My thanks to NetGalley and Bantam Books/Penguin Random House for the ARC of Ava Glass's second Emma Makepeace spy thriller.
While we're all waiting an eternity for the next James Bond movie, I'd highly recommend "The Traitor" as the next best thing. Fast paced, effectively twisty and filled with some genuine moments of harrowing action and nail biting suspense, it's the new mission assigned to young British spy Emma Makepeace.
Even more so than her bosses, Emma's especially dedicated to rooting out and thwarting nefarious Russian operatives. She and her mother escaped Russia, but not her father, who died at the hands of Moscow secret police. So when a fellow MI6 spy's found brutally murdered,, she's put on the hunt for the prime suspects - a couple of fabulously wealthy Russian oligarchs.
This new mission puts Emma undercover right in the lion's den......posing as a replacement crew member on a spectacular sumptuous yacht in the south of France....owned, of course by one those two oligarchs. Utterly fearless and determined to uncover the Russians' malignant doings, Emma's placed herself in no end of danger. If her identity's discovered, the oligarch and his ominous thuggish minion will most likely make her disappear without a trace. And the thug already views her with deep suspicion.
To go into any more detail would totally spoil all the adrenalin-filled fun of reading a spy adventure like this one.
I will say that you'll find yourself cringing with fear for Emma as she takes one near lethal risk after another.....and then finds herself coping with yet another perilous threat she never counted on.
Having thoroughly enjoyed 'Alias Emma' the first book in this series, I couldn't wait for a new one. And 'The Traitor' did not disappoint in any way. For all of us armchair secret agents, it's a pure escapist read of the best kind.

“There’s one thing I can say for certain. If the Russians are willing to murder a British intelligence officer in his home, then none of us is safe. Who knows what secrets he might have revealed before he died?”He met her gaze. “We have to catch the people who did this. And we have to make them pay.”

This is the sequel to Alias Emma which I read last year. Emma is still working for a top secret section of MI6. One of her fellow agents is found dead, body stuck in a suitcase. This agent was working on tracking chemical weapons that the Russians were involved in selling. Emma, the daughter of a Russian woman speaks fluent Russian, so she is the perfect person to try and infiltrate one of the Russian oligarchs inner circle.

This was a great spy thriller. I look forward to more books in this series.

Thank you Random House Ballantine for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It publishes Sep 19.

British spy Emma Makepeace is back in this second installment in the series. I love espionage fiction and these books hit the ground running and the action never stops. After an MI6 agent is found brutally murdered, links are made to a powerful group of Russian oligarchs. Emma is sent undercover on the suspect's super yacht to try and obtain proof of the Russians' criminal activities. She is completely alone and cut off from all help with a bunch of dangerous gangsters who are immediately suspicious of her. Emma discovers her cover is blown mid-mission and realizes that not only does she have to escape the Russians, she also has to hide from a traitor in her own agency. As the mission takes her from London, to St Tropez, to Barcelona, and back, Emma has to outsmart villains she can't even identify in order to stay alive. #TheTraitorBook #NetGalley

Absolutely loved this sequel! It was thrilling and hard to put down. Ava Glass really knows how to pique your interest and keep your heart pumping. This series is so much fun, and I really hope there's a 3rd novel in the works. I was able to figure out who the traitor was, but it didn't spoil my fun!

This was enjoyable enough and fun - but I found that the writing needed a bit more fine tuning and development. I liked that things were British centric with the lingo and verbiage and slang, but I also felt the writing was a tad juvenile.

Overall a fun story, but I don’t know that it was an electrifying thriller.

The Traitor by Ava Glass
Emma Makepeace is a young British spy determined to stop the Russians from operating on British soil.
A British spy is murdered in his apartment. He had been investigating two Russian oligarchs. Emma needs to find the truth behind his murder before it is too late. She is inserted onto a yacht owned by one of the Russians to find out what they are up to - a scary scenario without close backup. If she is discovered, she has nowhere to hide.
This is the second book in the Alias Emma series. It is fast paced and thrilling. I could not put it down.

