If you’re a liberal like me, you might be tempted to throw The Moroccan Girl across the room in anger when it begins with terrorist attacks by a left group against members of the alt-right. Think de-platforming from life. I supposed we were to think of AntiFa, though they are into confronting white nationalists at white nationalist rallies, not terrorism or kidnapping. This was infuriating because nearly all the people killed by homegrown terrorists in the US in 2018 were killed by right-wing terrorists.

But nothing I had read by Charles Cummings in the past led me to believe he would craft such a counter-factual story, so I kept reading, though feeling dubious. However, I soon was drawn into the story in spite of those doubts. Kit Carradine is a spy novelist approached to do a few small favors for his country while on a book tour in Morocco, drop off some money, meet with an agent, hand over a package–what could go wrong?

Quite a lot it seems when Kit realizes that he’s not the only one looking for that woman, a former member of the left-wing terrorist group who has left the group, but is still implicated in their crimes. Who is looking, why, and how to evade them are just a few of the problems he has to solve.


So, despite my initial anger and the doubts with which I began, this story succeeded for me. Like other novels by Cummings, the “spy factor” had that mix of tedium and tension that makes it seem more authentic than most thrillers. It’s not a breakneck frying pan to fire kind of book and those who want nonstop action will be disappointed. The story moves forward, but not with guns blazing on every page.

The resolution is satisfying and fair. Where there is some surprise, there is the look back in hindsight that ensures the surprise was not pulled out of a hat. There is an element of “ripped from the headlines” verisimilitude, not with Russian troll farms organizing protest and counter-protest like they did in Texas, but you know they are sticking their thumb in the pie.

I received an e-galley of The Moroccan Girl from the publisher through NetGalley

The Moroccan Girl at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan
Charles Cummings author site

This book was different from what I expected. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
Kit is a novelist on his way to Morocco for a literary festival when he is asked by the M16 to be a spy in search of a missing girl. Kit was a good character and seems trustworthy. He is given the task of making contact with Lara, who is a member of the Resurrection. The Resurrection is a group that is known for kidnapping.
This is my first spy novel, which is typically not my genre of choice. I found this book to be more interesting than I thought.

I love books that are well written and takes me to exotic places that I have never traveled to. This espionage was a fantastic read, so captivating! I loved the thrill of the puzzle and the sharp stun of the twist! First book that I have read by Mr. Cumming, but not the last!

I am a big fan of the Thomas Kell thrillers from Charles Cumming so when I heard that he was going to have a standalone spy novel, I was excited. Unfortunately, I came away from this book a little disappointed.

Kit Carradine is a British author of best selling spy novels who is approached by someone in MI6 to do a few extra things (passing some documents and money) while in Morocco for a literary festival. Kit's father was in the spy business at one point and Kit jumps at the chance. Once in Morocco, he finds himself on the trail of Lara Bartok, who is part of a violent revolutionary group called Resurrection that targets right wing political and media figures around the world. As Kit realizes that there are several intelligence agencies involved in the hunt for Bartok, he needs to decide whether to go back to his life as a writer or risk his life to save this woman.

I found this book to be a REALLY slow burn and I had a hard time believing that an author of spy novels would be so gullible as to just agree to everything that he is asked to do by a guy that he runs into on the street. Getting past the suspension of disbelief there, it took almost half of the book for things to start moving. While I enjoyed the descriptions of Morocco, the story didn't move along for quite some time. Once it gets moving, it was a good thriller story with some twists and questions on who should be trusted. This book is a solid middle of the road book--not bad, not great and not very heavy.

An excellent book written in a unique style. A spy thriller but more that tells the story of an organization and the fight to see justice through the eyes of their leader and the outsiders who judge them.

Published by St. Martin's Press on February 12, 2019

I always count on Charles Cumming to tell a good story. Like Kit Carradine, the protagonist in The Moroccan Girl, Cumming writes spy novels that occupy a space “between the kiss-kiss-bang-bang of Ludlum and the slow-burn chess game of le Carré.” The Moroccan Girl fits nicely in that niche.

The novel is set against the background of a social protest movement known as Resurrection. Unlike Occupy or Antifa, Resurrection takes direct action against specific individuals who exemplify greed and social injustice, sometimes by kidnapping or killing them. The group’s founders included a Russian named Ivan Simakov and his girlfriend, Lara Bartok, who was born in Hungary. By the time Simakov died in an explosion in Moscow, the movement had thousands of members.

