The list represents Russian intelligence officers, military personnel, and scientists living in the West who had been targeted for reprisal assassinations by Moscow. Box 88 is a shadow global intelligence organisation sitting unseen alongside the traditional agencies. So even though Cumming tells me that Lockie loves Isobel and his daughter and wants to reconcile, everything else in the book makes me feel like Lockie is still in love with Martha and is a bit of a womanizer. Even so, Charles Cumming's prose is concise and he knows how to bring his characters to life, which makes even the slow parts become an immersive reading experience.

Kite's fight for survival takes him to Dubai, where he must confront the Russian secret state head on. There is a good feel here too for the heat and the pressure, and this operation is short, over a few days, rather than some weeks as in the earlier one. In the first book in the series, our protagonist Lachlan (“Lockie”) Kite was recruited straight out of his English boarding school in 1989 to spy on the father of a school friend. This second part, set mostly in Dubai, was much more effective, and it was the earlier segment that felt too convoluted and detailed.We get a little bit more information on Martha, but not really anything further on Isobel other than she and Lockie are estranged because of the events of book one. Box 88, the clandestine ‘non-government’ organization Lockie works for, discovers Lockie’s cover name from the 1993 mission has just been added to Russia’s hit list— the JUDAS list. Only a small group of individuals recognize that the 75-year-old Kaszeta was once known as Evgeny Palatnik. We start (mainly) in the early 1990’s and a young Kite has been recruited into the mysterious Box 88 and given his first mission.

Superbly constructed, it never hurries, but evokes the world of espionage in a way the late John le Carre would have much admired.If talk of temperature-taking, mask-wearing, social-distancing, limited-capacity restaurants, etc is a trigger for you— you might not want to read this one. Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

They end up connecting and meeting secretly and this is where Peter/Kite gains his trust and learns that Yuri intends to also bring along his pregnant girlfriend. But it’s not as straight forward as that: the name that appears on the list is actually an alias he used nearly thirty years ago when he was a rookie recruit sent into Russia to exfiltrate a chemical weapons scientist.The story is bang up to date - and the author does not hold back on his messages of world greed and corruption. His characters are always well drawn, and his plots soundly constructed, and the book resonates with plausibility. He was educated at Eton College (1985-1989) and the University of Edinburgh (1990-1994), where he graduated with First Class Honours in English Literature.

Kite discovers he has been placed on the 'JUDAS' list -enemies of Russia who have been targeted for assassination. Moves along at good pace, characters are developed and seems believable given current state of world politics. JUDAS 62 is a lengthy read and one that takes no time for short-cuts or diversions from the task at hand. Where freshly recruited Kite abandons his summer plans to carry out the Aranov operation at short notice. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.I really enjoyed this book and it flowed on so well with the characters from the first book, BOX 88.