β Scribed by Charles Cumming
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Starred Review. British author Cumming (Typhoon) revitalizes the moribund cold war spy novel in this stunning stand-alone that centers on the "Cambridge Five" (Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, et al.), who betrayed their country to the Soviet Union during and after WWII. Fifteen years after 76-year-old Edward Crane is pronounced dead at a London hospital in 1992, academic Sam Gaddis learns that Crane was the oft-rumored sixth man in the Cambridge spy ringβand that he's alive and ready to tell his story. Gaddis, a well-regarded scholar of modern Russia who needs money to support his ex-wife and their daughter, thinks he can turn this bombshell into a bestselling book. But the people who know about it, including one of Gaddis's best friends, journalist Charlotte Berg, are turning up deadβand the intelligence agencies in Britain and Russia would prefer to squelch the story. Cumming's knowledge of the spy business, his well-crafted prose, and his intensely engaging plot make this a breakthrough novel. 100,000 first printing. (Mar.)
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Starred Review Books and films almost beyond number have been inspired by the 'Cambridge Spies,' five well-bred, brilliant English university students recruited to spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Their efforts helped Stalin defeat the Nazis, press the Cold War, and even brought down the government of Harold Macmillan in 1963. They also created a cottage industry of speculation that their number was larger. Playing on that speculation is what Cumming is up to in his latest novel. History professor Sam Gaddis, facing mounting financial problems, learns that there was a sixth Cambridge spy. People with information Sam needs for the book that will get him out of debt begin to die, and Sam must wonder not only if he will be next but whether his assailant will come from Russia's FSB or Britain's MI6. Cumming's plot is appropriately convoluted, and the convolutions drive the narrative. The characters are well drawn, especially Sam and a sly 91-year-old former spook in a nursing home. Cold War hot spots, including Moscow, Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest, as well as Cambridge circa 1933, are rendered skillfully. The Trinity Six is a fine successor to Typhoon (2009) for a young author already compared with le Carr' and Littell. --Thomas Gaughan
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