Lara begins the novel by making a statement to the Secret Intelligence Service. Her statement is divided into five parts. Between each part, Cumming reveals the backstory.

By chance (or not), Kit Carradine meets Robert Mantis, who identifies himself as a British spy. Kit has been invited to attend a literary event in Marrakech. Mantis recruits him to pass some money to an asset in Casablanca and to look for a woman in Marrakech who has gone missing. It does not take Kit long to discern the woman’s identity. She is, of course, Lara Bartok.

Kit sees the invitation as the opportunity to follow in his father’s footsteps by doing real work as a spy and hopes that a successful mission might spark a secondary career as a clandestine asset for the SIS. He feels inspired by Maugham, Greene, and Forsyth, all of whom mixed the reality of espionage with their fictional creations. That’s a clever and credible premise, because what spy fiction fan doesn’t imagine being a spy?

Kit enjoys the intrigue of Casablanca until a series of encounters with people who might also be spies convince him that his amateurism has screwed up his mission. Kit’s ego and his desire for future assignments then overcome his good judgment. He decides to prove his value by ignoring instructions and continuing to search for Lara. Along the way, Kit meets a number of shady characters, any or all of whom might be spies working for America or Great Britain or Russia.

In the tradition of spy novels, the reader is asked to question whether each character is who or what the character purports to be. Some of the answers are surprising, as they should be in a spy novel, but the story is sufficiently plausible to be convincing.

I enjoyed the ideological clashes between people who have competing viewpoints: those who want to save the world from oppressors and those who believe that most people want to join the oppressors at the seat of power; those who view violence as a revolutionary tool and those who reject violence regardless of the ideology that provokes its use. I also appreciated the timeliness of The Moroccan Girl, although to avoid spoilers, I will leave it to the reader to discover the way in which Cumming has crafted a story that parallels current events.

Cumming builds suspense nicely and caps the plot with an action scene as the suspense reaches its climax. The pace is appropriate to a novel that falls between kiss-kiss-bang-bang and slow-burn chess game. The story is never dull but it takes time to establish interest in the characters and to create the kind of atmosphere that makes events in Casablanca and Marrakech seem real. In its plot, characterization, and atmosphere, The Moroccan Girl stands among Cumming’s best spy novels.

RECOMMENDED

Hopelessly bad dialogue

Well, I gave it a go but it didn't make it past my grammar, syntax and flow meters. Better editors are indicated. St. Martin's usually does better.

Cela faisait un bon moment que je n’avais pas lu d’histoire d’espionnage. Et depuis la sortie du second film de la série Kingsman (qui n’était pas très top, en comparaison au premier), le sujet m’avait manqué. J’ai donc très facilement été submergé par le récit de Cumming, reconnaissant villes et ruelles, ma lecture a été très fluide. Le personnage principale Kit Carradine n’ai pas le genre d’espion très futé, bien entraîné, bien briefé et équipé des gagets dernier cri ! Loin de là, Kit est timide, discret et seul. Il se retrouve du jour au lendemain en route vers le Maroc à la recherche d’une personne dont il ignore la vraie histoire.
En commençant la lecture de ce livre, je n’avais pas d’attente particulières, mais à fur et à mesure que j’avançais, l’histoire se mettait en place et le suspens pimentait les pages. Je me suis tellement attachée aux personnages, qu’il m’a été difficile de quitter ce roman.

Cette lecture m’a diverti, l’histoire vaut bien plus que ce que nous vend son résumé alors si vous aussi vous aimez les histoires d’espions, d’organisations secrètes, de milices et coups d’état, vous allez apprécier ce livre.

"The Moroccan Girl" hinted at being similar to a John LeCarre novel. It had all the signs of being one of those sleeper novels that continued to build and finally erupt, all the while cloaked in a aura of reality. Unfortunately, I found it to be just what I said at the beginning of the last sentence: it was a sleeper.

Kit Carradine is a writer who is offered an opportunity to spy for his country under the guise of research for his next book. Kit knows other writers have done the same (including his father), and cannot resist the romantic notion of stepping into the world of espionage. For me, this basic premise was the downfall of the book.

