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.

He was recruited out of an elite boarding school and as a teenager put to work that very summer - spying on a controversial figure at the family summer home of his best friend in the south of France. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and thought the transition between then and now was masterfully handled with the action playing out seemingly in real time in both time points.Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). The characters were well described and the settings evocative, particularly the villa near Mougins where they are all staying.

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. What marks this book out as special - as well as the obvious authenticity of Cumming’s account of the spy world, are the very human faces of its impeccably drawn protagonists. Lochlan realises his USP when Box 88 mentions his forthcoming holiday in the South of France and just as quickly understands the implications on his friendship with Xavier and his family. I have never come across Charles Cumming before however I will now be looking out for any books by him. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.I enjoyed this well paced thriller and would certainly like to read more about Lachlan Kite and his organisation: a clue on the last page of the novel led me to believe there is indeed another book on the way. Box 88 is such a clever story full of surprises the descriptions are brilliant I felt I was there with Lockie A very enjoyable read I hope to read more about Lockie and his work . At the centre of the novel is Lachlan Kite, recruited at 18 as a member of Box 88, the super- secret organisation operating outside the remit of MI5 and MI6. This version of Her Majesty – shrewd, sensible and inquisitive – has much in common with Alan Bennett’s royal creation in The Uncommon Reader, and the resulting book, with its mixture of real and imagined characters, is charming, cosy and respectful.

Not normally a fan of “flashback” books (or films) where every other chapter takes you back so many years but for me, as the book went on, so the relevance of this became more integrated to the story.It is Xavier's casual invitation to spend the summer of 1989 at their villa in the South of France, where they will be joined by his Iranian godfather, Ali Eskandarian, that leads to Kite's unlikely recruitment to the highly secretive Anglo-American spy agency, Box 88.