TRINITY SIX: CHARLES CUMMING

Another early thriller from Charles Cumming, my recent go to writer about espionage and the Cold War.  This one revolves around the British Five, the Cambridge graduates who snooped for the Soviet Union during the 1940's and 1950's, only to be uncovered,  to the embarrassment of M16.  In this novel, historian Sam Gaddis happens upon a series of documents that seem to suggest a sixth spy. At the beginning of his search, he enlists the help of Charlotte Berg, a friend from college, who confides that she has a big scoop about the Soviets.  The two decide to collaborate but Charlotte ends up dying in an accident which, we find out later, is orchestrated by the Russian Intelligence Service. Gaddis naively decides to continue, upsetting both the Russians and the Brits, who also seem to have something to hide.

Along the way, Gaddis gets fed information by a resident (the sixth spy) of an Old Person's Home, intent on setting the record straight, about him and his service to Great Britain.   He supposedly died twenty years ago, but his death was faked by British intelligence to hide that he was a double spy, the Russians thinking he was working for them (he was at first until he realized what a beast Stalin had become) but later, he turns and works for the Brits.  Along the way, like in all Cummins books, there's some romance, the British agent Tanya, who is told to spy on Gaddis's excavations of the past. She ends up sympathizing with him, realizing his life was in danger.  Gradually, we learn the secret: the Soviet Premier, Sergei Platov a former K.B.G agent and clearly, a doppelganger for Vladimir Putin, supposedly, after WW II,  tried to defect to the West. If this was ever found it, the Brits would look foolish for not allowing it, the Russian Putin would appear to have been traitor.

The novel, towards the end, becomes almost silly, with one improbability after another. Nevertheless, it was good at creating the tension between the West and the former Soviet Union, which Putin hopes to return to its former glory.  And it is interesting to learn about the Cambridge Five, their lives and subterfuge before secretly flying off to Russia to the dismay of Great Britain.