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BOX 88 #1
BOX 88
An organisation that doesn’t exist.
A spy that can’t be caught.
1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall is imminent and the Cold War will soon be over. But for BOX 88, a top secret spying agency known only to an inner circle of MI6 and CIA operatives, the espionage game is heating up.
Lachlan Kite, recruited straight from an elite boarding school, is sent to France – the frontline of a new secret war. Kite is tasked with gathering intelligence on a mysterious Iranian businessman implicated in the tragic Lockerbie bombing. But what he uncovers is even more deadly…
2020: MI5 hear rumours of BOX 88’s existence and go after Kite – only for Iranian intelligence to get to him first. Taken captive and subjected to torture, Kite is presented with a simple choice: reveal the truth about what happened in France thirty years earlier – or watch his family die.
A spy that can’t be caught.
1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall is imminent and the Cold War will soon be over. But for BOX 88, a top secret spying agency known only to an inner circle of MI6 and CIA operatives, the espionage game is heating up.
Lachlan Kite, recruited straight from an elite boarding school, is sent to France – the frontline of a new secret war. Kite is tasked with gathering intelligence on a mysterious Iranian businessman implicated in the tragic Lockerbie bombing. But what he uncovers is even more deadly…
2020: MI5 hear rumours of BOX 88’s existence and go after Kite – only for Iranian intelligence to get to him first. Taken captive and subjected to torture, Kite is presented with a simple choice: reveal the truth about what happened in France thirty years earlier – or watch his family die.
496 pages, ebook
First published October 1, 2020
About the author
Charles Cumming
29 books1,396 followersCharles Cumming is British writer of spy fiction. His international bestselling thrillers including A Spy By Nature, The Spanish Game, Typhoon and The Trinity Six. A former British Secret Service recruit, he is a contributing editor of The Week magazine and lives in London.
http://www.charlescumming.co.uk/
http://www.charlescumming.co.uk/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 723 reviews
December 29, 2021
Box 88 by Charles Cumming, Narrated by Charlie Ansen
Lachlan "Lockie" Kite is a thirty year veteran of BOX 88, a top secret spy agency known only to an inner circle of MI6 and CIA operatives. He was recruited young, only eighteen years old when he was given his first trial run mission. As the story progresses we get to watch him from a young age all the way to the present day, when Lockie is kidnapped by Iranian intelligence. A small MI5 group has also become aware of Kite's existence in this rumored BOX 88 agency and has been on his tail at the same time as the Iranians.
The story jumps back and forth between Lockie's younger days and the present and I enjoyed this way of following Lockie. As a student at an elite boarding school Kite's intelligence and calm, no nonsense, more mature than his age, nature has caught the eye of a BOX 88 agent and the fact that he is best friends with a family that is hosting someone that is very important to BOX 88 seals the deal that Lockie be recruited into a trial run mission for the group. On one hand, Lockie doesn't like the aspect of lying to and spying on his best friend and his family, but on the other hand, Lockie is very interested in helping to avert the death and destruction that terrorists have in mind.
Because we learn about Lockie from his young days and get to watch him try to understand what is asked of him at the very beginning of his BOX 88 days, I was also invested in what happened to Lockie thirty years later. It would have been harder for me to care about the older Lockie without getting to know and like the younger Lockie. The story does not end on a cliff hanger but it's clear that there is more to come and I can't wait to read the second book in this series. The audio version of this books is well acted, with the smoothness of narrator Charlie Ansen bringing Lockie to life for me.
Audio version pub Jan 11 2022
Thank you to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.
Lachlan "Lockie" Kite is a thirty year veteran of BOX 88, a top secret spy agency known only to an inner circle of MI6 and CIA operatives. He was recruited young, only eighteen years old when he was given his first trial run mission. As the story progresses we get to watch him from a young age all the way to the present day, when Lockie is kidnapped by Iranian intelligence. A small MI5 group has also become aware of Kite's existence in this rumored BOX 88 agency and has been on his tail at the same time as the Iranians.
The story jumps back and forth between Lockie's younger days and the present and I enjoyed this way of following Lockie. As a student at an elite boarding school Kite's intelligence and calm, no nonsense, more mature than his age, nature has caught the eye of a BOX 88 agent and the fact that he is best friends with a family that is hosting someone that is very important to BOX 88 seals the deal that Lockie be recruited into a trial run mission for the group. On one hand, Lockie doesn't like the aspect of lying to and spying on his best friend and his family, but on the other hand, Lockie is very interested in helping to avert the death and destruction that terrorists have in mind.
Because we learn about Lockie from his young days and get to watch him try to understand what is asked of him at the very beginning of his BOX 88 days, I was also invested in what happened to Lockie thirty years later. It would have been harder for me to care about the older Lockie without getting to know and like the younger Lockie. The story does not end on a cliff hanger but it's clear that there is more to come and I can't wait to read the second book in this series. The audio version of this books is well acted, with the smoothness of narrator Charlie Ansen bringing Lockie to life for me.
Audio version pub Jan 11 2022
Thank you to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.
September 26, 2020
* 4.5 stars *
Box 88 is a a secret organisation that is unknown to the outside world - to all intents and purposes, it doesn’t even exist, but after its 31 years of operations, MI5 have begun to hear rumours of it and decide to go after Lachlan (Lockie) Kite, who they believe to be one of its top British Intelligence agents.
Kite was recruited straight from one of the best private schools in England in 1989, at the very young age of 18, and his first assignment takes him to France - his orders are to gather intelligence on an Iranian businessman, thought to be involved in the Lockerbie bombing, but he discovers much more than that in this gripping espionage thriller from Charles Cumming.
It’s now 2020, and Kite has been kidnapped, and there’s no doubt that his torturers will stop at nothing to make him reveal the truth about what really happened in that long ago summer in France.
As Lachlan fights for his own survival members of Box 88 are frantically searching for him, but will they find him in time to save his life?
Cumming has made what initially seem random, and irregular events across two time zones, into the muscular skeleton of a tautly plotted thriller, that manages to grip the reader right from the start.
I understand that author Robert Harris has named Cumming as the heir-apparent to le Carré’s throne in spy fiction. Who I am I to argue with that? Highly recommended!
* Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
Box 88 is a a secret organisation that is unknown to the outside world - to all intents and purposes, it doesn’t even exist, but after its 31 years of operations, MI5 have begun to hear rumours of it and decide to go after Lachlan (Lockie) Kite, who they believe to be one of its top British Intelligence agents.
Kite was recruited straight from one of the best private schools in England in 1989, at the very young age of 18, and his first assignment takes him to France - his orders are to gather intelligence on an Iranian businessman, thought to be involved in the Lockerbie bombing, but he discovers much more than that in this gripping espionage thriller from Charles Cumming.
It’s now 2020, and Kite has been kidnapped, and there’s no doubt that his torturers will stop at nothing to make him reveal the truth about what really happened in that long ago summer in France.
As Lachlan fights for his own survival members of Box 88 are frantically searching for him, but will they find him in time to save his life?
Cumming has made what initially seem random, and irregular events across two time zones, into the muscular skeleton of a tautly plotted thriller, that manages to grip the reader right from the start.
I understand that author Robert Harris has named Cumming as the heir-apparent to le Carré’s throne in spy fiction. Who I am I to argue with that? Highly recommended!
* Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
September 13, 2020
Charles Cumming writes a remarkable espionage thriller that is the extraordinary coming of age of Lachlan 'Lockie' Kite in the late 1980s, with a narrative that shifts back and forth in time to allow the reader to compare and contrast the nature of espionage and spycraft in two markedly different eras. Close to his alcoholic father, young Lockie is devastated and griefstricken at his death. He is not so close to the chilling and distant beauty that his mother, and plays an instrumental part in helping to run their Scottish hotel. Despite not being able to afford it, his mother wangles him a place at an elite public school, Alford College, in England, leaving a lost and rootless Kite having to come to terms with this new milieu, the divisions of social class and its hierarchies, the male only boys culture, with some beaks (teachers) rather keen on touching their young charges.
He eventually settles down, becoming friends with the wealthy Xavier Bonnard, accepted by and staying with Xavier's family in their various homes in the holidays. It is Xavier's casual invitation to spend the summer of 1989 at their villa in the South of France, where they will be joined by his Iranian godfather, Ali Eskandarian, that leads to Kite's unlikely recruitment to the highly secretive Anglo-American spy agency, Box 88. Eskandarian is a person of interest in the Lockerbie disaster which claimed so many lives, and there are rumours another atrocity is in the pipeline. The events and tragedy of that summer and his mission is to have an indelible impact on his life and future, having repercussions through the years that leave him with a burden of guilt that is to affect his friendship with Xavier and the Bonnard family. Decades later, a significant girlfriend from his past, Martha Raine, phones him to let him know that the heavy drinking Xavier has committed suicide.
