A 5* gem of a novel combining all the thrills and spills of the modern spy genre with the satisfying emotional heft of a young man’s coming-of-age. A sort of “Bildungsthriller”. An ambitious fusion of coming-of-age novel and gripping espionage thriller’ Financial Times , Books of the Year Other than a brief mention of plant varieties, cicadas, snails and Absinthe (the author should know that Absinthe could not be sold as such in France in 1989) there was little that reminded me of the South of France from my youth there. The most striking thing I recall was the heavenly smell of the place. Long time readers of CR will know that I am a big fan of Charles Cumming’s spy thrillers. Ever since Typhoon, I’ve eagerly anticipated each new novel from the author. Box 88 was no different, and I’m very happy to report that it lived up to my high expectations. Really enjoyed this. This is an excellent read. The final paragraphs of the novel suggest that Charles Cumming has more adventures in store for Lachlan. There will be plenty of us keen to learn of them!

Kite has been taken captive and brutally tortured. He now has a choice: reveal the truth about what happened in France thirty years earlier – or watch his family die. The characters were well described and the settings evocative, particularly the villa near Mougins where they are all staying. The old fashioned methods of planting bugs in a game boy and the use of a Walkman as a spying listening device reminded me how far technology has moved on in the space of a few years. Box 88’ is a superbly written spy thriller. Not only does the plot intrigue and the pace remain appropriately frenetic throughout but Charles Cumming is also able to create living breathing characters whose actions are wholly plausible, quite an ask of any writer immersed in an enigmatic world of espionage. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe. Any nostalgia for those days are in Kite’s case compromised by the double life of deceit and betrayal that he chose then, for Queen and country and our allies. (Would any of us chosen otherwise had the careers office offered “international man of mystery”..?) And of course his actions as a young man have consequences in the gripping present day plot of kidnap and revenge, which pulses through the novel on alternate beats.Past and present collide in this excellent spy thriller. In 2020 the mysterious Lachlan Kite is kidnapped after attending the funeral of his old school friend and threatened with torture if he des not reveal certain information. Now the director of BOX 88 operations in the UK, Kite discovers he has been placed on the ‘JUDAS’ list – a record of enemies of Russia who have been targeted for assassination. Kite’s fight for survival takes him to Dubai, where he must confront the Russian secret state head on…

The events of that first operation have finally caught up with him, and he must confront not only his actions for BOX 88, but also what his actions meant for his friends and family. The novel therefore has a blend of espionage and coming-of-age fiction at times that works very well. Cumming keeps us in the dark and guessing for most of the novel, adding a few excellent red herrings here and there. It makes for a gripping read with plenty of revelations that will keep you reading well into the night. (I stayed up very late to finish it.) Kite’s story is told from two perspectives: that of the older, experienced operative, decades into his career as a spy; and that of Kite as an 18 year old, on his first mission. I thought the juxtaposition of the spy “origin story” on the one hand, and the supremely talented operative on the other worked extremely well, and over the course of the novel we get a pretty great portrait of Kite, his work, and his evolution as a person and spy. Having read (and loved) several of Cumming's previous works, most recently, The Man Between, I was so excited to be offered an ARC of this book and it did not disappoint. This time the action centres around Lachlan Kite, a young Scottish lad recruited to the enigmatic Box 88 espionage unit. I really hope that this is going to be part of a bigger series involving Lachlan Kite because he's been built up so well in this novel - he feels like a fleshed out character, which is sometimes missing from fast-paced thrillers.We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. We’re first introduced to Lachlan Kite when he attends the funeral of his one-time close friends. We know little of him other than the fact that he works for a secret group collected from former members of British and American intelligence agencies. The team call themselves Box 88 and their aim is to ensure that the conflicting goals of whatever government happens to be in power do not prevent the ‘right’ sort of operations being undertaken. But soon Kite finds himself in peril and with no means of communicating with his team.