I did not realize this was a sequel but found it worked well as a standalone novel. When a secret agent of an agency too secret to have a name is found dead, folded up in a suitcase, Emma Makepeace is on the case to find out who killed him and to bring down a major Russian crime ring involving gun smuggling and chemical weapons. The novel started out very slowly and I put it aside for several weeks before returning to it and starting over since nothing I’d read stuck with me. While I figured out the “villain” well before it was revealed, the story interested me enough to keep reading. Still the actual writing left a bit to be desired. The inclusion of British slang was appropriate as the story centers around a British agency, but the inclusion of the F-bomb added nothing and in fact showed a lack of imagination on the author’s part. Emma also was a little hard to believe. She seemed a bit naïve at times for a super super-secret spy. Three stars for story, 2.5 for execution.

A wonderful, fast paced, action packed spy thriller that had me at the first page right until the end. I loved it and enjoyed a different kind of read for me. Most of the action takes place on a luxury yacht at sea where British intelligence agent Emma Makepeace is on her own against Russian Oligarchy opponents. I read this cover to cover in one day and highly recommend it to those who enjoy books like this. I am a fan of this author and look forward to her other books. I found it refreshing to have the main character be a woman. I enjoyed meeting all the characters and found them believable. The entire setting and story seems well researched and developed.


I wish to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam Books for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Emma Makepeace is an MI6 agent whose father was killed by the Russians (he was also a spy). She goes undercover to find out the mastermind behind a Russian plot and to uncover a mole in MI6. Undeterred by danger, she won’t stop until she finds the traitor.

I enjoyed the characters and the situation although I did guess early on who the Traitor was. I would definitely read more from Ava Glass!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance ARC in exchange for my review.

I feel as if Emma didn’t actually pass her training very well. This book was suppose to take place in actually time but I feel it’s 1997, I couldn’t get 30% and I won’t continue with the other books

An MI6 agent is found murdered and Emma Makepiece is sent undercover. There is a suspected traitor within British Intelligence which could compromise Emma. The action starts from the first page and will have you on the edge of your seat. I guessed part of the story but still enjoyed. I wasn’t aware that this book was part of a series but it worked well as a stand alone. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Sometimes follow up book are so so. But The Traitor was a good follow up to the previous book. I able to finish the book in a weekend and yet still be thinking about the twist.

In a sequel to her high-action spy thriller, Alias Emma, British spy Emma Makepeace returns with another Russian investigation. When an MI6 operative is assassinated, Emma determines to find the killer without becoming a victim herself. Before his death, he was investigating two Russian oligarchs he believed were spies with ties to a mysterious third man. But MI6 told him to drop it. As Emma goes undercover on a Russian oligarch's yacht, she finds the killer might be closer to home than she ever imagined.

Alias Emma was one of my favorite thrillers of 2022, so my expectations were high for The Traitor. Emma is just as brilliant a character this time around, a fearlessly competent spy unafraid to make bold moves to save the day. Although the tight quarters of the yacht made for excellent tension, the overarching mole hunt had hardly any complexity, leaving you disappointed in the big reveal.

Wow from the first scene, The Traitor had my attention. Slow build? I think not, author Ava Glass skipped slow and headed right into action from the first chapter and did not let up until the conclusion! Very well written- settings, character development and a twisty tight plot that reads like an incredible James Bond movie! (I can just hear the music in the background.)

Emma Makepeace, our heroine, has a mission to find the killer of one of their M16 secret agents. They suspect the Russians, but they need more proof so Emma heads undercover to work on a gorgeous yacht. I really like Emma she is highly intelligent, but her ways of thinking resonate so well. This fast paced suspense/mystery novel is action packed and has quite a few surprises in store!

Now I need to go find Alias Emma, the first part of the series. The Traitor read as such an outstanding standalone that I did not realize there was another book until I looked up the author's bio. So, it is fine to read on its own!

British spy looking to catch Russian chemical dealers. Emma Makepeace is pretty new to the job but very talented.
She is given the assignment to board an Oligarchs yacht and collect information. She does so but not without consequences.
Fast paced book, well plotted and very entertaining.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me this ARC.
I do recommend.

