Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher (Grove Atlantic) for letting me read a copy of this book. Having heard so much positively, this book certainly lived up to expectations. I personally very much enjoy this genre, having watched No Way Out, The Hunt for Red October, Manchurian Candidate, Red Sparrow and more recently Au Service de la France. Tom Bradby is a fantastic story teller. His characters are likeable and yet complex. Readers can really relate to them intellectually and emotionally. The protagonist, although at the top of her game in MI6, still grapples with the juggle between of work duties and family obligations and we are with her as she navigates the daily landscape both at home and in the office in order to be all things to everyone. We also explore these characters' struggle with self doubt, conflicting loyalties, and their relationships with each other, with their partners, their parent and children, whether toxic or empowering . I love the emotional tug of war and the characters' reflections on choices they had made along the way. The plot is well-constructed and the pace fast, gripping and suspenseful. The recurring theme is Kompromat and how that is used by Russia to undermine the machinations of Western Democracy (pertinent perhaps). I also like the reference to Russian dacha and having visited the Balkans in the past, the book did transport me there momentarily. This is my first book by Tom Bradby and I very much look forward to reading more.

I chose Secret Service because of the premise, high ranking government official is actually Russian spy. It seemed to fit the times well. Overall , Secret Service was an entertaining novel. Though the story was good, it wasnt as tightly woven as I would have liked. The main character's family interactions took up a lot of the space, and could have easily been condensed. I appreciated the classic spy story style - double agents, intrigue, and suspicion abound. I would read more form Tom Bradby.
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

Kate Henderson is an English spy. But she has a husband and children and doesn’t consider her job any different than that of any other working mom. Kate’s husband, Stuart, is involved in British politics, and with an election coming up for Prime Minister, he is almost as busy as she is. Kate relies on Stuart to help with the kids and house. Right now, Kate is involved in a case where Russians are causing havoc with the British election, as well as other major issues, like spying on them and killing British spies. It seems that every time Kate seems to be making progress on her mission, something happens to mess it up – it’s just like there is a mole in her team. Her boss sees that, and pushes Kate to find that mole. There are several characters who may be the culprit, including the front runner for prime minister.

Usually, when the author is British like Bradby, readers immediately sense the different atmosphere, and in their minds, imagine the characters’ English accents as the story progresses. One would also expect English idioms and phrases. Unfortunately, that is not what you get in this novel. In fact, I had to make sure this was actually set in England because the setting and ambiance were so banal that most readers wouldn’t be sure. Although Bradby has done some good development of his characters, they aren’t particularly likeable. Kate’s good friend, Julie is not only sleeping with one on the Russian team, but she is a heavy smoker – which makes her seem cheap and definitely a suspect for the mole. Ian is not a team player, and Rav, who is Kate’s best back-up doesn’t seem to be with it. All told, the characters aren’t believable, especially as spies, and although the writing isn’t bad, one gets the sense that the author doesn’t really know much about spy and espionage.

Another problem with this novel is that there is almost no suspense; it doesn’t even build at the end when the mole is unmasked. Kate’s job as a spy isn’t believable, since she spends much of her time at home fixing dinner and raising her children, who are typical. It’s more like a modern fiction novel, rather than a spy thriller.

This “thriller” didn’t thrill me, and I wouldn’t recommend it to others who like British spy thrillers because it most likely won’t thrill anyone else either.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

I spent a good time reading this book.
It is a fast-paced easy read and it is my first novel from this author. Tom Bradby is a British novelist, screenwriter and journalist who has a good knowledge of the British political system. "Secret Service” is his seventh novel. His first novel, “Shadow Dancer”, was adapted into a film and three out of his 7 novels were nominated for awards.

“Secret Service” is a spy thriller in the internet era. It features Kate Henderson, an experienced intelligence officer, and her team operating at the Russia Desk at the British secret service known as MI6. They were following up some information in Istanbul on Russians meeting on an expensive yacht belonging to a Russian oligarch when they overheard the Russians say they are going to influence one of the candidates to be British Prime Minister when the current one resigns due to terminal illness. If it is the truth, the politician who would be the candidate could potentially be a Russian spy!! We follow Kate and her team who are determined to find out who is the traitor.

The characters are well designed and seem realistic. The story is full of suspense and twists. I personally liked Kate and her friends as well as her family. Even though the book is about Secret Service context, the author succeeded to describe Kate and her “spies” colleagues with humanity and family perspective who "stand up" for honourable values. The author described Kate moving in different situations as a wife, mother, friend, boss, operational agent, etc.

