It seems to me that there may be an interesting novel buried in here somewhere but Cumming needs a much stronger editor to tell him to cut out most of the irrelevant waffling and endless repetition. This is an improvement from the first book, which had a strong protagonist and good concept for a strong series start, but the first half here becomes somewhat plodding, as young Kite brings a defector out of Russia.

This section of narrative is atmospheric, chilling at times but also with the underlying feel that everything will turn out well in the end. There would be ‘collateral damage’ along the way and young Lachlan Kite would somehow have to get used to it. The Dubai mission is indeed the deadliest game of cat-and-mouse the seasoned Kite has ever played and it will take all his guile and expertise to have a successful mission and get both he and Aranov out alive. Add to that, his girlfriend, Martha, shows up and puts herself and the success of the mission in more danger. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

I do feel that Kite’s public school background has been fleshed out enough though and hope the next book deals entirely with the grown up Kite and his Box 88 team. The switch to modern times shows how things have changed with the use of technology and a different type of intelligence game. His latest novel entitled JUDAS 62 is a perfect example of this claim and stellar follow-up to last years’ BOX 88.

The mission doubles as a way to frame the Russian officer as revenge for some of the fallout of the 1993 mission. The first Kite novel was excellent, but this is even better ― an elegant exposition of what being a spy in the field actually feels like and the fear it can instil in even the most hardened operator. A bunch of additional characters introduced, and not enough time to get to know - or care - about them. Kite discovers he has been placed on the 'JUDAS' list -enemies of Russia who have been targeted for assassination. Matters get a little more difficult when Kite’s actual girlfriend from London, Martha, suddenly shows up in Voronezh with no idea that he was there operating under the name Peter Galvin.

They are able to work past this, especially when they get a feeling that she might be a plant out to uncover them. I don't usually have anything but praise for Charles Cumming, but I did think this was a bit too long. Cumming is excellent at maintaining the tension, and both stories keep the reader with bated breath. I had enjoyed all of Charles Cummings books prior to Box 88 but found that relatively dull and un engaging. Throw in some Novichok, mysterious beautiful women who are attracted to our hero like magnets, and lots and lots of Ladas, and it all feels stale and unoriginal.

Personally, I did not find it as much of a page turner as the first in the series but still a highly enjoyable - and recommended - read. If you’re a little pickier about your spy novels, I would perhaps suggest trying Daniel Silva’s Gabriel Allon series (which I haven’t personally read yet but have heard good things about). Now the director of BOX 88 operations in the UK, Kite discovers he has been placed on the ‘JUDAS’ list – a record of enemies of Russia who have been targeted for assassination.

A Foreign Country was named the first Scottish Crime Book of the Year at the inaugural Bloody Scotland Festival in Stirling in September 2012. JUDAS was a list of Russian intelligence officers, military personnel and scientists living in the West who had been targeted for reprisal assassinations by Moscow. We all know about how, in real life, Putin has sent agents to attack his perceived enemies with nerve agents and radioactive materials.

Here are the classic components of a clever political thriller, with spies, double agents, plot stings and revenge. S. source for Box 88, the transatlantic counterintelligence and top secret spy agency, named Saul Kaszeta is off for a four-day fishing vacation to Lake Placid in New York State’s Adirondack Mountains. So, nothing has really soured me on Cumming's talent, but the story/plot of Judas 62 was just sort of clunky and nothing even remotely like I'd envision from a true successor to Le Carre'.

Typhoon, published in 2008, is a political thriller about a CIA plot to destabilise China on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. That said, it’s what you sign up for in a story such as this and I’m sure many readers will breeze through this element. His writing is fine and the dialogue is as well, but many of the essential aspects of the story just weren't very plausible.