Lockie attends Xavier's funeral, he is being investigated by MI5 for being a spy, only to be abducted by the Iranian Intelligence Service, who wish to interrogate him on the events of that 1989 summer, and at stake is the life of his pregnant wife and their unborn child. Cumming skillfully weaves Lockie's present day dilemmas with the past, his personal history and what happened that fateful summer in the South of France. The highlight for me was the human story of Kite, to all intents and purposes still a naive schoolboy, drawn into the dark, intense, pressurising, dangerous and fraught world of global espionage. He wants to please, he wants to help his country, and help avoid another terrorist incident, but he has only the tiniest of glimpses of the fast changing picture, left in the dark about what is going on. He finds his loyalties torn, and guilt accumulating when it comes to the Bonnard family, and in the midst of it all, is the flowering of his romantic relationship with Martha. This will appeal to all those who love quality espionage fiction. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.
He eventually settles down, becoming friends with the wealthy Xavier Bonnard, accepted by and staying with Xavier's family in their various homes in the holidays. It is Xavier's casual invitation to spend the summer of 1989 at their villa in the South of France, where they will be joined by his Iranian godfather, Ali Eskandarian, that leads to Kite's unlikely recruitment to the highly secretive Anglo-American spy agency, Box 88. Eskandarian is a person of interest in the Lockerbie disaster which claimed so many lives, and there are rumours another atrocity is in the pipeline. The events and tragedy of that summer and his mission is to have an indelible impact on his life and future, having repercussions through the years that leave him with a burden of guilt that is to affect his friendship with Xavier and the Bonnard family. Decades later, a significant girlfriend from his past, Martha Raine, phones him to let him know that the heavy drinking Xavier has committed suicide.
Lockie attends Xavier's funeral, he is being investigated by MI5 for being a spy, only to be abducted by the Iranian Intelligence Service, who wish to interrogate him on the events of that 1989 summer, and at stake is the life of his pregnant wife and their unborn child. Cumming skillfully weaves Lockie's present day dilemmas with the past, his personal history and what happened that fateful summer in the South of France. The highlight for me was the human story of Kite, to all intents and purposes still a naive schoolboy, drawn into the dark, intense, pressurising, dangerous and fraught world of global espionage. He wants to please, he wants to help his country, and help avoid another terrorist incident, but he has only the tiniest of glimpses of the fast changing picture, left in the dark about what is going on. He finds his loyalties torn, and guilt accumulating when it comes to the Bonnard family, and in the midst of it all, is the flowering of his romantic relationship with Martha. This will appeal to all those who love quality espionage fiction. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.
September 17, 2020
This is the story of Lachlan (Lockie) Kite and how he is recruited into Box 88, a covert, below the radar US/UK espionage group. We meet Lockie, now in his forties at the funeral of friend Xavier Bonnard from his school days at Alford - think Eton. It is here that Lockie aged 18 is recruited by his ‘beak’ (public school speak for teacher) to spy on high ranking Iranian Ali Eskandaria, a friend of Xavier’s family, whilst they are on holiday at a Bonnard villa in France. The Lockerbie bombing looms large in people’s minds, Salman Rushdie is in protective custody following Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa and events in Tehran continue to cause concerns. This is the background to this clever, intricately plotted thriller with what happens to Lockie at eighteen skilfully woven into events after Xavier’s funeral creating a tense narrative.
I do enjoy a good espionage thriller and this isn’t just good, it’s outstanding. Real events are used to give the plot a feel of authenticity and I find the Iranian aspect fascinating. There are some excellent characters especially Lockie whose teenage naivety contrasts so well with the experienced operator in his forties, he’s a skilful agents utilising all his mental agility and physical strength. It’s clear from the start that Lockie is going to be a great asset as he shows real initiative even as a young man. The novel depicts political dangers as well as personal ones and daring risks. There are some shocks along the way and moments of breath holding suspense which glue you to the pages.
Overall, this is a slick, very intelligent and well written thriller. The plot is excellent, it unfolds organically and naturally through the high quality writing. Very mean Mr Cumming to leave us hanging at the end! I sincerely hope the next instalment is under way and sign me up now!
With thanks to NetGalley and special thanks to Harper Collins UK/Harper Fiction and Charlie Cumming for the much appreciated arc for an honest review.
I do enjoy a good espionage thriller and this isn’t just good, it’s outstanding. Real events are used to give the plot a feel of authenticity and I find the Iranian aspect fascinating. There are some excellent characters especially Lockie whose teenage naivety contrasts so well with the experienced operator in his forties, he’s a skilful agents utilising all his mental agility and physical strength. It’s clear from the start that Lockie is going to be a great asset as he shows real initiative even as a young man. The novel depicts political dangers as well as personal ones and daring risks. There are some shocks along the way and moments of breath holding suspense which glue you to the pages.
Overall, this is a slick, very intelligent and well written thriller. The plot is excellent, it unfolds organically and naturally through the high quality writing. Very mean Mr Cumming to leave us hanging at the end! I sincerely hope the next instalment is under way and sign me up now!
With thanks to NetGalley and special thanks to Harper Collins UK/Harper Fiction and Charlie Cumming for the much appreciated arc for an honest review.
August 28, 2020
I enjoy the occasional thriller featuring daring deeds undertaken by agents working for MI6 or the CIA. The stories tend to be complex puzzles you have to be on your game to unravel and usually told in a manner that ensures you have to pay very close attention to the detail. I’ve always found John le Carré’s novels to be impenetrable (I can’t even track the films or television adaptations of his books) but I’ve grown to rely on the scribblings of Charles Cumming - I’ve found his style of espionage much more digestible.
We’re first introduced to Lachlan Kite when he attends the funeral of one of his one-time close friends. We know little of him other than the fact that he works for a secret group collected from former members of British and American intelligence agencies. The team call themselves Box 88 and their aim is to ensure that the conflicting goals of whatever government happens to be in power do not prevent the ‘right’ sort of operations being undertaken. But soon Kite finds himself in peril and with no means of communicating with his team.
As Lachlan fights for his own survival members of Box 88 are frantically searching for him. Can they find him in time? As this plays out we start to learn in flashback of Kite’s background and how he was recruited into this exclusive and mysterious group. We begin to learn how events of the past have created the challenge he now faces, and what a story it is. We track events from his days as a bright student at a posh public school to a daring escapade accompanying the family of his close friend to their villa in the South of France, as he awaits his A Level exam results.
It’s brilliantly done: the pace and structure of the story and the character development (of all the leading players) drew me in totally. It's a great story, brilliantly told. I could hardly put this one down and totally raced through the whole thing. I think this is the author’s best book to date and even better it appears to be the start of a series featuring Lachlan Kite. Personally, I cant wait to get my hands on book 2. Perhaps my top read of the year so far.
My sincere thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
We’re first introduced to Lachlan Kite when he attends the funeral of one of his one-time close friends. We know little of him other than the fact that he works for a secret group collected from former members of British and American intelligence agencies. The team call themselves Box 88 and their aim is to ensure that the conflicting goals of whatever government happens to be in power do not prevent the ‘right’ sort of operations being undertaken. But soon Kite finds himself in peril and with no means of communicating with his team.
As Lachlan fights for his own survival members of Box 88 are frantically searching for him. Can they find him in time? As this plays out we start to learn in flashback of Kite’s background and how he was recruited into this exclusive and mysterious group. We begin to learn how events of the past have created the challenge he now faces, and what a story it is. We track events from his days as a bright student at a posh public school to a daring escapade accompanying the family of his close friend to their villa in the South of France, as he awaits his A Level exam results.
It’s brilliantly done: the pace and structure of the story and the character development (of all the leading players) drew me in totally. It's a great story, brilliantly told. I could hardly put this one down and totally raced through the whole thing. I think this is the author’s best book to date and even better it appears to be the start of a series featuring Lachlan Kite. Personally, I cant wait to get my hands on book 2. Perhaps my top read of the year so far.
My sincere thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
July 31, 2021
Enjoyable spy thriller introducing a new lead character for Charles Cumming.
Box 88 is a secret organisation on the fringes of official intelligence agencies. It is tasked with activities and investigations that have limited and specific high-level sponsorship away from mainstream secret service operations.
Among its small number of personnel is Lachlan Kite. He is captured and tortured because of his involvement in an intelligence gathering operation as a fresh-faced young man some 30 years previously. The captors want answers and Lachlan (Lockie) must hold his own by recounting events that happened in France.
Can he do this to save his life and that of others close to him and understand why the captors now want this information.