The plot is well developed despite the fact that I was a little bit disappointed by the ending. It was not clear and it was in my point of view quite confusing. This is why 4* than 5.

I recommend this novel to those who like books about spies or describing secret service contexts.

This is a brilliant spy thriller set in present day Britain (without any mention of Brexit!). Kate Henderson, head of the Russia Desk at the British Secret Intelligence Service (aka MI6) must find a Russian mole within MI6 as well as the identity of a British politician who is a Russian spy. All the while she needs to balance home life as a mother and wife to a political assistant to a senior cabinet minister, plus manage her own mother afflicted with dementia. A tall order! The internecine intrigue within MI6 plays out in the story too: rivalry for the top job is ever present.

The conclusion is a slight let down: the identity of the mole is a surprise but not a total shock. There's plenty of suspense in getting to the big reveal and throughout there's some thrilling action in such exotic locales as Istanbul and Mykonos.

Highly recommended for fans of "classic" spy stories.

I requested and received an advance reader's copy of this book from the Atlantic Monthly Press via Netgalley. The comments about it are my own.

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press November 5, 2019

Kate Henderson is in charge of the Secret Intelligence Service’s Russia desk. She recruits a 17-year-old Bulgarian girl named Maya, living illegally in London, to work as a nanny for the top Russian spy. She places a microphone on a yacht where the most elite agents of Russian intelligence gather to discuss a plot to replace the Prime Minister with someone in their control.

Is this a fortunate discovery of a nefarious plot or is it misinformation? Kate learned of the meeting from an old friend who is now positioned to leak Russian secrets to her. Whether he is leaking the truth is a subject of debate as the story progresses. The fact that she did not immediately reveal the source of her information to C (her boss) is viewed with suspicion by some other members of SIS. Kate’s husband, Stuart, views her renewed acquaintance with her old friend with a different kind of suspicion.

As Kate investigates the various candidates to become the next PM, one of whom works closely with Stuart, Kate develops suspicions of her own about Stuart’s fidelity. Kate isn’t sure she can trust C or the other highly positioned colleagues in the SIS. Kate really only trusts a couple of people, co-workers Rav and Julie.

But can she trust anyone, really? The plot involves a classic mole hunt. Kate knows that someone close to her work is giving information to the Russians. She narrows the field to five suspects. The reader is invited to join the guessing game.

Kate’s distrust of her husband adds a bit of domestic drama to the plot, as does her daughter’s infatuation with an older boy who wants to take her virginity. The domestic drama seems a bit forced while the relationship with the teenage daughter resolves too easily. The mother-daughter aspect of the story is probably meant to make parents feel comforted: yes, there will be shouting, but then the daughter will come to her senses and acknowledge what a wonderful mother she has. Really? The mutual suspicions of infidelity are integral to the plot but Tom Bradby didn’t make me care about either Kate or Stuart, much less about their marriage.

The mystery of the mole’s identity is reasonably good, in that the answer isn’t obvious, although neither is it unexpected. The reveal is a bit underwhelming, in part because Kate is such a self-righteous moralizer that she can’t resist delivering a tiresome lecture about how she is too perfect to betray anyone, particularly her country, and why can’t everyone be just like her? The mole's motivation to help the Russians is also forced; I just didn’t buy it. I can't discuss the election outcome without spoiling the story, but it just struck me as silly.

Stories of moles are legion in spy fiction. This one is about average. Bradby’s prose is fluid and the story maintained my interest when it focused on the mole rather than Kate’s family issues. My recommendation is lukewarm because the story builds to a climax that fizzles more than it climaxes.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Kate works for MI6 in the Russian division for the UK. She finds they have a Russian mole and this person has sent info on what is happening in Britain before the British know themselves. The circle of possible traitors is very small. Kate is a mother and wife as well as an agent. Trying to balance it all is not easy. She has to leave at a moment's notice. The Prime Minister is stepping down and there are a couple of candidates vying for the job. Can one of them be the Russian. The pace is very good to the story and keeps you interested from beginning to end.

Kate Henderson is an officer in M16, the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service. She and her team have uncovered information that would seem to indicate that Russia has compromised a senior politician. On top of that, there could also be an informant inside the intelligence service. Now it’s up to them to uncover the plot and identify the agents involved.

Talk about a story ripped from today’s headlines. Tom Bradby’s Secret Service is almost too close to some of the events that are occurring today. A few years ago, I might have dismissed this book as just an imaginative novel, but now it does seem to mirror some of the concerns that are being expressed not only in our country but around the world.

