Book Review - Trinity Six, Charles Cumming
This is the first Charles Cumming novel I've read and I bought it because it was one of those "if you liked that you'll like this" recommendations. So I downloaded it onto my e-book reader - oh yes I'll say a little more on that in a moment... and gave it a go.
Very good in general, very typical modern intrigue filled modern day spy thriller. Of course the problem for modern spy thriller writers is that the old East (i.e. Russia) vs the West (i.e. UK and USA) antagonism of the cold war years has long since gone away. So what does Mr Cumming do to address this? Simple dig up old spies from the cold war and have them spilling the beans to a new generation with the hint of a big modern day scandal if any of this got out. So why Trinity Six... remember Blunt, Burgess etc. well here is a claim of a 6th member of that group of spies recruited in the 30s but this one remains buried by both Russia and the UK to this day... imagine that Margaret Thatcher had never stood up and admitted to Blunts confession made all those years before type thing.
Actually it works well - for me more than interesting in that the hero is a Professor of Russian History where I now work! Some of the scenes are played out at the corner of the road just outside my office... which makes it difficult for me to separate fiction from truth... this happened when Waking the Dead was filmed in an office block I once worked in many years ago and I found myself thinking - "So the murder happened just after I left there. I can't be a suspect or witness then"... err... it's fiction you Muppet!!!! So whilst I've looked for the hero's office it isn't there... 'cos it's fiction you Muppet!!! Oh yes right...
Still we run through London, Winchester, Berlin, Vienna etc. at a rattling pace. Good and bad spooks pop up all over the place and in the end.... well read the book. If you like spy thrillers this is pretty good and I'll be probably reading some more from the same author.
Kindle Reader update
Mrs F bought me a Kindle for my birthday back in October and I've read the last few novels on it. I like it, easier than carting a book about. It is easy to read, or so I've found, only once on one train did I find light an issue but given that is a one off must have been me that day or the light itself. Also it is really good for reference books. I've only bought one or two so far but having them in a slim small little thing means you can quickly check something, put bookmarks in where you need to and quickly pull up the one flipping bit you can never get in the right order. I know I'm trapped into the Amazon paradigm through this one and there are other more open choices out there but all the reviews say the Kindle is very good, I'd agree with that. To be honest I'm a bit of an Amazon whore anyway so what the heck and finally it has worked really well with my account - it was quick and simple to set up and has worked fine since. So I'm an ebook convert now... honestly I'm nearly in the 21st century! Only one thing I'd moan about the Kindle. Someone else can't buy you a book and send it to you currently which is a shame - would be nice for Christmas/birthday if you could buy a book for another person and then it download on the day - I'm sure they will fix that some how.
Very good in general, very typical modern intrigue filled modern day spy thriller. Of course the problem for modern spy thriller writers is that the old East (i.e. Russia) vs the West (i.e. UK and USA) antagonism of the cold war years has long since gone away. So what does Mr Cumming do to address this? Simple dig up old spies from the cold war and have them spilling the beans to a new generation with the hint of a big modern day scandal if any of this got out. So why Trinity Six... remember Blunt, Burgess etc. well here is a claim of a 6th member of that group of spies recruited in the 30s but this one remains buried by both Russia and the UK to this day... imagine that Margaret Thatcher had never stood up and admitted to Blunts confession made all those years before type thing.
Actually it works well - for me more than interesting in that the hero is a Professor of Russian History where I now work! Some of the scenes are played out at the corner of the road just outside my office... which makes it difficult for me to separate fiction from truth... this happened when Waking the Dead was filmed in an office block I once worked in many years ago and I found myself thinking - "So the murder happened just after I left there. I can't be a suspect or witness then"... err... it's fiction you Muppet!!!! So whilst I've looked for the hero's office it isn't there... 'cos it's fiction you Muppet!!! Oh yes right...
Still we run through London, Winchester, Berlin, Vienna etc. at a rattling pace. Good and bad spooks pop up all over the place and in the end.... well read the book. If you like spy thrillers this is pretty good and I'll be probably reading some more from the same author.
Kindle Reader update
Mrs F bought me a Kindle for my birthday back in October and I've read the last few novels on it. I like it, easier than carting a book about. It is easy to read, or so I've found, only once on one train did I find light an issue but given that is a one off must have been me that day or the light itself. Also it is really good for reference books. I've only bought one or two so far but having them in a slim small little thing means you can quickly check something, put bookmarks in where you need to and quickly pull up the one flipping bit you can never get in the right order. I know I'm trapped into the Amazon paradigm through this one and there are other more open choices out there but all the reviews say the Kindle is very good, I'd agree with that. To be honest I'm a bit of an Amazon whore anyway so what the heck and finally it has worked really well with my account - it was quick and simple to set up and has worked fine since. So I'm an ebook convert now... honestly I'm nearly in the 21st century! Only one thing I'd moan about the Kindle. Someone else can't buy you a book and send it to you currently which is a shame - would be nice for Christmas/birthday if you could buy a book for another person and then it download on the day - I'm sure they will fix that some how.
I've finished and enjoyed the second Millennium book. Not as gruesome as I anticipated. Not sure how it can carry on for a whole book though but Husband has book 3 out from the library at the moment and is enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteSo many people - avid readers - are being converted to Kindles I'm beginning to yearn for one myself. Just to try, you understand!