Double Agent: From the bestselling author of Secret Service

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She needs to rest and recharge but work comes first, especially at a time of national emergency and the biggest spy exposé since “Kim” Philby. Kate is kidnapped and given a deal that they (more Russians) will give her a video that will destroy the career of the current PM in exchange for safe passage to the UK. While Kate is visiting Venice with her children, she is kidnapped by a senior Russian agent, who wants to defect.

Michaelides takes a literary turn in his latest novel, employing an unreliable narrator, the structure of classical drama, and a self-conscious eye to dismantling the locked-room mystery.The novel starts off with a murder, and with seven people trapped on an isolated Greek island lashed by a "wild, unpredictable Greek wind. She has to deal with the possible defection of a prominent Russian and his family, along with her own family issues.

Her life is in shambles really, stress eating away at her, and as she's nearing breakdown and has to pick up the pieces somehow, new information comes to light that could spiral everyone's lives out of control- the Prime Minister is an agent working for the Russians and at their behest. This technique creates two problems: firstly it is almost impossible to appreciate the novel without reading the prequel beforehand and, secondly, the plot becomes somewhat drawn-out. Double Agent is his follow up to the highly addictive and intelligent international spy thriller, Secret Service, although it could be read as a stand-alone.I read this with The Pigeonhole and it wasn't helped by having one stave every two days, plus reading two other books which came out every day. The spy offers her conclusive evidence that the British Prime Minister is a live agent working for Moscow. And, more worryingly, it seems that there are key people at the heart of the British Establishment who refuse to acknowledge the reality in front of them. The paranoia levels here are very high, although very subtle indeed, and as the plot advances, you find yourself, alongside Kate, having trouble to trust anyone, not knowing what's real and what's not. This would have been an absurd storyline in the context of the immediate zeitgeist of post-Soviet Russia.

If Spy Thrillers have to be dark mazes of corruption and confusion then Tom Bradby has delivered a classic. A follow on from last year's "Secret Service", Kate Atkinson is temporarily kidnapped in Venice by a Russian who wants to defect, and promising compromising video of the British PM, as well as evidence that the PM is on Russia's payroll.I'd recommend you read Secret Service first as both are so good, you wouldn't want to miss out on the background to characters and their history as could be a little difficult to understand the plot if you don't. I hope it is a little more tightly focussed, though, and branches out from the slightly samey structure of the first two.

This very limited pool of suspects seems somehow at odds with the significance of the matters in play. As she works through the case, Kate runs up against key people at the heart of the British Establishment who refuse to acknowledge the reality in front of them. Maybe there will be a third book, I don't at this point in time of this review being written- but there's isn't a full resolution here. The atmosphere of the novel, set mostly on this wild Greek island, echoes strongly the classical tragedies of Greece. He has written nine previous novels, including top-ten bestselling Secret Service, and its two sequels , Double Agent and Triple Cross.It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. Unexpectedly, she receives an approach from Borodin, a senior agent in Russia’s SVR, successor to the KGB, offering to defect to the West. In exchange for a safe place to stay, they will give evidence to MI6 that the new prime minister is a Russian spy - but is he?