Double Agent is superb (a strong 4.5*). Tom Bradby’s second outing for Kate and her colleagues from SIS (MI6) is a smart, relevant and superior modern spy thriller (a sub-genre for which there are many authors, but few delivering with this level of aplomb).

The backbone of the plot picks up straight after (the also excellent) Secret Service, within which the Russians have thrown doubt on the probity of the British Prime Minister. Objectively, I’m not sure how well Double Agent would work as a stand alone but I would strong urge reading both books (in the correct order - as reading books out of sequence tilts the earth from its axis - true fact).

Familiarity of characters is always welcome and Double Agent is no exception. However, where this book excels is the plotting. So often spy thrillers begin with a clever hook and quickly run out of steam (via a frenetic, predictable and violent chase, or such like, towards the end). Secret Service and Double Agent are not that book. They take a clever idea and skilfully weave two gripping, believable and page turning books. The end is smart and I have everything crossed for another instalment.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and to Netgalley for an advanced copy in consideration of an honest review.

I loved Secret Service, Tom Bradby's last Kate Henderson spy thriller and this is even better.

Steeped in knowledge and tradecraft about how the internal security services work and with another plot that could come from the front pages of today's newspapers.

I will not reveal details of the plot but it was credible and grabbed me from the opening pages and followed on from the foundations laid in his previous book.

Kate Henderson's character is well and sympathetically drawn and you feel for her as she juggles her work and family issues as well as her own health problems.

Tom Bradby is an experienced journalist and writer and his books are getting better and better. He is rapidly becoming one of the most skilled proponents of thriller books around.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I am at a bit of a loss as to how to rate this book really. The first 80% of it was excellent: Kate was trying to work out if a defector could really prove the British PM was in the pay of the Russians, and whether there was a mole in her department. It was exciting and interesting, and I kept on top of all the twists and turns. Then there were scenes set in Georgia which were slow and read like a geography lesson, and then all hell broke loose. There was a crazy 'chase' scene, far too many things happened in the space of too few pages, and I don't have the faintest idea was supposed to have been revealed - was the PM a Russian agent? Was there a mole? I couldn't tell you...