I ripped through ALIAS EMMA in a day and then devoured THE TRAITOR equally fast. Emma Makepeace is fabulous and I cannot wait to read every book in this series. She’s smart, resourceful, dangerous, and impossible not to root for. I have a new favorite spy series!

Emma Makepeace is back and this time she's graduated from trainee to full-fledged superspy. In fact, Glass has given her such skills and savvy that this book unfortunately falls apart by the middle; Emma is *so* good as a spy she can fend off the biggest, toughest bad guys, instantly be best pals with anyone she wants, blend in to the most difficult situations, and even start a romantic relationship with one of her colleagues, all while defying her bosses with her I-know-better exploits.

While people don't want to read about a spy who is incompetent, the opposite extreme of one who is superhuman, able to easily slip out of the most impossible situation, extract secret info from even the most taciturn villain, and finish up with their hair still beautiful coiffed and everyone admiring their aplomb, ends up being rather banal.

Indeed, about halfway through this second novel - and I enjoyed the first in the series - I felt it had switched to more of a young adult read with plenty of internal dialog about the hero's ostensible insecurities (none of which prove valid with her astonishing skillset, of course). I really wanted to like this novel, but...

Very fun, fast-paced read. If you haven't read the first in the series (Alias Emma), I would recommend reading that one first. Emma is a fantastic heroine, smart, capable, brave (actually, brave bordering on foolhardiness), fun to read/see in action. I was on TENTERHOOKS the whole time she was on board the yacht - that sort of closed environment naturally sets the tension at a 10 from the outset, then goes up from there. I loved the settings of different cities as the yacht traveled from place to place. Like a typical thriller, some plot points seemed rather farfetched, and I was able to guess the mystery, but neither of those detracted from my enjoyment of this book. Also, I REALLY want to check out one of those yachts!... though not if it belongs to a Russian oligarch ;)

My thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC via netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is exhilarating with heart-pounding missions.

Emma Makepeace was a MI6 operative. She was ready for a challenge and given one with a fast pace. She followed her dad’s path of being a spy. Sadly, he was killed on a job in Russia when she was young.

After three years of working at a very secret British intelligent unit, she wanted to make her mark. She told her mother she was going on a quick working trip and would be back soon. Her sweet mom didn't have a clue what she was doing and replied something like: “Okay; call when you get back.” That is if she could survive the harrowing dangers she was about to step into.

She had two weeks to get secret information from threatening Russian oligarchs on their 90-metre yacht in the middle of the Mediterranean. She was alone without tracking devices. They took her phone away. What could go wrong? She spoke several languages including Russian but she never experienced being on a yacht before.

The story is action packed with Emma as a strong, confident female. I wanted her to take these bad guys out. The scenes are highly visible. I was the nervous reader pacing with a racing heartbeat. Unlike a movie, there was no closing of the eyes.

It’s the second of a series but this could easily be a standalone. The characters had real names, agency names and more names for times when they went into the bars or on the job. They told lots of lies. It could have been confusing but it wasn’t. Each person was described perfectly.

However, there were parts that were predictable and a tad sketchy. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying the experience of a very satisfying book that had my attention from the beginning until the end. I read it in a day.

My thanks to Bantam Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of September 19, 2023.

I quickly read The Traitor because once I started I couldn’t stop. Emma , the main character, was given the mission of finding out what two Russian oligarchs were doing and ultimately to uncover a British traitor. It was fascinating how she trained and then imbedded herself within the life on Volkov’s yacht to learn the truth. The dangers were great, and she did have to fight for her life. . Emma is an interesting character. She is successful at her job, but she is flawed. She was in some ways too trusting. She believes that the people around her are not capable of being traitors because they have been thoroughly vetted by the government. That turned out to be wrong, of course. She also doesn’t follow her orders completely, which put her life in danger twice. That makes her more of a rogue agent and could eventually end her career or her life.
I was able to identify the traitor before it was revealed. That person seemed to be too omniscient and too conveniently able to help Emma. I was surprised when the ending confirmed what I thought.
I enjoyed this book. I plan to read more of Ava Glass’s books in the future. I like her style of writing.