Privy to Kit's thoughts, we see the worry and indecision that accompanies him like an unwanted shadow, and this introspection replaces the occasional action we experience in other books in this genre. Devoid of anything close to a "gripping contemporary thriller," we are left with a love affair (one that is easy for everyone to see where it is headed) that is everything but gripping and thrilling.

I wish author Charles Cummings had written this book differently. When Kit is not second-guessing himself, he pulls off some spy moves worthy of a Bond, which causes one to question the possibility of a writer having those abilities. In short, this is a plot idea that just does not work in this book. The result is a story that plods at a snail's pace, at times offering hints that things might change, though they never do.

Mr. Cummings' book will probably do well with his fans, which will then lead to another book and a series will be created. The author has great talent writing prose and dialogue, but would do well to leave Kit Carradine alone. If the story was slightly humorous, the whole idea might work, but as a serious book it just didn't come together for me. Three stars.

An author of spy novels, Kit finds himself in the middle of a complex spy mystery when he asked for help by a British agent for M16. It takes awhile for Kit to figure out there is much more going on besides tracking down a woman who has gone missing in the mysterious city of Marrakesh. This book starts off slow, the action picks up late in the book. Overall The Moroccan Girl just was not what I was really expecting from a spy novel. I was thinking adventurous action and fast paced but it was much more intellectual and thoughtful. I just did not have a huge desire to finish which I think had more to do with pace and flow rather than the action. It took me a long time to read through this one (the last section of the book was better than the rest, so If you have started the book I encourage you to go ahead and finish!)

Thank you to NetGalley, Charles Cumming, and St. Martin's Press for the advanced reader copy for me to read and review.

The Moroccan Girl is a very timely thriller, one of those where anything could happen, with just a little slip here, a misstep there. The problems being highlighted are many that we face every day. I thoroughly enjoyed the moxie of Lara Bartok, and found the novelist Kit Carradine a sympathetic character, as well, though perhaps too gullible. This is one of those stories where we do not actually notice the dangling rope that is going to hang them out to dry. I did decide to make a chart of characters after the second time I began this book, but that may be a problem only with the ARC....

I appreciated the way the group Resurrection began, with a plan to expose those responsible for the political woes entrapping the nations of the world, to target them individually and let the public handle the repercussions. Of course, as with most groups touting non-violent protest, things will eventually get out of hand. This was a story initially hard to grasp, and then impossible to let go. I can enthusiastically recommend to friends and family.

I received a free electronic copy of this timely spy thriller from Netgalley, Charles Cummings, and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This novel seemed like it never really took off. I kept waiting for it to “begin” but it never really did until perhaps the last ten pages. While it was a bit reminiscent of LeCarre it seemed “amateurish” by comparison. Most of what transpires is implausible in that it’s unlikely someone would be as naive and impulsive in the situation presented. That being said, it was intriguing as long as everything is taken at face value. It started a bit slow and gradually picked up pace but the frustration of the main character’s decisions made it difficult to truly immerse in the story.

The essence of the spy thriller again reflects in its intrigue but as with another book read directly after it (Flamingo Lane), the author (retaining and remarking on their own fictional life) seems to want to put him or herself (depending on the scenario) in the middle of the action. While this makes sense as it allows them (in a certain way) to see through the character’s eyes, it nonetheless can be a grinder. The aspect of being identifiable also leads the idea to being over dramatic (or melodramatic if you like) and self-serving. While this has a larger canvas than the previous book, the idea in “The Moroccan Girl” [Charles Cumming/St. Martin’s Press/368pgs] is no less contrived at certain points right down to the jilted lover or interest from before who has angles of gaining revenge of the woman that had wronged them. The difference that fuels this story is how paranoid (and at times whiny) the writer Carradine is in the story. If the key with many new novels is to create a character that you can run with (like Faye in “Flamingo Lane”), Lara Bartok is an even more interesting structure much like a female James Bond but with defection issues. The run/chase/relay she and Carradine do around Morocco has its moments but ultimately they survive because most of the other spy operatives are fairly inept which wouldn’t necessary be the case in a real life situatiob. The recruitment aspect of Carradine is the most relatable aspect outside of the character Bartok. And while trust is an important theme of the story, ultimately its drive is propelled by all the lies that are told. The resolution for all the bombast that leads up to the finale is fairly predicable in its eventual reveal although the author does motivate the latter half of the book with quite a few doublebacks. Bartok, as a fact of reference, reminds one of what Marion Ravenwood would have been without the impact of Indiana Jones in her life: a woman who takes no prisoners…a franchise in and of herself. The book had definite potential but takes on the wrong origin story and wrong character lead focus per se.

