was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards.

Books: See all of Tom Bradby’s books on his Penguin page

A Virtual Crime Book Club 

Secret Service was our latest book club read. For all information about the Virtual Crime Book Club visit The Virtual Crime Book Club where you will find links to our zoom meetings, how to sign up and much more.

Secret Service was received well by the book club who thought is was an enjoyable read. You can watch our latest book club and hear from the author who joined us for June Book club chat. Thanks to Rebecca Bradley for a terrific evening.

The voting for July is open, maybe you are looking for something a little different in the Crime Fiction genre. If so why not join us? The next meeting is Monday 19th July 2021 at 8pm GMT (UK time zone).

To vote for your book comment on Rebecca’s blog. You have until the end of Friday, 25th June 2021. You will need to be a member of the book club to get your zoom invite so please do join HERE. We’d love to see you!

• 

• 

#20Booksofsummer

Well that’s my third read done! You can find out all you need to know about this challenge at Cathy’s 746Books and lot’s of other great book stuff. My list for this year’s challenge is on my blog if you’d like to check it out.

• 

•