Moving between 1989 and 2020 the events and characters build fairly well with key moments in Lachlan's early life and growth from school to spy all covered.
I enjoyed the 1989 portions more and felt that the 2020 aspects were the weaker parts of the book. Overall, a solid and interesting read but not for me Mr Cummings' best book.
Box 88 is a secret organisation on the fringes of official intelligence agencies. It is tasked with activities and investigations that have limited and specific high-level sponsorship away from mainstream secret service operations.
Among its small number of personnel is Lachlan Kite. He is captured and tortured because of his involvement in an intelligence gathering operation as a fresh-faced young man some 30 years previously. The captors want answers and Lachlan (Lockie) must hold his own by recounting events that happened in France.
Can he do this to save his life and that of others close to him and understand why the captors now want this information.
Moving between 1989 and 2020 the events and characters build fairly well with key moments in Lachlan's early life and growth from school to spy all covered.
I enjoyed the 1989 portions more and felt that the 2020 aspects were the weaker parts of the book. Overall, a solid and interesting read but not for me Mr Cummings' best book.
October 2, 2020
This is a very cool spy thriller with more than a shadow of Le Carré about it. Box 88 is a highly secret trans-atlantic anti-terrorism spy agency that even M16 and the CIA don't know about. The current head, Lachlan Kite was recruited in 1989 after completing his A levels at an elite boarding school. During that summer, he was invited to stay with his best friend and his family at their house in the south of France and while there was asked to gather information on a family friend, an Iranian, also staying in the house. The events that occurred during that holiday had many repercussions for Kite including what is happening to him in 2020.
Smart and well written, this is an excellent spy thriller with plenty of tradecraft on show in both 1988 and 2020. Kite's story of what happened in 1988 coloured with the excitement and trepidation of his first assignment and falling in love with Martha, a girl also staying at the house, makes for a very absorbing tale. While there is a good sense of the younger Kite's personality through this account, the older Kite remained more distant, mainly because there is less chance to get to know him. I did very much like Cara, a young M15 spy who gets mixed up in the current day situation. I'm hopeful that Mr Cumming is planning a sequel as he indicates that he still has more to tell about one of the characters.
With many thanks to HarperCollins Australia and Netgalley for a digital arc to read
Smart and well written, this is an excellent spy thriller with plenty of tradecraft on show in both 1988 and 2020. Kite's story of what happened in 1988 coloured with the excitement and trepidation of his first assignment and falling in love with Martha, a girl also staying at the house, makes for a very absorbing tale. While there is a good sense of the younger Kite's personality through this account, the older Kite remained more distant, mainly because there is less chance to get to know him. I did very much like Cara, a young M15 spy who gets mixed up in the current day situation. I'm hopeful that Mr Cumming is planning a sequel as he indicates that he still has more to tell about one of the characters.
With many thanks to HarperCollins Australia and Netgalley for a digital arc to read
August 19, 2021
4.5★
“‘That’s exactly what we do. We go behind the backs of presidents and prime ministers, of secretaries of state, heads of the Foreign Office and so forth. BOX 88 does the things they don’t want us to do, that they don’t ask us to do, which they don’t realise need to be done.’”
This would be a straight-forward spy thriller except that it is hardly straightforward. There are so many secret groups that the author kindly added a cast of characters at the front. Fortunately, I never lost sight of the main game, which was for Lachlan ‘Lockie’ Kite to spy on behalf of the good guys. Mind you, it was hard to tell which good guys were which and who might be a double agent.
After Kite’s father died (a drunk), his mother arranged to get him into a rich boys’ boarding school through an old beau. Alford College is awfully posh for a boy whose widowed mother is struggling to run a Scottish pub on her own, but he’s bright and clever. Later he reflects.
“At Alford, to survive was to remain concealed; to thrive was to put on a mask, projecting nothing but confidence and strength to the outside world. It had occurred to Kite that, in many ways, the school was the perfect breeding ground for a career in intelligence.”
There’s the usual run of teachers (‘beaks’) who run admiring eyes (and more) over their vulnerable young charges, but young Kite manages to stave them off. Instead, he makes friends with the very popular history teacher, William Peele.
“In a school which seemed to positively discriminate towards the recruitment of closeted middle-aged homosexuals, Peele was that rare thing: a bachelor beak who didn’t want to fondle teenage boys. Physically fit and a crack shot. . .”
The rumours about ‘Sex-a-Peele’ revolve around women he has reportedly been seen with, so Kite is safe to enjoy his company. Peele can see this young boy is hungry to learn, so he assumes responsibility for his education.
Kite’s best friend all through school is Xavier Bonnard who definitely is posh and wealthy, but they team up. At the end of their final year, Xavier invites Kite to spend the summer with his family at their summer home in the south of France. This summer of 1989 is where the main action in the past takes place, when Xavier and his sister and guests laze around the pool, drink too much, smoke too much, and generally overindulge themselves.
But on another level, a lot is going on, and it involves Iranians and Iran’s intelligence service, MOIS. (I did say I found it tricky to keep up.)
“Personnel from the United States had been secretly meeting senior government ministers from Tehran at a hotel in Dubai without the knowledge or approval of the White House.”
The story goes back and forth from Kite’s past and the present, thirty years after that summer in France. Kite receives a phone call that Xavier has suicided, and he feels compelled to go to the funeral.
Kite’s pregnant wife does not know details of his past, but she is aware of the kinds of secrets her husband keeps. When they are both threatened with reprisals from – well, from one of the groups of bad guys (if I may be so glib), we are not surprised, although we want to be hopeful.
“There was no precedent for hostile states harming the spouses of targeted MI6 and CIA officers, but in the age of Trump and Putin, of Xi and Assad, all bets were off.”
I was surprised how often I was on the edge of my seat during Kite’s youthful introduction to spying that summer in France. It was obvious he survived, but I was just as nervous for him as if I didn’t know. That’s the sign of a good writer!
I was hoping his luck would hold and he’d survive the current ordeal.
“‘Ask the prisoner if he works for MI6,’ he said. ‘If he denies it again, break one of the fingers on his right hand.’”
I really enjoyed this, confusing though it is to keep the factions and alliances and double-crossing straight. In the end, it didn’t matter if I missed some of the politics (and there’s plenty of that for those who are interested), Cummings does a good job of keeping a cracking story moving along.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.
“‘That’s exactly what we do. We go behind the backs of presidents and prime ministers, of secretaries of state, heads of the Foreign Office and so forth. BOX 88 does the things they don’t want us to do, that they don’t ask us to do, which they don’t realise need to be done.’”
This would be a straight-forward spy thriller except that it is hardly straightforward. There are so many secret groups that the author kindly added a cast of characters at the front. Fortunately, I never lost sight of the main game, which was for Lachlan ‘Lockie’ Kite to spy on behalf of the good guys. Mind you, it was hard to tell which good guys were which and who might be a double agent.
After Kite’s father died (a drunk), his mother arranged to get him into a rich boys’ boarding school through an old beau. Alford College is awfully posh for a boy whose widowed mother is struggling to run a Scottish pub on her own, but he’s bright and clever. Later he reflects.
“At Alford, to survive was to remain concealed; to thrive was to put on a mask, projecting nothing but confidence and strength to the outside world. It had occurred to Kite that, in many ways, the school was the perfect breeding ground for a career in intelligence.”
There’s the usual run of teachers (‘beaks’) who run admiring eyes (and more) over their vulnerable young charges, but young Kite manages to stave them off. Instead, he makes friends with the very popular history teacher, William Peele.
“In a school which seemed to positively discriminate towards the recruitment of closeted middle-aged homosexuals, Peele was that rare thing: a bachelor beak who didn’t want to fondle teenage boys. Physically fit and a crack shot. . .”
The rumours about ‘Sex-a-Peele’ revolve around women he has reportedly been seen with, so Kite is safe to enjoy his company. Peele can see this young boy is hungry to learn, so he assumes responsibility for his education.
Kite’s best friend all through school is Xavier Bonnard who definitely is posh and wealthy, but they team up. At the end of their final year, Xavier invites Kite to spend the summer with his family at their summer home in the south of France. This summer of 1989 is where the main action in the past takes place, when Xavier and his sister and guests laze around the pool, drink too much, smoke too much, and generally overindulge themselves.
But on another level, a lot is going on, and it involves Iranians and Iran’s intelligence service, MOIS. (I did say I found it tricky to keep up.)
“Personnel from the United States had been secretly meeting senior government ministers from Tehran at a hotel in Dubai without the knowledge or approval of the White House.”
The story goes back and forth from Kite’s past and the present, thirty years after that summer in France. Kite receives a phone call that Xavier has suicided, and he feels compelled to go to the funeral.
