Raise the Union Jack for Emma Makepeace!
Third in a fast-moving British spy series featuring a woman in MI6.
The G7 meets in Scotland in a few days, and the prime minister’s office is “terrified that something is going to go wrong with the gathering.” MI6, the secret intelligence service, learns that a Russian assassin plans to murder a head of state there. But who’s the killer? Who’s the target? And what’s to be done about it? MI6 assigns Emma Makepeace to prevent disaster. Against her wishes, she’s partnered with homicide detective Kate Mackenzie. But their chemistry works. They make an effective team, with Emma (not her real name) as the leader. They start by looking into a Russian émigré named Nick Orlov, whom they see talking on his cell phone, flatly refusing to do something. He’s visibly frightened, so Emma approaches him on a ruse and begins wheedling her way into his confidence. Soon she agrees to his dinner invitation, and—well, she’s never seduced anyone before, but it may be necessary to set a honey trap in service of king and country. Bond—James Bond—wouldn’t have thought twice, of course, that martini-drinking alley cat. Speaking of whom, not since 007 has there been such a worthy spy as Emma Makepeace. She’s tough and smart and has a particular talent for faking emotion. “Being able to cry on cue is a vastly under-rated skill,” she notes, and she uses it when she’s in a tight spot with Orlov. The latter’s enemies are setting him up, luring him into their own trap. She wants to get him out of it, both because it’s her job and because she’s come to like the guy. And she has other quirks: “Some people meditate to deal with stress. Emma picked locks.” Fans of Ian Fleming’s work are sure to enjoy Emma Makepeace. No, she isn’t a Bond clone, although they could be cousins. Near the culmination of a bloody fight with a mortal enemy, she declares, “His Majesty says hello.” How very British.
Raise the Union Jack for Emma Makepeace!Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593972212
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.
A series of mounting complications leads to yet another fight to the death between the discarded intelligence agents of Slough House and the morally bankrupt head of MI5.
As Jackson Lamb’s motley crew on Aldersgate Street struggles to cope with the deaths of River Cartwright’s grandfather and mentor, intelligence veteran David Cartwright, and their dim, beloved colleague Min Harper, new troubles are brewing. Diana Taverner, who runs the British Intelligence Service from Regent’s Park, is being blackmailed by former MP Peter Judd to do his bidding. Nothing untoward about that, of course, but this time, Judd’s demands, backed by a compromising tape recording, are more pressing than usual. So Diana reconvenes the Brains Trust—Al Hawke, Avril Potts, Daisy Wessex, and their ex-boss Charles Cornell Stamoran—whose last assignment was to serve as the contact for psychopathic IRA informant Dougie Malone while turning a blind eye to his multiple rapes and murders, which were really none of the Crown’s business. Taverner’s new assignment for the Brains Trust is the assassination of Judd. Since all these developments are filtered through the riotously cynical lens of Herron’s imagination, nothing goes as planned, and when the smoke clears, the fatalities don’t include Judd. Now that Judd knows he has as much reason to fear Taverner as she does to fear him, Lamb offers to broker a peace meeting between them which Slough House computer geek Roddy Ho will keep secret by knocking out 37 security cameras around Taverner’s dwelling. What could possibly go wrong?
The best news of all: The climax leaves the door open to further reports from the hilariously misnamed British Intelligence.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781641297264
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Soho Crime
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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