Secret Service is a well-written espionage thriller that is fast-paced and tense. It will certainly hold a reader’s attention until the very last page. My only complaint is that there were times that I felt that I had been dropped into the middle of a conversation or scene and I wondered if there might be some missing pages. This didn’t happen too often, but just enough to be somewhat disorienting and a bit aggravating.

If you are a fan of spy tales that are full of intrigue then Tom Bradby’s latest book will certainly appeal to you.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

A spy thriller where everyone is a suspect and you’re not sure whom to trust – there were times I even questioned the main character. But in addition to being a spy thriller, this is also a story where secret service agent must juggle the demands of both work and home.

Thoughts:
Secret Service is a rather timely spy thriller/political intrigue story that puts Russia’s desire for influence in other country’s political elections front and center. Set in the U.K., Kate Henderson and her team are listening to a conversation when they learn that not only is the current minister resigning soon, but that Russia has a very good foothold into who the next prime minister will be. If that wasn’t enough, the team also learns there is a mole amongst the British ranks, code-named Viper, that can assist Russia and help ensure their candidate’s success.

The story itself revolves around MI-6 operations as they try to ascertain who all the players are that were discussed in the overheard Russian conversation, but unfortunately knowing that there is a mole leads them to a lot of frustrating moments since no one is sure who it is and whom they can trust. But while there is a spy whose identify must be ascertained, Kate also has a home life that involves two teenagers, a mother with Alzheimer’s, and two family members – her husband and her aunt – who are also employed by the government. Kate is trying to figure out how to balance home life with the overtime work being required of her as well as short notice trips abroad.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. It didn’t immediately draw me in when I first started reading, especially since Kate was pushing a girl really, really hard to plant a bug for them. The girl was scared – really scared – but Kate continued to push. Instead, I became rather captivated once the British Secret Service began listening to the Russian conversations. The dialogue between the Russians and the immediate take by the British on what Russians may be referring to made for a very interesting read as it went back and forth. Plus, I rather enjoyed the other spy-related moments, not to mention deaths of characters I liked that kept my interest. However, as the course of the story played on some of the drama in the home life started to wear on me at times. But, all in all the plot progresses nicely and is evenly paced through out the entire story.

Rating: 4 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the advanced ready copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

Nicely done novel of counterespionage! Kate, head of the Russian desk at BSIS, runs an op which reveals that one of the candidates for Prime Minister is a Russian asset and that there is another Russian asset code named Viper who will help get that person elected. Whew. Bradby has done a very good job of outlining how a counterespionage case is run, eschewing except in one case, the sort of violence that genre thrillers often overdo (think Le Carre versus pretty much all the rest). Kate's got a lot on her personal plate, including teen children, a nasty mother with dementia, and a husband who might be cheating on her. Her colleagues, especially her seniors, have their own issues and secrets. Her colleagues do as well. It's twisty and there are, as there are in real life, misdirections. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This one will keep you guessing.

Brady wrote a thriller that could scarily have true undertones. I love reading spy thrillers where the main character is a female. This is a smart and well-written thriller. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a smart thriller.

A really excellent thriller. Very convincing characters, well plotted and well written. I guessed whodunit well before the end, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment and it was still ambiguous as to which PM candidate was the Russian plant (or maybe it was obvious if I hadn't stayed up late to finish it :)

I think of Tom Bradby as the guy who reads the 10 o’clock news on ITV and sometimes says daft introductions, the newsreader who managed to blag himself a ticket to the Royal Wedding – and then the journalist who got the Harry and Meghan documentary scoop! But I didn’t realise he was also a published author – so when I saw this on Netgalley I thought I’d try it.

Here’s the blurb:

“The world is on the brink of crisis.
The Cold War is playing out once more on the global stage.
And governments will do whatever it takes to stay at the top . . .
______________________
To those who don’t really know her, Kate Henderson’s life must seem perfectly ordinary. But she is in fact a senior MI6 officer, who right now is nursing the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb.
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.
Up against the clock to uncover the Russian mole, Kate risks everything to get to the truth. But with her reputation to uphold, her family hanging by a thread and a leadership election looming, she is quickly running out of options, and out of time.”

This isn’t a genre I read often – although is a TV type I would watch frequently – and it very much felt like watching something akin to Spooks.

The main character is Kate – and I admit to thinking it odd that a male author wrote the lead character as female (which I realise is ridiculous, as I never said that about JK Rowling and Harry Potter) – but he does get the working Mum / Mum to teenagers guilt down brilliantly (interestingly in the credits he says his wife helps write his books – so perhaps that explains it?)