Kite’s pregnant wife does not know details of his past, but she is aware of the kinds of secrets her husband keeps. When they are both threatened with reprisals from – well, from one of the groups of bad guys (if I may be so glib), we are not surprised, although we want to be hopeful.
“There was no precedent for hostile states harming the spouses of targeted MI6 and CIA officers, but in the age of Trump and Putin, of Xi and Assad, all bets were off.”
I was surprised how often I was on the edge of my seat during Kite’s youthful introduction to spying that summer in France. It was obvious he survived, but I was just as nervous for him as if I didn’t know. That’s the sign of a good writer!
I was hoping his luck would hold and he’d survive the current ordeal.
“‘Ask the prisoner if he works for MI6,’ he said. ‘If he denies it again, break one of the fingers on his right hand.’”
I really enjoyed this, confusing though it is to keep the factions and alliances and double-crossing straight. In the end, it didn’t matter if I missed some of the politics (and there’s plenty of that for those who are interested), Cummings does a good job of keeping a cracking story moving along.
Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.
October 13, 2024
I have a real affection for fictional novels that draw on real-life events as is the case with Box 88. Although it is not the central point to the plot there is a link to the Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988.
I have read many novels where there are flashbacks to the past that end up creating a current event that is the ending to the story, usually with some sort of twist. Box 88 is full of flashbacks, but this is different. Once the characters are laid out in this novel, the flashbacks are more prevalent than the current dialogue. In saying this, the flashbacks become the 'meat' of the novel and almost run separately to the opening. Although characters interweave, their stories are separate.
Box 88 is a classic spy novel woven around corruption in Government from Europe through to the Middle East. The names mentioned are real, in the most part, and a lot of events are real but the plot is completely fictional.
If you read this I only have one question to ask, and you will understand what I mean. If there is a secret society, only known by those who are in it and a VERY select few outside of it, then how do you recruit? If it is supposed to be a complete secret then how do you explain to a newcomer what it is and what you do? It happens in Box 88 and my thought was what would happen if the subject decided they were not interested after you made your approach? Don't you now have somebody else outside that knows of the society?
This is a brilliant and suspenseful thriller. It keeps you driving forward, trying to work out who did what, who knew and how could they be stopped. Instant favourite.
I have read many novels where there are flashbacks to the past that end up creating a current event that is the ending to the story, usually with some sort of twist. Box 88 is full of flashbacks, but this is different. Once the characters are laid out in this novel, the flashbacks are more prevalent than the current dialogue. In saying this, the flashbacks become the 'meat' of the novel and almost run separately to the opening. Although characters interweave, their stories are separate.
Box 88 is a classic spy novel woven around corruption in Government from Europe through to the Middle East. The names mentioned are real, in the most part, and a lot of events are real but the plot is completely fictional.
If you read this I only have one question to ask, and you will understand what I mean. If there is a secret society, only known by those who are in it and a VERY select few outside of it, then how do you recruit? If it is supposed to be a complete secret then how do you explain to a newcomer what it is and what you do? It happens in Box 88 and my thought was what would happen if the subject decided they were not interested after you made your approach? Don't you now have somebody else outside that knows of the society?
This is a brilliant and suspenseful thriller. It keeps you driving forward, trying to work out who did what, who knew and how could they be stopped. Instant favourite.
September 23, 2020
I am going to go against the popular opinion with this book and say I didn’t really enjoy it at all.
It’s a spy thriller, something I rarely (if ever? I can’t truly think of any I’ve read in the past 20 or so years anyway) read. I was looking forward to it, however, as a bit of a change up from my more usual reads of mystery or psychological thrillers. But the novelty of the genre wasn’t enough to win me over, I'm afraid.
Box 88 is the code name for a super secret spy agency of which the lead character, Lachlan Kite, is part. MI5 has Kite under surveillance when he is kidnapped by a group of Iranians. Cumming moves in between this storyline in the present, to flashbacks showing us how Kite was recruited and the events that led to his current predicament.
Cumming’s writing is not technically horrible. There is a true plot, with obviously a conflict and some tension but... I just couldn’t take to Cumming's style. I felt there was no intimacy with the characters and as such, I could not connect with them, especially not with Kite. I never felt like I cared about him or his plight. He simply remained a character on the page, someone whose life I was watching from afar, and he never made me feel…anything really.
I had this same feeling towards the supporting characters also. None of them made any impression (to be honest, I wouldn’t be able to tell you their names off the top of my head) or kicked me out of my apathetic state.
With this attitude, I read the book as I would a textbook or a recipe book. I was reading the words but I was not feeling anything. It made the whole thing drag and I took much longer to read it than I should have for a book its size.
As I said, there are lots of readers who have found this book great, giving it firm 5 out of 5’s but I’ll just stick with the halfway mark and give it 2 ½.
It’s a spy thriller, something I rarely (if ever? I can’t truly think of any I’ve read in the past 20 or so years anyway) read. I was looking forward to it, however, as a bit of a change up from my more usual reads of mystery or psychological thrillers. But the novelty of the genre wasn’t enough to win me over, I'm afraid.
Box 88 is the code name for a super secret spy agency of which the lead character, Lachlan Kite, is part. MI5 has Kite under surveillance when he is kidnapped by a group of Iranians. Cumming moves in between this storyline in the present, to flashbacks showing us how Kite was recruited and the events that led to his current predicament.
Cumming’s writing is not technically horrible. There is a true plot, with obviously a conflict and some tension but... I just couldn’t take to Cumming's style. I felt there was no intimacy with the characters and as such, I could not connect with them, especially not with Kite. I never felt like I cared about him or his plight. He simply remained a character on the page, someone whose life I was watching from afar, and he never made me feel…anything really.
I had this same feeling towards the supporting characters also. None of them made any impression (to be honest, I wouldn’t be able to tell you their names off the top of my head) or kicked me out of my apathetic state.
With this attitude, I read the book as I would a textbook or a recipe book. I was reading the words but I was not feeling anything. It made the whole thing drag and I took much longer to read it than I should have for a book its size.
As I said, there are lots of readers who have found this book great, giving it firm 5 out of 5’s but I’ll just stick with the halfway mark and give it 2 ½.
August 7, 2020
Book Reviewed on www.whisperingstories.com
At a funeral for his old friend Xavier, Lachlan Kite is approached by someone who explains they were a friend of Xavier’s and whats to talk business to Lachlan. He arranges for them to travel to a nearby hotel but instead, Lachlan is kidnapped.
MI5 was already watching Lachlan but lost him during the move from the church. When they find the car that Lachlan was initially in messed up inside they know that someone has taken him.
For Lachlan, this whole event started back in the 80s when he was recruited as a secret agent with the task of finding out who caused the Lockerbie bombing but what he found out was far more sinister and people are wanting answers to Box 88.
Box 88 is a political thriller with a difference, it moves back and forth in time between the 80s and Lachlan at university and being recruited to become a spy and the present day and his kidnapping. The kidnappers are ruthless and are willing to go to any lengths to get Lachlan to talk, even putting his wife and unborn child in danger.
The present-day and there are a lot of interrogation scenes in which Lachlan tries to play it cool and to make his captors understand they have the wrong person, but they have been watching him for a while. MI5 is also on his tail. They have been watching him for some time wanting to know what he knows about Box 88, hoping that he would slip up at some point or talk to someone but they never imagined he’d be kidnapped. Now they must find him before it is too late.
The book does jump around a lot between timelines, something I’m not very keen on. I like to know which time period I’m in from the off and sometimes this wasn’t made clear. Apart from that, the book had me invested and intrigued to know what Box 88 is and what Lachlan had discovered. Let’s just say I felt like an MI5 agent waiting to find out the information.
The pace is fast and the action keeps on coming. It is exciting and there are certainly adrenaline rushes at times. It had me on the edge of my seat more than once. It was a quick read that I enjoyed immensely. It also had an air of nostalgia with it which took me back to my childhood.
At a funeral for his old friend Xavier, Lachlan Kite is approached by someone who explains they were a friend of Xavier’s and whats to talk business to Lachlan. He arranges for them to travel to a nearby hotel but instead, Lachlan is kidnapped.
MI5 was already watching Lachlan but lost him during the move from the church. When they find the car that Lachlan was initially in messed up inside they know that someone has taken him.
For Lachlan, this whole event started back in the 80s when he was recruited as a secret agent with the task of finding out who caused the Lockerbie bombing but what he found out was far more sinister and people are wanting answers to Box 88.
Box 88 is a political thriller with a difference, it moves back and forth in time between the 80s and Lachlan at university and being recruited to become a spy and the present day and his kidnapping. The kidnappers are ruthless and are willing to go to any lengths to get Lachlan to talk, even putting his wife and unborn child in danger.
