A COLDER WAR: CHARLES CUMMINS

This is the second Thomas Kell novel, set this time both in Turkey and London.  The novel begins with the plane crash of MI6 Agent Paul Wallinger.  The circumstances surrounding the crash are unsavory, so a disgraced Kell is called back into action by the Head of English Intelligence Service, Amelia Levene. At Wallinger's funeral,  Rachel Wallinger, the deceased agent's daughter, catches Kell's eye and we know that romance will be part of this novel, like most of this genre, espionage and girls, a sure fire good read!  Anyways, much of the novel takes place in Istanbul, in fact, parts in our village of Arnavutkoy. Besides the death of Wallinger, SIS has had two of its secret agents in Iran murdered, one on the way back to Great Britain through Turkey.

All three of these actions seem related and lead Levene, SIS's head, to conclude they have a mole in their midst.  Thus, she brings in Thomas Kell, once an insider, now an outsider because she cannot trust anyone else.  Three possibilities are vetted and both Kell and Levene decide the most likely candidate is an American attache in Istanbul, a Cousins(CIA) agent privy to all of SIS's data. The rest of the book follows Kell's progress, as well as SIS's, as they follow the American, arrogant, suave, a womanizer, to clubs, to restaurants, to hotels, and finally to the Princess Island of Buyukada (where friends of mine have a yali) where the drop is made and the Americans spying for the Russians is confirmed.

We also meet the Russian agent who is running the mole, and are allowed into his world, how he works with the American spy.  The tension and danger as Kell's closes in on the mole, on his Russian agent, and the complications with Rachel Wallinger and her part in the scheme, made this book hard to put down.  It's is one of my favorite espionage novels and Cummins is right up their with the best like Allan Furst and Joseph Kanon. I loved the setting, the atmosphere, the protagonists, the Brits and Russians, reminiscent of a John Le Carre novel.  And of course, much of it is set in the city I love, Istanbul.