What a great read. Such a pleasure to read a strong female lead in this often male dominated genre. Not that she’s a female Jason Bourne in a figure hugging stab vest or a girlie Harry Palmer with a better choice of designer specs. The plotting is superb; convoluted so it’s impossible to second guess where the story is leading. Who’s at the heart of betrayal. It could be a husband, close friend, colleague, senior official or even the PM. The skill in the storytelling is that we’re kept guessing. The pace is fast, there’s a real sense of danger and excitement and I felt as if I’d been dropped into the middle of a world of espionage and double dealing. Triple Cross is probably a more considered spy novel than its predecessors and there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing about the mole’s identity and whether there is even a mole. The book, however, steadily builds in suspense, with some well-written and suspenseful set-pieces, and a terrific chase climax, which is as exciting as anything I have read in recent years. The final revelation of the truth behind ‘Agent Dante’ is well worked out and reasonably surprising, although there are clues in the final stages. The first two books in Tom Bradby’s terrific trilogy about MI6 agent Kate Henderson, Double Agent and Secret Service, were among my favourite spy reads of the past few years. The third entry in the series, Triple Cross, is just as good and powers the trilogy to a thrilling conclusion. An enjoyably labyrinthine tale with a light touch and the odd naughty satirical echo.”— Sunday Express (UK), on Double Agent

Brad by is a gifted storyteller and Triple Cross is as exciting as the first two books in this series. It makes a change to have a female at the centre of the narrative and to see her domestic and professional worlds collide. So plausible and this is escapist spy fiction with more than a ring of truth. Kate is playing a very dangerous and unpredictable game - pretty much piggy in the middle, between the British and the Russians, striving to discover the identity of a mole at the heart of British Intelligence. Is it the Prime Minister, or someone else entirely? She was arrested in the aborted bombing attempt in London, and she is given two options: talk to them and see her kids again, or remain quiet and spend the rest of her days seeing them grow up while she is behind prison bars. The recurring theme is that the British Prime Minister might be a Russian spy and that there may be a high level mole in the U.K. intelligence service.

Triple Cross

The Prime Minister wants her help (again) to prove that he is not a Russian agent. Kate wants to say no, but he makes her an offer that she cannot refuse. As with the earlier books, Bradby excels in his portrayal of the interplay of personal and professional relationships in the secret service, reminding me of Len Deighton’s Bernard Samson novels. The details of the investigation are well handled and convincing, and the characters are carefully wrought and interesting. Bradby’s depiction of Kate’s deteriorating emotional state and her questioning of her earlier conclusions is particularly well done and powerful. A Russian agent has come forward with news that the Prime Minister has been set up, that there is a special KGB unit with a single purpose. This unit exists to process intelligence provided by ‘Agent Dante’. And the information that Agent Dante provides clearly has come from senior levels within MI6. If it isn’t the Prime Minister, who is it? In this third instalment the story remains much as before. Kate has been sidelined and pensioned off as her standing has been compromised by a failed assignment, the death of agents and losing the diplomatic kudos to the Russians. Her position has not been helped by an adulterous husband who has been giving secrets to the Russians. Her resolve to leave also came about for personal reasons after her children were abducted and threatened with death if she didn’t comply with their wishes and end her investigation.

A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It’s run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from ‘Agent Dante’, a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London. TOM BRADBY is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. He has written nine previous novels, including top-ten bestselling Secret Service, and its two sequels , Double Agent and Triple Cross. 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 film, the script for which was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards. From 2005 until 2015, he was the political editor for ITV News, and presents the political discussion series The Agenda with Tom Bradby and the News at Ten.

Kate Henderson books in order: the complete series:

In the year 1994, he married Claudia, Vice-Admiral Hon. Sir Nicholas Hill-Norton’s daughter. The couple have three children. For Richard Field, it represents a brave new world far away from the past that he is trying to escape from. Seconded to police force, his first moment in active duty is a brutal crime scene. Lena Orlov, a young White Russian woman, lies on her bed spreadeagled, having been sadistically murdered.

A strong dose of international politics with an all-too-plausible premise.”– Observer, on Secret ServiceThere's plenty of strong women characters supported by several weak men. Kate is the strongest of all, which makes the revelation of the mole's identity all the more poignant. There's a strong hint that Kate's story will continue. The Master of Ruin” is the third stand alone novel and was released in the year 2002. Shanghai in the year 1926. A city of American gun-runners, British Imperial civil servants, Chinese gangsters, and Russian princesses, where everything is for sale and heroin is available on room service. Sexually liberated, exotic, and pulsing with life, it is a time and place where it all seems possible. Bradby has the talent of a reporter but the heart of a storyteller.”— Daily Mail, on The God of Chaos Tom Bradby is an awesome story teller, with his obvious knowledge and research all things ‘spy’ become accessible to us and he tells a incluisve, easy to read yet thorough and immersive story