The present-day and there are a lot of interrogation scenes in which Lachlan tries to play it cool and to make his captors understand they have the wrong person, but they have been watching him for a while. MI5 is also on his tail. They have been watching him for some time wanting to know what he knows about Box 88, hoping that he would slip up at some point or talk to someone but they never imagined he’d be kidnapped. Now they must find him before it is too late.
The book does jump around a lot between timelines, something I’m not very keen on. I like to know which time period I’m in from the off and sometimes this wasn’t made clear. Apart from that, the book had me invested and intrigued to know what Box 88 is and what Lachlan had discovered. Let’s just say I felt like an MI5 agent waiting to find out the information.
The pace is fast and the action keeps on coming. It is exciting and there are certainly adrenaline rushes at times. It had me on the edge of my seat more than once. It was a quick read that I enjoyed immensely. It also had an air of nostalgia with it which took me back to my childhood.
September 28, 2020
This was an a old school type spy story, with a John Le Carré vibe, set in the present and in 1989. Lachlan (Lockie) Kite is attending the funeral of his old friend Xavier Bonnard. Lockie and Xav had been best friends at Alford - THE most prestigious English public school. After the funeral he agrees to go with a younger old Alfordian for a drink and a chat But is instead abducted by the man who is not what he claimed to be. For Lockie is a spy for the ultra secret Box 88 - a joint British American venture far removed from oversight.
For reasons that become clear as you read the book, his abductor wants to know all about a period, nearly 30 years ago, when Lockie was at a villa in the South of France with the Bonnard family during the summer after the final year of school. Another guest at the villa was a friend of Xav’s father, Luc Bonnard, an Iranian businessman by the name of Ali Eskandarian. This is who Lockie’s abductor wants to know about but Lockie can’t and won’t divulge his spy credentials so instead undertakes a marathon session of verbal gymnastics to try and convince his captor he is not a spy. Meanwhile MI5 has been watching Lockie, concerned about Box 88 as a rogue agency as they know nothing about it.
The 1989 narrative tells how Lockie is recruited and details his first mission - to go to France with the Bonnards as planned and, while there, to spy on Eskandarian. While it was enjoyable to read this more quiet, slow burning, old school spy story it was quite slow (although steady). It was also quite long and took me about three days to read which is very unusual. We did get a good sense of the characters, Lockie himself is just wonderful - smart, urbane, reserved but coiled, good spy material! I get the feeling there is quite a bit we have not been told about Lockie’s ‘summer of ‘89’ love interest, Martha Raine. And the last page gives you a hint there is more to this story which would indicate another book in the offing. I give this one 3.5 stars but am bumping it up to 4 because it was so cleverly and meticulously plotted. I would expect a sequel to be somewhat faster paced however. Many thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins and Charles Cumming for providing a copy. My opinions are my own.
For reasons that become clear as you read the book, his abductor wants to know all about a period, nearly 30 years ago, when Lockie was at a villa in the South of France with the Bonnard family during the summer after the final year of school. Another guest at the villa was a friend of Xav’s father, Luc Bonnard, an Iranian businessman by the name of Ali Eskandarian. This is who Lockie’s abductor wants to know about but Lockie can’t and won’t divulge his spy credentials so instead undertakes a marathon session of verbal gymnastics to try and convince his captor he is not a spy. Meanwhile MI5 has been watching Lockie, concerned about Box 88 as a rogue agency as they know nothing about it.
The 1989 narrative tells how Lockie is recruited and details his first mission - to go to France with the Bonnards as planned and, while there, to spy on Eskandarian. While it was enjoyable to read this more quiet, slow burning, old school spy story it was quite slow (although steady). It was also quite long and took me about three days to read which is very unusual. We did get a good sense of the characters, Lockie himself is just wonderful - smart, urbane, reserved but coiled, good spy material! I get the feeling there is quite a bit we have not been told about Lockie’s ‘summer of ‘89’ love interest, Martha Raine. And the last page gives you a hint there is more to this story which would indicate another book in the offing. I give this one 3.5 stars but am bumping it up to 4 because it was so cleverly and meticulously plotted. I would expect a sequel to be somewhat faster paced however. Many thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins and Charles Cumming for providing a copy. My opinions are my own.
October 11, 2020
Poorly written & entirely predictable, my first novel by Cummings & probably my last. Nowhere near as thrilling or entertaining as the publicity suggests & can only believe its position in any top 10 list is due to clever marketing by the publisher. Dreadful stuff.
January 13, 2022
Much of the service, to Kite’s frustration, was conducted in Latin. An agnostic from a young age, he loathed the smoke and mirrors voodoo of Catholicism, felt that Xavier would have insisted on something lighter and celebratory. Why was it the upper classes, when confronted with emotional turbulence of any kind, retreated behind ceremony and the stiff upper lip?…Kite had no doubt that Rosalind Bonnard and her waxwork friends would have grieved more openly for a Jack Russell…
Box88 opens with the Lockerbie air disaster, December 1988, and moves to the present day, where MI5 is listening in on a phone conversation between London businessman Lachlan Kite, suspected of involvement with the clandestine spy organisation BOX88, and an old flame Martha in New York. A long-time friend of Jacqui Bonnard, Martha tells Kite that Xavier Bonnard, a close friend of his at public school, had killed himself and would Kite be attending the funeral? Naturally he attends the service – under surveillance by MI5 - meets with a few former pupils and an Iranian friend of Xavier’s and ends up being kidnapped.
Much of the story relates to the public school from where Kite, at the age of eighteen, was recruitment by the shadowy organisation, and tasked with spying on an Iranian businessman, a guest of Xavier’s parents at their villa in the South of France, with the usual tradecraft of listening devices and dead drops, reporting to the safe house nearby.
There was something startling about seeing them together in this new environment. Peele was wearing dark blue trousers, espadrilles and a Lacoste shirt. He looked tanned and slightly unkempt, younger than he had seemed in Hampstead. Strawson was more formally dressed in a pale linen suit, like a character in a Grahame Greene novel behaving disreputably in the tropics.
In between the story switches to Kite’s questioning and low-level torture by his captors, and the MI5 agent who unwittingly joins the hunt for him.
The author once served with MI5, and is sparing in the use of over-the-top action that is a feature of many thrillers, here the threat and violence more nuanced. As the truth about the holiday in the south of France thirty years ago unfolds, the story holds numerous twists and turns as Kite tries to bluff his way out. As always, the story is taut, well-researched and well-written.
This is the fourth novel I have read by Charles Cumming, and would have rated this higher except
Box88 opens with the Lockerbie air disaster, December 1988, and moves to the present day, where MI5 is listening in on a phone conversation between London businessman Lachlan Kite, suspected of involvement with the clandestine spy organisation BOX88, and an old flame Martha in New York. A long-time friend of Jacqui Bonnard, Martha tells Kite that Xavier Bonnard, a close friend of his at public school, had killed himself and would Kite be attending the funeral? Naturally he attends the service – under surveillance by MI5 - meets with a few former pupils and an Iranian friend of Xavier’s and ends up being kidnapped.
Much of the story relates to the public school from where Kite, at the age of eighteen, was recruitment by the shadowy organisation, and tasked with spying on an Iranian businessman, a guest of Xavier’s parents at their villa in the South of France, with the usual tradecraft of listening devices and dead drops, reporting to the safe house nearby.
There was something startling about seeing them together in this new environment. Peele was wearing dark blue trousers, espadrilles and a Lacoste shirt. He looked tanned and slightly unkempt, younger than he had seemed in Hampstead. Strawson was more formally dressed in a pale linen suit, like a character in a Grahame Greene novel behaving disreputably in the tropics.
In between the story switches to Kite’s questioning and low-level torture by his captors, and the MI5 agent who unwittingly joins the hunt for him.
The author once served with MI5, and is sparing in the use of over-the-top action that is a feature of many thrillers, here the threat and violence more nuanced. As the truth about the holiday in the south of France thirty years ago unfolds, the story holds numerous twists and turns as Kite tries to bluff his way out. As always, the story is taut, well-researched and well-written.
This is the fourth novel I have read by Charles Cumming, and would have rated this higher except
April 22, 2024
Excellent spy thriller! A covert English-American spy organisation kicks into action when one of their own is kidnapped.
A murky history is slowly revealed that keeps the reader following every step of the way.
A murky history is slowly revealed that keeps the reader following every step of the way.
November 27, 2020
I was intrigued by this book although there was much about it that I found irritating. The story requires significant suspension of disbelief. We know that the intelligence services have a history of recruiting operatives from universities - well, Oxbridge, anyway - but I found it hard to believe that they did so from Eton/Harrow (Alford in the book is clearly one of these). But Box 88 is not your normal intelligence service: the plot requires us to believe that it manages to operate independently of all the others in both the UK and US which then gives the characters a certain amount of freedom.
