Written by Tom Bradby — With a plot that would have seemed far-fetched just a few years ago, Tom Bradby’s latest political thriller feels like it could have been ripped from the headlines. Deception, betrayal and the ethical vulnerability that compromise Western political leaders are here turned into a gripping, all-too-believable tale. Imperial Russia and the story of the doomed royal family continue to fascinate… The tale of the Romanovs has always been stranger than fiction. Still, the small details that Bradby includes… lend a tantalizing authenticity to his fictional sidebar to one of the great stories of the twentieth century.”— Orlando Sentinel on The White Russian Bradby’s protagonist Kate Henderson is head of MI6’s Russia Desk and an experienced operative. She has a small team of trusted subordinates, a colleague perpetually trying to undermine he, and a boss whose private thoughts are as secret as they come. Kate’s loving and very patient spouse covers for her when she suddenly flies somewhere, and she has two teenagers who think they should be the centre of her attention and a mother full of resentments who lives in a nearby London care home.

Imperial Russia and the story of the doomed royal family continue to fascinate…. The tale of the Romanovs has always been stranger than fiction. Still, the small details that Bradby includes…lend a tantalizing authenticity to his fictional sidebar to one of the great stories of the twentieth century.” — Orlando Sentinel, on The White Russian Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

The author reveals a rarely seen facet of secret agents: the domestic side. Not a clichéd Jane Bond, Kate is a mother to two teenagers, daughter to a spiteful mother sliding into dementia, and wife to a civil servant who may be working for a traitor. Ops go sideways, betrayals abound, and good people die. Bradby keeps the reader guessing to the last. Fans of cerebral spycraft in the vein of le Carré will enjoy this outing.”— Publishers Weekly Senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson, the heroine of this tense spy thriller from Bradby ( The White Russian), receives information from a trusted source that Russia’s three top foreign intelligence chiefs will meet in Istanbul on the super-yacht of a billionaire Russian oligarch. Surveillance of the meeting reveals the impending resignation of the U.K. prime minister and the possibility of a mole, code-named Viper, within the Secret Intelligence Service. The investigation threatens to implicate a number of high-ranking British government officials, including Kate’s boss, Ian Granger, and education secretary Imogen Conrad, Kate’s husband’s boss. Or is it misinformation planted by Kate’s source to frame her as the counterspy? The author reveals a rarely seen facet of secret agents: the domestic side. Not a clichéd Jane Bond, Kate is a mother to two teenagers, daughter to a spiteful mother sliding into dementia, and wife to a civil servant who may be working for a traitor. Ops go sideways, betrayals abound, and good people die. Bradby keeps the reader guessing to the last. Fans of cerebral spycraft in the vein of le Carré will enjoy this outing. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (Nov.) It was like he was waving a red (haha) flag at us the whole time screaming "It's me! I'm Viper! Notice me! Notice me!" A book that you can whizz through and enjoy; great escapism but routed in the trends and realities of modern espionage. A clever piece and full of insight and the occasional lighter moment. I particularly liked the quip of calling out one of the team as thinking he was the embodiment of George Smilely.

Ein Politthriller mit vielen Irrungen und Wirrungen, der mit ordentlich Spannung auffährt. Ich persönlich fand es wirklich ein grandioses Buch – wenn auch das Ende nicht befriedigend war. Für mich ein bisschen zu viel Raum für Spekulationen, falls kein zweiter Teil kommen sollte (worauf ich persönlich sehr hoffe). Ich würde die Laufbahn der Agentin sehr gerne weiterverfolgen. Ebenfalls interessiert mich, wie es nach diesem Ende mit ihr weitergeht. But largely—and this is maybe the book’s biggest weakness—she is wrestling with the struggle of ‘being a woman’ and ‘having it all.’ Along with her job, Kate also juggles taking care of her two kids, her aging mother, and, for good measure, an ailing dog. There are various family problems, as well as Kate’s contentious relationship with her mother, who cheated Kate’s father with a family friend and upended their family. None of the family drama is particularly urgent or, really, dramatic, and even though Kate should have enough going on with unmasking Russian spies and saving democracy, she still comes down on herself: Tom Bradby has created Kate Henderson, family woman and chief of the Russia section at MI6. A tip-off leads her and her team to begin a hazardous operation which reveals both possible Russian interference in the appointment of a new Prime Minister, that there may be a Russian agent among the candidates and that someone is leaking secrets to the Russians. The plot moves along quite nicely, the who-can-I-trust stuff is nicely done and Tom Bradby writes pretty well much of the time. It does get a bit clunky in places, and although the dialogue is generally convincing, characters do tend to lapse into pretty stilted speeches rather regularly. Bradby is also no stranger to a cliché, which gets a bit much at times with sentences like, “I’d like to bury my head in the sand, but I need to go home and face the music.” A stretch limo of a book, needing every inch of interior space to incorporate its grand themes of political intrigue, social unrest and romantic betrayal.” — News & Observer, on The White Russian I warmed to her character and found the book easy to read, especially with her being the driving force of the novel.

When she became a minister, she was very voluble, particularly about the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which had happened a few years before she joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. She took a very tough line, demanding stiffer sanctions and actually getting them imposed on a wider section of the president’s inner circle. … She’s barely spoken publicly about Russia since.” Kate Henderson is a senior intelligence officer based at the London headquarters of the Special Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6. When the Prime Minister suddenly announces his resignation due to ill health, Kate believes she has discovered a plot to infiltrate British politics, and place a Prime Minister with pro Putin leanings, right at the heart of British Government. The secret agent trying to bring about this major coup is codenamed ‘Viper ‘. I think maybe, it’s an excellent book for a man to read or anyone au fait with the political systems of these countries. I think perhaps I’m a not quite so well versed, and I did get a bit lost along the way. Author Tom Bradby is a highly respected British journalist, screenwriter, and anchorman on ITV news here in the UK. It’s a long time since his last novel, but boy was ‘Secret Service’ worth waiting for!

Kate and her team set out to vet the two contenders who are in the running for British PM with information that one of them could be the mole, Codename: Viper. Kate must put all at risk, including her life and the lives of her team to get to the truth.

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Brilliant. . . . St. Petersburg . . . illuminates The White Russian. . . . Rusky is a character to remember. . . . A complex mystery.” — Columbus Dispatch on The White Russian Kate’s boss, Ian Granger is sceptical about what she’s discovered, he’s not a fan of hers, and he prefers to see it as ‘her paranoia’, but Head of MI6, Sir Alan Brabazon also known as (C) decides to allow Kate to follow up on her suspicions and gather evidence, and that doesn’t go down well with Granger. The problem though, is whether the intel she’s receiving is actually genuine, or is it just another game of cat and mouse and interference in the democratic process that the Russians appear to enjoy so much. This feisty, pacey thriller by Tom Bradby has it all - nervy gangsters, crooked politicians, gutsy cops and a sexy moll. It is also blessed with excellent timing....A top-notch piece of crime writing" — Press Association (UK), on Blood Money From the Publisher Kate is a good spy but as the investigation proceeds you feel she can not be a loyal wife, supportive parent and faithful agent of the government. It's a fast-paced, easy read which plays perfectly on the fears of both the political establishment and the general population. Moving between rich, vivid locations we follow protagonist Kate who begins a covert investigation into corruption in the top-levels of the UK government but her conflicting loyalties creep into her head rather a lot. It's certainly a high-octane, high-stakes story full of palpable tension which builds and builds beautifully. There are some parallels that can be drawn between some of the cast here and those currently in the real-world political spotlight. I suspect that was intentional on Bradby's part.