BOX 88

Starred review from November 22, 2021
Lachlan Kite, the hero of this excellent spy thriller from bestseller Cumming (The Moroccan Girl), is a career man at Box 88, a joint British-U.S. black ops outfit so secretive that not even the CIA and MI5 are sure it exists. While attending a funeral outside London for an old prep school friend who died by suicide, Kite lets down his guard and is kidnapped by an Iranian team that wants information on a case he was involved in 30 years earlier. His pregnant wife is also abducted as part of the plot to pressure Kite into revealing his secrets. Flashbacks to 1989 show Kite as a green operative prone to professional insecurity, missteps, and major flubs. In the present, Kite’s decades of experience as a spy provide him with the skills to turn the tables on his kidnappers during his interrogation. Between the two time frames, a thorough portrait of Kite emerges. Well-timed action scenes match focused glimpses into the world of spycraft. This outing cements Cumming’s place in the top rank of espionage writers. Agent: Luke Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

December 10, 2021

The organization is not supposed to exist, though other spy operations like the CIA and MI6 believe it does but have no proof. The hope is that by following Lachlan Kite, a man thought to run Box 88, they will be led to evidence confirming the existence of this underground network. The funeral of a close friend of Kite's provides the perfect opportunity for surveillance, but unknown to the agencies tracking him and Kite himself, is somebody else is in play demanding answers. Kidnapping Kite is only the beginning. Cumming (The Moroccan Girl) weaves an unusual spy tale that focuses mostly on exploring past events, even with the current looming threat. The action is toned down for the detailed character study of Kite and the truth behind Box 88, and it works. There are plenty of surprises, but the abrupt ending might put off some readers. VERDICT There is clearly another Kite adventure coming, and it is necessary to address how this novel "ends." Fans of spy novels in the style of John le Carr� and Daniel Silva should enjoy.--Jeff Ayers, formerly with Seattle P.L.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2021
Karma comes calling for a veteran spy. An eerie prologue set on Dec. 21, 1988, recounts the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie from the perspective of Gaby, a young American passenger who doesn't survive. Cut to present-day London, where veteran intelligence officer Lachlan Kite receives a phone call telling him that his childhood friend Xavier Bonnard has killed himself. His phone is being tapped by a cadre of MI5 agents intent on ferreting out the significance of Kite's involvement with the mysterious Anglo-American intelligence group BOX 88. Though their surveillance is comprehensive, the agents haven't reckoned on Kite becoming the target of a surprise attack, but he's soon kidnapped and thrown into a cell by a group of determined Iranians led by businessman Ramin Torabi. Captivity becomes the catalyst for Kite to engage in a soul-searching reevaluation of his life and career. Going all the way back to Kite's adolescence, author Cumming lays the groundwork for the moral decisions Kite faces in his intelligence career. The unravelling of the events surrounding Xavier's suicide is a key component of this painful reminiscence. So are the aftermath of the Lockerbie tragedy and the subsequent shocking secrets surrounding BOX 88. Cumming keeps the suspense high; not only is Kite imprisoned, but his captors are threatening his pregnant wife and their family. The plot--anchored in full-bodied portraits of a small cast of characters confronted with the inescapable way the political and the personal are entangled--is intricate but coherent, taking readers down a chilling road of recent history, vividly depicted. The result is a believable plot undergirded by complex characters and profound questions. The gold standard in espionage fiction.

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Starred review from December 1, 2021
Barely 50 pages into the first volume of what could become the next great espionage series, we know this about Lachlan Kite: he's a top guy with the supersecret Box 88--a black-ops unit so far under the radar that neither the CIA nor MI6 is certain it exists; he's in London, taking the morning off to attend the funeral of his childhood bestie, Xavier Bonnard, who killed himself in Paris; and, as he leaves the funeral, he's kidnapped by an Iranian terrorist. We learn more, of course, but slowly and excruciatingly, as Cumming smoothly segues between Kite's captivity and his backstory, revealing that the Iranian's motives reach back to Kite's first assignment for Box 88. A recent boarding-school graduate, Kite was vacationing in France with Xavier when he was recruited by one of his professors as a kind of intern spy. What happened during that summer-idyll-turned-tragedy has been haunting Kite for 30 years, and now, as his captors threaten violence against his pregnant wife if he doesn't talk, Kite must finally confront the past and the betrayal at its core. It's no easy trick to write a compelling thriller when your hero is strapped to a chair for most of the book, but Cumming does just that, threading coming-of-age themes into a complex espionage plot (evoking Olen Steinhauer's Tourist series) that suggests there will be much more to discover within the recesses of Box 88.

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