A Colder War
Published on 24. April 2014
Book
Hardback
400 pages
978-0-00-746747-1 (ISBN)
Description
From the Top 10 Sunday Times bestselling author and winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year.
Perfect for fans of John le Carre, Charles Cumming is 'the master of the modern spy thriller' (Mail on Sunday)
MI6's Head of Station in Turkey is killed in a mysterious plane crash. Amelia Levene, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, wants the incident investigated - quickly and quietly.
The only man she can trust is Thomas Kell, a disgraced spy searching for redemption.
Arriving in Istanbul, Kell discovers that MI6 operations in the region have been fatally compromised: a traitor inside Western Intelligence threatens not just the Special Relationship, but the security of the entire Middle East.
Kell's search for the mole takes him from London, to Greece, and into Eastern Europe. But when Kell is betrayed by those closest to him, the stakes become personal. He will do anything to see this operation through - including putting himself, and others, in the line of fire...
Perfect for fans of John le Carre, Charles Cumming is 'the master of the modern spy thriller' (Mail on Sunday)
MI6's Head of Station in Turkey is killed in a mysterious plane crash. Amelia Levene, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, wants the incident investigated - quickly and quietly.
The only man she can trust is Thomas Kell, a disgraced spy searching for redemption.
Arriving in Istanbul, Kell discovers that MI6 operations in the region have been fatally compromised: a traitor inside Western Intelligence threatens not just the Special Relationship, but the security of the entire Middle East.
Kell's search for the mole takes him from London, to Greece, and into Eastern Europe. But when Kell is betrayed by those closest to him, the stakes become personal. He will do anything to see this operation through - including putting himself, and others, in the line of fire...
Reviews / Votes
Praise for A Colder War:'The spy thriller has been on the ascendant in the past few years, breeding a bunch of talented writers, Cumming among the very best' The Times (Saturday Review)
'[A] cleverly plotted spy tale' Sun
'A Colder War is more than an excellent thriller: it is also a novel that forces us to look behind the headlines and question some of our own comfortable assumptions' Spectator
'An espionage maestro . . . The levels of psychological insight are married to genuine narrative acumen - but anyone who has read his earlier books will expect no less' Independent
'For those hungering for a new John le Carre, Charles Cumming has inherited the master's mantle. His new book, A Colder War, features sinister goings-on in spook-infested Istanbul' Sunday Times
'There's a sense that Kell is developing into a Smiley for our times' Mail on Sunday
'[Cumming] expertly recreates a world of waiting and watching where boredom is as much an enemy as other agents, and yet has still produced a page-turning thriller. . .If you thought true spy novels went out with the Berlin wall, think again' Press Association
'Edgily elegant ... perfect for those wanting a contemporary spy thriller in the vein of Le Carre and even for those who don't' Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
Praise for A Foreign Country:
'We are in Smiley country, but with extra 21st century nuance ... Cumming has an exquisite touch and we should treasure him' Daily Mail
'A thriller that has everything you could ask for - a twisty, sexy plot, topical themes, memorable characters and plentiful spy lore' Sunday Times
'Refreshing, plausible and effective ... Best of all is the sheer pace of the narrative' Spectator
'You are likely to be up for most of the night to find out how this novel ends. It grips from the first page ... A fast-moving treat' The Scotsman
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
650 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-746747-1 (9780007467471)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Charles Cumming was born in Scotland in 1971. He has been described as 'the man who most successfully gets under the skin of Britain's intelligence agencies' (The Times). In the summer of 1995, he was approached for recruitment by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). A year later he moved to Montreal where he began working on a novel based on his experiences with MI6, and A Spy by Nature was published in the UK in 2001. A Colder War is his seventh novel.