The central character, Lachlan Kite, is recruited by one of the schoolmasters - apparently an active operative himself - and is sent off to spy during a holiday in France with his school friend's wealthy and well-connected family. The events of that summer are recollected while Kite is held hostage after being kidnapped at the funeral of his friend. I found it difficult to believe that an active spy would have got into a car with a complete stranger.
Teenaged Lachlan is pretty confused about the relationships between the people he encounters - I was too. The plot twist would probably have impressed me more if I had been less confused. The characters are stereotypes and not very interesting.
The frequent use of song titles and brand names was irritating - I assume that these were devices to place the characters in time and class status. And I really don't like the sort of feeble ending that leaves loose ends to tie into a future book.
The central character, Lachlan Kite, is recruited by one of the schoolmasters - apparently an active operative himself - and is sent off to spy during a holiday in France with his school friend's wealthy and well-connected family. The events of that summer are recollected while Kite is held hostage after being kidnapped at the funeral of his friend. I found it difficult to believe that an active spy would have got into a car with a complete stranger.
Teenaged Lachlan is pretty confused about the relationships between the people he encounters - I was too. The plot twist would probably have impressed me more if I had been less confused. The characters are stereotypes and not very interesting.
The frequent use of song titles and brand names was irritating - I assume that these were devices to place the characters in time and class status. And I really don't like the sort of feeble ending that leaves loose ends to tie into a future book.
October 26, 2020
I approached this book with great expectations having read the previous reviews. I do like a good espionage tale.
This book did not excite me. I had no interest in any of the characters – either to like or despise. The plot premise was good but somehow failed to pull me along, I wasn’t rushing turning pages to reveal what would happen next.
Cumming has written many other books, all with glowing reviews, maybe I should try one of those before dismissing his novels completely.
I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
This book did not excite me. I had no interest in any of the characters – either to like or despise. The plot premise was good but somehow failed to pull me along, I wasn’t rushing turning pages to reveal what would happen next.
Cumming has written many other books, all with glowing reviews, maybe I should try one of those before dismissing his novels completely.
I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
September 1, 2021
BOX 88 is a spy thriller with plenty of spies but no thrills.
The book starts promisingly with a shocking scene that sets up the mother of all red herrings. Nothing about the story has anything to do with the Lockerbie bombing despite that being insinuated in the blurb. Not that I'd care even if it did because, as far as setups go, this is a very stale one for a spy thriller published in 2020. The real problem is that, other than the prologue and the epilogue, BOX 88 is a huge disappointment.
The main events take place in present London, although about 60% of the book is a long flashback to Lachlan Kite's youth as an 18-year old graduate of an elite public school who gets recruited by a top-secret intelligence agency (the titular BOX 88) to spy on an Iranian politician who may or may not be connected to the Lockerbie bombing.
The flashback part of this novel is terribly boring. Too much time is spent on Lachlan's personal backstory, family history and teenage romantic interests. His recruitment by and training at BOX 88 is glossed over and also mostly told as a flashback within the flashback. When he finally goes off to South France to spend the summer with his close friend's family and his Iranian target, the plot barely picks up pace. Chapter after chapter we get descriptions of their mundane daily routines interspersed with low-stake spying the author tries too hard to make feel suspenseful.
Meanwhile, in the present, Lachlan is held captive by someone with a mysterious connection to the events that took place that summer more than 30 years ago and wants to know everything Lachlan can tell him about it. The fact that Lachlan can remember so many details is explained away by his photographic memory - a cheap yet effective trope in spy thrillers. But what is not explained is how his captor ever expected to get all that information out of Lachlan after all this time. When his ridiculous true motives are revealed, I almost put the book away in frustration, but by then I had nearly reached the end of it.
The blurb of the book would have you believe that BOX 88 is full of high-octane action. Nothing could be further from the truth. The few moments of action in the book are not even described directly. Someone's murder is heard over a microphone, a team's assault into a house is watched on a monitor, and so on. There's only a couple of unarmed fights in the book, but are described so badly that I couldn't visualise them. It's almost as if Cummings consciously avoids writing action because he knows how bad he is at it.
The spycraft in this book is laughable. BOX 88's chief's screening process consists of giving Lachlan a logical puzzle and intentionally making him tidy up his hotel room to see whether he'll lose his temper. After a few such petty tests, he invites Lachlan to lunch and gives him all the information on BOX 88 before Lachlan even accepts his offer. The MI5 task force that investigates BOX 88 is particularly incompetent. An agent keeps surveillance on a suspect without knowing what he looks like. Another agent uses her mobile phone to call a honeytrap number and ends up giving away all her personal information to BOX 88. Mick Herron's (who offered a quote for this book - the shame!) Slow Horses look like a bunch of 00s in comparison to these people.
To give credit to Charles Cumming, his prose is good and he can write characters well. But the plot is simply too boring for a thriller and his knowledge of the intelligence world doesn't feel authentic. The many positive reviews in GoodReads about this book seem to have been promoted by the publisher. Read them carefully and you'll see that most of them spend more space summarising the story than offering an actual opinion. I was duped by them and the heavy marketing of this book, but BOX 88 will be the last novel by Charles Cumming I ever read.
The book starts promisingly with a shocking scene that sets up the mother of all red herrings. Nothing about the story has anything to do with the Lockerbie bombing despite that being insinuated in the blurb. Not that I'd care even if it did because, as far as setups go, this is a very stale one for a spy thriller published in 2020. The real problem is that, other than the prologue and the epilogue, BOX 88 is a huge disappointment.
The main events take place in present London, although about 60% of the book is a long flashback to Lachlan Kite's youth as an 18-year old graduate of an elite public school who gets recruited by a top-secret intelligence agency (the titular BOX 88) to spy on an Iranian politician who may or may not be connected to the Lockerbie bombing.
The flashback part of this novel is terribly boring. Too much time is spent on Lachlan's personal backstory, family history and teenage romantic interests. His recruitment by and training at BOX 88 is glossed over and also mostly told as a flashback within the flashback. When he finally goes off to South France to spend the summer with his close friend's family and his Iranian target, the plot barely picks up pace. Chapter after chapter we get descriptions of their mundane daily routines interspersed with low-stake spying the author tries too hard to make feel suspenseful.
Meanwhile, in the present, Lachlan is held captive by someone with a mysterious connection to the events that took place that summer more than 30 years ago and wants to know everything Lachlan can tell him about it. The fact that Lachlan can remember so many details is explained away by his photographic memory - a cheap yet effective trope in spy thrillers. But what is not explained is how his captor ever expected to get all that information out of Lachlan after all this time. When his ridiculous true motives are revealed, I almost put the book away in frustration, but by then I had nearly reached the end of it.
The blurb of the book would have you believe that BOX 88 is full of high-octane action. Nothing could be further from the truth. The few moments of action in the book are not even described directly. Someone's murder is heard over a microphone, a team's assault into a house is watched on a monitor, and so on. There's only a couple of unarmed fights in the book, but are described so badly that I couldn't visualise them. It's almost as if Cummings consciously avoids writing action because he knows how bad he is at it.
The spycraft in this book is laughable. BOX 88's chief's screening process consists of giving Lachlan a logical puzzle and intentionally making him tidy up his hotel room to see whether he'll lose his temper. After a few such petty tests, he invites Lachlan to lunch and gives him all the information on BOX 88 before Lachlan even accepts his offer. The MI5 task force that investigates BOX 88 is particularly incompetent. An agent keeps surveillance on a suspect without knowing what he looks like. Another agent uses her mobile phone to call a honeytrap number and ends up giving away all her personal information to BOX 88. Mick Herron's (who offered a quote for this book - the shame!) Slow Horses look like a bunch of 00s in comparison to these people.
To give credit to Charles Cumming, his prose is good and he can write characters well. But the plot is simply too boring for a thriller and his knowledge of the intelligence world doesn't feel authentic. The many positive reviews in GoodReads about this book seem to have been promoted by the publisher. Read them carefully and you'll see that most of them spend more space summarising the story than offering an actual opinion. I was duped by them and the heavy marketing of this book, but BOX 88 will be the last novel by Charles Cumming I ever read.
January 6, 2022
Read about Andrea's Pick of the Week on the Cook Memorial Public Library blog, Shelf Life: https://shelflife.cooklib.org/2022/01...
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August 16, 2023
Good Stuff
Where enjoyable book what covers for time frames.
Pretty much a typical espionage book. In this case, it develops the main character, Kite, from his school days.
I recommend.
Where enjoyable book what covers for time frames.