C

By Tim Wassberg

The Moroccan Girl, by Charles Cumming, is the exciting story of what happens when Kit Carradine,, a spy novelist, is recruited to take part in the search for a woman who doesn't want to be found. What was supposed to be a simple mission quickly turns into a dangerous and life threatening situation with an uncertain outcome. Filled with suspense, well crafted characters and twists and turns, The Moroccan Girl is well worth reading. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

At its heart, The Moroccan Girl is more fiction/romance than spy thriller despite what you will be told otherwise. I used to read espionage books like they were going out of style. This borders on spy thriller but it is more "espionage wannabe" than the actual fact.

Kit Carradine - not to be confused at all with Keith Carradine the real-life actor - is a spy thriller writer with international fame. He is approached by MI6 to deliver a "package" to someone when he travels to Morocco for a writer's conference. Carradine is ecstatic! He finally has an opportunity to actually do so spy work rather than just write about it. He soon realizes, though, that he has been manipulated (duh moment here) and that the request has far deeper implications than he realizes. The woman, Lara Bartok aka the Moroccan Girl, whom he is supposed to be on the look out for, is missing. She is part of a subversive, revolutionary group called "The Resurrection" who is targeting alt-right groups across the globe. As the search for Bartok continues, Carradine is unsure who and what to believe. I can't really blame him.

The Moroccan Girl was an extremely interesting, very fast paced thriller. It is, quite literally, ripped from today's headlines. The part that actually involved Carradine was bit contrived - I'm not sure MI6 would involve an author in this manner - but the CIA has done stranger things than this recently so what do I know. Cumming has masterfully crafted a intriguing set of characters that are both relatable and secretive, just as good subversives should be. In all, it is a riveting spy/romance tale that will keep you thoroughly engrossed from beginning to end.

Thank you to #Netgalley, #CharlesCumming and #StMartinsPress for my copy of #TheMoroccanGirl

What happens when a Spy Thriller author gets involved in something that resembles his Novels? The Moroccan Girl is that story. Kit Carradine is a famous author recruited by a strange man whom he believes will help him view Carridine's Father's world and the excitement Carradine always believed his father had with his job. Little Does Carradine know that it isn't all fun and games.

I have read a handful of Espionage Thriller's before and haven't always enjoyed them. The Morrocan Girl was not like that. I did, however, take many chapters to feel as if I wanted to continue reading. So don't give this book up before you reach midway. This book is like Owen' Wilson's No Escape meets Casablanca. Classical and riveting all at the same time.

I recommend it. The only reason I gave it 3 stars is for the slow start. :)

Overly anxious to follow in his aging father's footsteps to work for the British Government and act as a spy Kit Caradine was very naive as what he was getting into.
The plot is moving very slow the first 30 % of the book which made me think a couple of times that I wouldn't finish the book. The remaining 70 % was great in story telling, intrigue, twist and turns. If the first 30% was like that it would have been a solid 5 star. So if you can get past the slow startup I think you will enjoy this book.

I wanted to give a spy thriller a try. Mid way through the book, I found myself wondering if Kit Carradine, a spy thriller novelist gets involved in a real spy ring. With name changes, at times Imwondered if we would find out that he was Walter Mitty in disguise! I found the novel difficult to read with all of the changes in names........If you are going to read this novel make sure you have a chart handy and keep notes. Just not my cup of tea! My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Spy thrillers haven't really been on my reading repertoire lately but when I read the synopsis for this one I was intrigued. And after reading it, I might just be reading more books dealing with espionage. I thoroughly enjoyed The Moroccan Girl. It was a page turner for me and I found myself completely engrossed. Great cast of characters and setting. This is the first Charles Cumming novel I have read and I'm thinking I'll be reading more of his books. This one was quite satisfying.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy.

He has knocked it out of the park with this winner of a book. It's twists and turns will keep you glued to the pages unable to put it down until you have every last word. Absolutely rush and pick up and prepare to drop everything once you start reading. Don't say I didn't want you! Happy reading!