The book feels very ‘of this time’ – Russian interference in foreign elections / personal lives of politicians being exposed etc etc! I suspect that Tom’s establishment and journalistic connections means a lot of this is very true to life!

You are rooting for Kate throughout – and a whole plethora of different events happen that would stretch the sanity of anyone – but she pushes through.

Her relationships with her family and also work colleagues are explored – and the interconnections are very interesting.

The ending feels a bit quick and forced – and I would have liked to have known exactly how the characters all got to that point – but I suppose it leaves you wanting more, which isn’t a bad thing?

Overall it was a good, fast paced read – and I really enjoyed it. I could imagine it being a TV drama. And I’ll definitely look at Tom Bradby’s back catalogue when I fancy reading this genre again.

Secret Service is an espionage novel featuring Kate, an MI6 agent working the Russia Desk while also trying to manage her marriage and raise her two kids. While her team is working surveilance on the son of an Oligarch, Kate and the team discover that the PM is going to step down, which is something no one at MI6 knew. How did the Russians know this and who told them? Could there be a mole in the British government?

Kate and her team set out to vet the two contenders who are in the running for British PM with information that one of them could be the mole, Codename: Viper. Kate must put all at risk, including her life and the lives of her team to get to the truth.

What ensues is a twist filled, fast paced thrill ride. There are many misdirections in discovering who Viper is and it really keeps you guessing. I found this book really hard to put down and read it in less than 24 hours. I highly recommend!.

My thanks to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, The Atlantic Monthly Press, and Tom Bradby for gifting me an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kate Henderson’s life in London seems pretty good if a tad ordinary. She works for a multinational that sends her abroad on frequent business trips. He husband works for the Minister of Education. A rebellious teenage daughter and a tween-age son round out the cast.

Oh, did I mention, her multinational employer is MI6?

She works for the Russia desk. Pretty high up, too. She has a team in the Mediterranean following the yachting adventures of the (gay) son of an Russian oligarch. Through some clever manipulations, the team manages to get a microphone placed on the yacht, coincidentally when the father and 2 or 3 other major political players in Russia are discussing plans to influence upcoming changes in the British leadership.

OK. The Russian’s play the same what-if scenarios about their adversaries as does everyone else. Only this time, the Russian’s know exactly why and when the Prime Minister will be stepping down – Info that even MI6 doesn’t have. Not only that, the Russian’s mentioned a highly placed source from an operative code-named Viper.

Sure enough, a few days later, the PM tells the country he is stepping down due to prostate cancer. Now begins the circus of who wants to move into #10 Downing Street. MI6 is left with two major questions. First, how did the Russians learn about the PM’s health? Second, who is Viper? What ensures is a complicated hunt on two fronts, one of which is a mole hunt. Both inquiries seem to point to one of the two major candidates for the PM job as being a Russian asset.

In the tradition of Le Carre, Greene, Deighton, Frosyth, et al., this book is crammed with misdirections, distrust, feints and double feints galore to drive speculations about various suspicious identities. Enough to make your head spin. A perfect choice for lovers of traditional spy novels.

I was excited to read about the inner workings of the UK's MI6. The main character Kate, stumbles on information that suggests the British PM is a Russian mole. But this book just seems to drag for me. I didn't finish it. 3 stars for an interesting plot, but it didn't hold my attention like I thought it would.

Spy thrillers re very enjoyable to me. This was no exception. I really like the British spy thrillers too, as there is such a history of these. I liked this one a lot as the plot was interesting and engaging. The twists Nd turns kept my attention and I really had a hard time putting it down.

After an indifferent start to the book, with Russian oligarchs, sleek huge yachts and pretty young girls, it got better and better (thankfully).

The main character is Kate Henderson a senior MI6 officer, and what I thought was to be a simple spy story also included a conspiracy theory and the vetting of politicians. Yes, she struggled to manage all this and a home life too with teenage children and a civil servant husband.

Inevitably, the Russians are there with fake news and even get a mention with the recent poisoning in Salisbury!

Well plotted, with well drawn characters the book moves along pretty well (with a few good twists) and a superb ending.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and Net Galley for the chance to read and review.

Holy page turner! This is a souped up international spy thriller that has blockbuster written all over it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I think it will be a great addition to the mystery/thriller collection!

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for the ARC of this book.

A good book, engrossing and entertaining even if it's a bit slow at times.
The cast of characters is well written and the plot kept me hooked.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.