Double Agent: From the bestselling author of Secret Service

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As ridiculous as this start is it gets more ludicrous, Kate is captured by a would be Russian dissident and then has to work out is she being played or has she made a brilliant coup. He adapted his first novel, Shadow Dancer, into a film, the script for which was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards. Those coming new to the series by ITV News at Ten anchor Tom Bradby, will find enough of the history to make it understandable without being burdened with too much backstory.

I really enjoyed this second installment and hope for more racing round Europe battling against her internal demons and treachery at home and at work. Borodin explains that he and his father, Igor, former chief of Russia's foreign intelligence service, are victims of a GRU power grab and are at risk of death or imprisonment. He has been with ITN for thirty years and was successively Ireland Correspondent, Political Correspondent, Asia Correspondent (during which time he was shot and seriously injured whilst Covering a riot in Jakarta), Royal Correspondent, UK Editor and Political Editor- a job he held for a decade - before being made the Anchor of News at Ten in 2015. It follows on directly from Secret Service and I would strongly recommend that you read Secret Service first.Thank you also to The Pigeonhole for hosting a group read that allowed me the opportunity to read and comment alongside my fellow Pigeons as we read our daily chapters. A follow on from last year's "Secret Service", Kate Atkinson is temporarily kidnapped in Venice by a Russian who wants to defect, and promising compromising video of the British PM, as well as evidence that the PM is on Russia's payroll. A great 2nd book by a keen on detail author and I hope there is a 3rd book although there was a definite end to this part of the story! I hope it is a little more tightly focussed, though, and branches out from the slightly samey structure of the first two. Bradby's narrative is easy to follow, flowing ever so well, and his descriptions of places, emotions, action, thought processes- is done wonderfully.

He has written nine previous novels, including top-ten bestselling Secret Service, and its two sequels , Double Agent and Triple Cross. The question of whether there is still a high-level traitor remains, and Kate is now offered evidence by Mikhail. Spy novelists inevitably fall into two camps; those that dazzle with their insider knowledge of duplicitous governments and their rogue agencies - so much so that they forget the compact of mutual understanding with their reader.

I really hope this series of books get made into a film or tv series as would be fantastic and hope there will be a third instalment n the not too distant future! As with Secret Service, Bradby excels in his portrayal of the interplay of personal and professional relationships in the secret service, reminding me of Len Deighton’s Bernard Samson novels. Kate's work life balance is pretty screwed in this second installment of the working mother M15 agent thriller series. Having said all that; I might be tempted to try book 3 in the series; they read well and though we're short on interesting characters at least there's enough left hanging to persue it. Unexpectedly, she receives an approach from Borodin, a senior agent in Russia’s SVR, successor to the KGB, offering to defect to the West.