Secret Service

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A special operation seems to good to be true when MI6 hear information around the PM’s health and the possible general election where one of the candidates has strong leanings toward the Kremlin. Furthermore in intel implies the agency is compromised with a mole ready and willing to ensure the result is in Russia’s favour. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. The Ipcress File is a riveting spy novel that was published in 1962, with themes of war, adversity and betrayal. When a high-ranking scientist is kidnapped, a secret British intelligence agency is tasked with discovering why. The protagonist, Harry Palmer, becomes entangled in the dangerous mission where he uncovers bizarre brain-washing techniques and Cold War secrets that create sharp twists and turns in this complex plot.

Tom Bradby has created Kate Henderson, family woman and chief of the Russia section at MI6. A tip-off leads her and her team to begin a hazardous operation which reveals both possible Russian interference in the appointment of a new Prime Minister, that there may be a Russian agent among the candidates and that someone is leaking secrets to the Russians. The plot moves along quite nicely, the who-can-I-trust stuff is nicely done and Tom Bradby writes pretty well much of the time. It does get a bit clunky in places, and although the dialogue is generally convincing, characters do tend to lapse into pretty stilted speeches rather regularly. Bradby is also no stranger to a cliché, which gets a bit much at times with sentences like, “I’d like to bury my head in the sand, but I need to go home and face the music.”

Stuart often complained he didn’t get to spend enough time with his teenage daughter, so now was his chance. Good luck to him.

But honestly, that's your plot, Mr Bradby? Really, you CANNOT be serious with such a blatantly predictable villain. Everything you had that man do was suspicious Mach 5 and everything out of his mouth sounded like Grade A bullshit. Kate's most recent mission has yielded the startling intelligence that the British Prime Minister has cancer - and that one of the leading candidates to replace him may be a Russian agent of influence.

That the author’s protagonist is a married woman with teenage children and strained relationships with her own Mother adds to the tension. It is also a breath of fresh air as we see a woman risking her life in the field while seemingly unable to win an argument with her kids. Besides this huge responsibility in MI6 and the evident dangers that it carries, Kate also has to juggle her family life and that helps give the novel extra depth - there’s her Civil Servant husband Stuart, her estranged mother Lucy, now in a care home with dementia, and fractious teenagers Fiona and Gus. The book is rooted in relationships; secrets and lies and that shady area of spies and departmental ambition. People’s motives and associations are placed under the microscope as the spies investigate themselves while trying to protect the country at large. I think maybe, it’s an excellent book for a man to read or anyone au fait with the political systems of these countries. I think perhaps I’m a not quite so well versed, and I did get a bit lost along the way. Before long, he is on the run - not only from a faceless enemy, but from his own past. Which will catch up with him first?Maybe … But on most of her other favorite subjects – human rights in China, Tibet, Saudi Arabia – she has continued to be quite frequently and widely quoted.” In the past MI6 have been manipulated by false whispers and it is treated suspiciously until the PM unexpectedly steps aside. One of the many strengths of le Carré's tales is their verisimilitude and this is the weakness of this book. I don't believe in the reality of the settings or the plausibility of the main character. Sadly, the key reveal is not hidden well enough and comes as no great surprise. The manner in which it arrives is too contrived. The result is a novel that fits the spy book genre but is also an allegorical look at the unnecessary involvement of the British and American troops in what was not their fight. The book explores themes of innocence, morality, and ignorance, and author Graham Green beautifully weaves these into an intriguing story. Attempting to rebuild her shattered life in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell - and he needs her help.

A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London.

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A book that you can whizz through and enjoy; great escapism but routed in the trends and realities of modern espionage. A clever piece and full of insight and the occasional lighter moment. I particularly liked the quip of calling out one of the team as thinking he was the embodiment of George Smilely. She continues: ‘They go behind us and around us and beyond us to the people and the country at large, whipping up hostility and division and dissent, their tentacles reaching down a thousand different alleyways.’ With the stakes this high, can the truth ever come out? Or is the cost of uncovering it a price that no one, least of all Kate, can afford to pay? In The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John le Carre draws on his experience in the British Intelligence Service. The spy story tells the tale of the international espionage ring from the point of view of a British spy, George Smiley, who wants to take one last assignment before ending his career. I warmed to her character and found the book easy to read, especially with her being the driving force of the novel.

I recognised the authors name but wasn’t till looked him up realised who he was and saw he has had published quite a few books But largely—and this is maybe the book’s biggest weakness—she is wrestling with the struggle of ‘being a woman’ and ‘having it all.’ Along with her job, Kate also juggles taking care of her two kids, her aging mother, and, for good measure, an ailing dog. There are various family problems, as well as Kate’s contentious relationship with her mother, who cheated Kate’s father with a family friend and upended their family. None of the family drama is particularly urgent or, really, dramatic, and even though Kate should have enough going on with unmasking Russian spies and saving democracy, she still comes down on herself: Okay, so maybe I've been spoiled on Le Carre and Slough House, but when did British Intelligence get so domestic and ...gooey? Kate Henderson, a senior officer at MI6, has a borscht bowl of troubles. When her team bugs an oligarch's yacht, they learn that the Russians have co-opted a British politician and that the prime minister is ailing and will soon leave office. Is this disinformation, intentionally leaked to gum up internal British politics? The detail about the prime minister's health is key: No one in Britain has been aware of any issue, and when he unexpectedly resigns for health reasons, the report seems to be confirmed. But as Kate drills down on which politician may be the Kremlin's person, it also becomes clear that there's a mole on her team, and in fact there are potential betrayals swirling all around Kate. Is her boss, Ian Granger, head of the Europe and Russia desk, genuinely doubtful, or is he dismissing her suspicions because he's the mole? Is her husband cheating on her? Is her 15-year-old daughter really having sex with the pierced and tattooed Jed, who is a few years older? And will the MI6 director, known as C, force her to reveal her secret source in the Russian diplomatic corps? Dauntless, Kate slowly unravels the twisted skeins of deceit and betrayal, and though she loses much in the process, she perseveres. If all this seems reminiscent of some of the trials and tribulations of George Smiley, well, it's a new generation.Bradby does a good job controlling his narrative and, without ever becoming tedious or heavy-handed, he subtly helps you remember who knows what, who trusts whom and with what information, and how much each person knows. None of the characters, including the PM candidates, is totally candid, nor can MI6 tip its hand by revealing its investigation of them. Not to mention the bureaucratic difficulty that they’ve concealed this investigation from MI5, which by rights should be conducting it. The title, Secret Service, turns out to have multiple meanings. Kate is a good spy but as the investigation proceeds you feel she can not be a loyal wife, supportive parent and faithful agent of the government.