Pretty much a typical espionage book. In this case, it develops the main character, Kite, from his school days.
I recommend.
July 23, 2021
3/5
Overall the book was okay. An espionage tale told from present and past. You follow the life of BOX 88 spy Lachlan Kite, under his own investigation from MI5, as well as capture from mysterious “MOIS” agents, and his very first job at BOX 88. And even the MI5 as they tail “Lockie”.
Not a bad book, but just a massive case of too little too late. Set in several different time periods and a few different character perspectives, we follow multiple stories all more or less surrounding the mysterious BOX 88.
BOX 88 was what the whole focus of what the book was about, being the focal point of most of the beginning stages of the book. However it took 200 plus pages to be told what it was, and even then it was slightly underwhelming.
The several time frames and perspectives really didn’t add a whole lot. I found myself favouring specific storylines and was just hoping that the next chapter wasn’t going to be another from the less engaging tales in the book. I found myself bored for large parts of the middle and just wanted to skip to the end to find out what was really going on.
Despite the flat beginning and middle, the book did end well, but it unfortunately didn’t amend the lacklustre buildup. It all made more sense after the fact, but was still slightly disjointed. I felt certain information wasn’t told, and too much unnecessary information was told. The book did however tie up most loose ends, only leaving slight questions.
Having part of the book set in 1988/89 was slightly intriguing even focusing and referencing real life occurrences such as the Lockerbie Bombing, and the relationship with Iran from multiple intelligence organisations.
I’d recommend this book if you like a spy thriller, I’d guess not as conventional as others it definitely has it’s pros and cons as stated above. Being my first spy book my view of it might be slightly warped and many might disagree.
Overall the book was okay. An espionage tale told from present and past. You follow the life of BOX 88 spy Lachlan Kite, under his own investigation from MI5, as well as capture from mysterious “MOIS” agents, and his very first job at BOX 88. And even the MI5 as they tail “Lockie”.
Not a bad book, but just a massive case of too little too late. Set in several different time periods and a few different character perspectives, we follow multiple stories all more or less surrounding the mysterious BOX 88.
BOX 88 was what the whole focus of what the book was about, being the focal point of most of the beginning stages of the book. However it took 200 plus pages to be told what it was, and even then it was slightly underwhelming.
The several time frames and perspectives really didn’t add a whole lot. I found myself favouring specific storylines and was just hoping that the next chapter wasn’t going to be another from the less engaging tales in the book. I found myself bored for large parts of the middle and just wanted to skip to the end to find out what was really going on.
Despite the flat beginning and middle, the book did end well, but it unfortunately didn’t amend the lacklustre buildup. It all made more sense after the fact, but was still slightly disjointed. I felt certain information wasn’t told, and too much unnecessary information was told. The book did however tie up most loose ends, only leaving slight questions.
Having part of the book set in 1988/89 was slightly intriguing even focusing and referencing real life occurrences such as the Lockerbie Bombing, and the relationship with Iran from multiple intelligence organisations.
I’d recommend this book if you like a spy thriller, I’d guess not as conventional as others it definitely has it’s pros and cons as stated above. Being my first spy book my view of it might be slightly warped and many might disagree.
March 19, 2022
Fiindcă e timpul pentru un nou Blog Tour, astăzi vorbim despre „BOX 88”, de Charles Cumming, primul volum ce îl are drept protagonist pe ingeniosul și remarcabilul agent sub acoperire, Lachlan Kite. Deși în ultima vreme nu am prea citit romane de spionaj, acesta a fost un prilej bun ca să mă întorc în lumea serviciilor secrete și să redescopăr un gen pe care îl apreciam foarte mult în adolescență, atunci când devoram toate cărțile scrise de Robert Ludlum pe care le găseam la Biblioteca Județeană sau prin anticariatele din oraș. În ciuda faptului că publicul român nu mai prea gustă această categorie livrescă și că, în consecință, editurile au renunțat să mai traducă astfel de autori, din când în când mai apare câte o carte de genul, care aduce un aer proaspăt în atmosfera îmbâcsită de thrillere domestice și de grămada uriașă de Romance-uri ce pretind a fi romane de suspans.
Recenzia:
http://www.cartilemele.ro/2022/03/rec...
Recenzia:
http://www.cartilemele.ro/2022/03/rec...
June 14, 2026
Four and a half stars!
Excellent. Having read this after James Bond and Dr. No, I enjoyed both, each in its own way. This one in particular, offers a plausible contemporary spy story.
Excellent. Having read this after James Bond and Dr. No, I enjoyed both, each in its own way. This one in particular, offers a plausible contemporary spy story.
November 20, 2021
First, I did not finish the book and maybe it got better after I stopped reading. 2.5 stars
BOX 88 is a secret organization that utilizes people from the US and UK special intelligence units. It first came into being back in the 1980's and Lachlan was recruited just out of high school in 1989. The story goes back and forth between the lead up to his recruitment and the present when info about the organization is starting to be revealed and he is kidnapped so others can find out about what he did back then.
I read more than a third of it, but could not get into it as it was dragging big time for me. I wanted to tell the author to hurry up and make it interesting. The characters were not ones to care about and it was a chore to pick it back up and try to get into it.
Maybe I missed out on something good, but I felt it was not for me so I stopped. I didn't even go to the end to find out what happened. I just didn't care.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.
BOX 88 is a secret organization that utilizes people from the US and UK special intelligence units. It first came into being back in the 1980's and Lachlan was recruited just out of high school in 1989. The story goes back and forth between the lead up to his recruitment and the present when info about the organization is starting to be revealed and he is kidnapped so others can find out about what he did back then.
I read more than a third of it, but could not get into it as it was dragging big time for me. I wanted to tell the author to hurry up and make it interesting. The characters were not ones to care about and it was a chore to pick it back up and try to get into it.
Maybe I missed out on something good, but I felt it was not for me so I stopped. I didn't even go to the end to find out what happened. I just didn't care.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.
Read
March 21, 2022Excelenta carte, cu dublu suspans, caci cele 2 planuri narative, prezent si trecut, au fiecare doza proprie de suspans. Imbinarea lor este foarte buna, iar rezultatul final este unul chiar si peste asteptarile mele.
Recomand!
Recomand!
October 7, 2021
Lachlan Kite is a member of Box 88, a transatlantic black ops outfit so secretive only a handful of people know of it's existence. The CIA and M.I.6 have heard rumblings here and there but have been unable to substantiate the rumors. Blacker than black, Box 88 was created in the 1980s too bridge the gap left after the Cold War to do the things the respective agencies could not or would not do. While attending the funeral of his best friend in London, Kite is kidnapped by Iranian nationals because of something that had happened 30 years earlier.
Charles Cumming has created an espionage masterpiece that harkens back to the old days of the spy genre. This is the first book in a new series and the first one of read of Mr Cumming. Cumming deftly jumps back and forth from 30 years ago to present day, which if done poorly, could ruin a story. However, Cumming employs the flashback scenes so intelligently it enhances the story not retract from it. In fact, if he had done it any other way, I don't believe it would have worked nearly as well.
I cannot begin to tell you how good Box 88 is. Cumming uses multiple storylines and brings them together in a number of shocking twists. Box 88 is an original, intelligent slow burn spy thriller with excellent spycraft, multifaceted characters that develop before our eyes, teenage angst and love and heartbreak with a little history and humor thrown in. If you enjoy the spy masters of yore you will not want to miss Box 88!
Thank you to Charles Cumming, Mysterious Press, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing an advanced copy of Box 88.
Charles Cumming has created an espionage masterpiece that harkens back to the old days of the spy genre. This is the first book in a new series and the first one of read of Mr Cumming. Cumming deftly jumps back and forth from 30 years ago to present day, which if done poorly, could ruin a story. However, Cumming employs the flashback scenes so intelligently it enhances the story not retract from it. In fact, if he had done it any other way, I don't believe it would have worked nearly as well.
I cannot begin to tell you how good Box 88 is. Cumming uses multiple storylines and brings them together in a number of shocking twists. Box 88 is an original, intelligent slow burn spy thriller with excellent spycraft, multifaceted characters that develop before our eyes, teenage angst and love and heartbreak with a little history and humor thrown in. If you enjoy the spy masters of yore you will not want to miss Box 88!
Thank you to Charles Cumming, Mysterious Press, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing an advanced copy of Box 88.
April 9, 2022
I'm sure Charles Cumming's other books are wonderful, but this novel is a jumbled and poorly plotted combination of John le Carré and Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series. Jumping between the present day and the 1980s, we're supposed to believe that because an 18-year-old passes some pretty ridiculous tests of character and intelligence, he's recruited into an Anglo-American intelligence organization so secret that not even the leaders of the CIA and MI 6 are aware of its existence. And once our teen Bond is dispatched on his first mission, it's not really much. In chapter after chapter, he sneaks around a villa on the French Riviera, owned by the family of his wealthy best friend from school, where he records conversations, photographs random documents, and has much sex with another house guest, who, for some reason, finds the teen irresistible. If you hope to find an escape hatch from the plot in interesting character development, you won't find much of that either. Other than some passages about the protagonist's British class anxiety because of his working class background, every character in this book is as about as flat as the pages you're reading.
August 8, 2021
Probably a good 3 3/4 but rounded up to a 4. A thoroughly enjoyable summer read - not, unfortunately, around a Mediterranean hotel swimming pool.
The story takes place over two periods of time: 1989 when school leaver Lachlan Kite is invited to spend a summer holiday with a friend’s family at their home in France and 2020 when Lachlan and his wife are separately taken captive by an apparent Middle Eastern terrorist group.
What links the two stories is the mysterious ‘Box 88’, for which Kite is recruited to work by a schoolmaster. The events of 1989 - which are well told with good moments of suspense and action and a well drawn cast of characters, have consequences for events many years later.
A very good spy novel which holds the pace nicely over its almost 500 pages. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by its author Charles Cumming.
The story takes place over two periods of time: 1989 when school leaver Lachlan Kite is invited to spend a summer holiday with a friend’s family at their home in France and 2020 when Lachlan and his wife are separately taken captive by an apparent Middle Eastern terrorist group.
What links the two stories is the mysterious ‘Box 88’, for which Kite is recruited to work by a schoolmaster. The events of 1989 - which are well told with good moments of suspense and action and a well drawn cast of characters, have consequences for events many years later.
A very good spy novel which holds the pace nicely over its almost 500 pages. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by its author Charles Cumming.
December 7, 2024
3'75⛵.
Me ha pasado una cosa curiosa con este libro: un minuto estaba enganchadísima y al siguiente notaba el interés decaer, incluso dentro de una misma línea temporal, de ahí la nota.
A pesar de la nota, en conjunto y como novela presentación de la organización BOX 88 y Lachlan "Lockie" Kite está muy bien: tiene buen argumento, oscilando entre 1989 y 2020, con raíces en la revolución iraní; buenos personajes, con Lockie Kite a la cabeza, seguido de Cara y Martha de joven; y buena ambientación: Escocia, internado inglés, Francia.
Me ha gustado la comparación entre el Lockie de 1989 y el de 2020. Y, aunque a la versión casi cincuentona Lockie2020 no la conocemos gran cosa, la versión adolescente me ha gustado mucho: un chaval serio, responsable, inteligente, avispado, con recursos, valiente, con las ideas claras y sensible. Entiendo que en las siguiente entregas iremos viendo cómo los años generan al Lockie de esta década.
Martha, también versión adolescente, me ha gustado, creo que promete. Aunque más de fondo, pinta bien como personaje, interesante, madura y contrapeso de Lachlan. La introducción de Cara a lo largo de la novela la he disfrutado mucho, sobre todo en comparación con la joya con dientes que es Tomkins (**eyeroll**).
El resto de personajes secundarios también están conseguidos: Billy Peel, Strawson, Rita; los Bonnard, la madre de Lockie; y, entre ellos, destaco a Bijan por lo que representa y el baño de realidad que le da a Kite, y a Ali Eskandarian por lo gris de su situación, en gran parte con la ayuda de las agencias de inteligencia internacionales...
Acción como tal hay poca, es espionaje del siglo pasado y espionaje s.XXI. Astucia, equipos, micrófonos, seguimientos... Ha habido un momento en que Kite compara los métodos de 1989, casi infalibles por la importancia de la parte humana y del trabajo de seguimiento y estudio, y los métodos de 2020, cuando se pueden anular los móviles con aparatos y perder el objetivo sin más.
La pena es que ha habido unos cuantos momentos en que perdía el interés, no sé decir si ha sido cosa mía o cosa del libro, pero era como una montaña rusa, subiendo, subiendo y, de repente, desinfle, hasta el punto de que había veces en que me daba pereza retomarlo por si me topaba con una parte que me resultara más tediosa. Puede parecer poca cosa pero a mí me ha dejado un regusto un poco amargo.
PS. Por cierto, un Ali Eskandarian existió: músico, su familia huyó durante la Revolución de Teherán y fue asesinado en 2013 en Brooklyn.
Me ha pasado una cosa curiosa con este libro: un minuto estaba enganchadísima y al siguiente notaba el interés decaer, incluso dentro de una misma línea temporal, de ahí la nota.
A pesar de la nota, en conjunto y como novela presentación de la organización BOX 88 y Lachlan "Lockie" Kite está muy bien: tiene buen argumento, oscilando entre 1989 y 2020, con raíces en la revolución iraní; buenos personajes, con Lockie Kite a la cabeza, seguido de Cara y Martha de joven; y buena ambientación: Escocia, internado inglés, Francia.
Me ha gustado la comparación entre el Lockie de 1989 y el de 2020. Y, aunque a la versión casi cincuentona Lockie2020 no la conocemos gran cosa, la versión adolescente me ha gustado mucho: un chaval serio, responsable, inteligente, avispado, con recursos, valiente, con las ideas claras y sensible. Entiendo que en las siguiente entregas iremos viendo cómo los años generan al Lockie de esta década.
Martha, también versión adolescente, me ha gustado, creo que promete. Aunque más de fondo, pinta bien como personaje, interesante, madura y contrapeso de Lachlan. La introducción de Cara a lo largo de la novela la he disfrutado mucho, sobre todo en comparación con la joya con dientes que es Tomkins (**eyeroll**).
El resto de personajes secundarios también están conseguidos: Billy Peel, Strawson, Rita; los Bonnard, la madre de Lockie; y, entre ellos, destaco a Bijan por lo que representa y el baño de realidad que le da a Kite, y a Ali Eskandarian por lo gris de su situación, en gran parte con la ayuda de las agencias de inteligencia internacionales...
Acción como tal hay poca, es espionaje del siglo pasado y espionaje s.XXI. Astucia, equipos, micrófonos, seguimientos... Ha habido un momento en que Kite compara los métodos de 1989, casi infalibles por la importancia de la parte humana y del trabajo de seguimiento y estudio, y los métodos de 2020, cuando se pueden anular los móviles con aparatos y perder el objetivo sin más.
La pena es que ha habido unos cuantos momentos en que perdía el interés, no sé decir si ha sido cosa mía o cosa del libro, pero era como una montaña rusa, subiendo, subiendo y, de repente, desinfle, hasta el punto de que había veces en que me daba pereza retomarlo por si me topaba con una parte que me resultara más tediosa. Puede parecer poca cosa pero a mí me ha dejado un regusto un poco amargo.
PS. Por cierto, un Ali Eskandarian existió: músico, su familia huyó durante la Revolución de Teherán y fue asesinado en 2013 en Brooklyn.
September 9, 2022
This was a bit different than most spy novels - less action and more behind-the-scenes and personal behavior. It was done in two timelines, which sometimes made it confusing, but not for long.
Box 88 is a codename for a somewhat mysterious group of spies from the US and UK, mostly unknown to other organizations. One timeline had a British MI5 group investigating a suspected Box 88 member, Lachlan Kite, after intercepting a call from the US informing him of the death of an old friend whose father had been arrested for violating laws in his dealing with Iranians.
The other timeline is about said Lachlan Kite as an 18 year old student who gets courted by said Box 88 through a member working as a professor at his school who has been impressed by Kite's analytic abilities. Both timelines move along pretty slowly, and build to a satisfying conclusion. The two timelines are connected, of course, but to tell more would give away too much.
If you are looking for a James Bond style thriller, you'll be disappointed. This is probably more realistic, and tells more about what goes on in support of what the spies do. But stick with it, if you can; it gets better and better as the story progresses.
Box 88 is a codename for a somewhat mysterious group of spies from the US and UK, mostly unknown to other organizations. One timeline had a British MI5 group investigating a suspected Box 88 member, Lachlan Kite, after intercepting a call from the US informing him of the death of an old friend whose father had been arrested for violating laws in his dealing with Iranians.
The other timeline is about said Lachlan Kite as an 18 year old student who gets courted by said Box 88 through a member working as a professor at his school who has been impressed by Kite's analytic abilities. Both timelines move along pretty slowly, and build to a satisfying conclusion. The two timelines are connected, of course, but to tell more would give away too much.
If you are looking for a James Bond style thriller, you'll be disappointed. This is probably more realistic, and tells more about what goes on in support of what the spies do. But stick with it, if you can; it gets better and better as the story progresses.
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