The Trinity Six
by Charles Cumming, St. Martin's Press, March 2011, narrated by John Lee, 11.5 hrs
This is a pretty good spy thriller. The story draws on the most spectacular failure of the British intelligence- the five Cambridge spies who betrayed their country to the Soviets. For years there was speculation but no proof that there was a six man. Meet Sam Gaddis a divorced Russian scholar who is urged by a colleague to investigate and write a book about a potential sixth member of the Cambridge group. Because Gaddis is deeply in debt he considers this offer. Almost immediately his colleague dies an untimely death and Gaddis is left alone to follow the leads that his colleague had developed. The action moves from London to Moscow to Vienna and Budapest as Gaddis tracks down the story of Eddie Crane a Cambridge student in the 1930s who went on to a long career with the diplomatic services.
I enjoyed this story. The author does a good job of character development – I ended up liking Sam Gaddes a lot, he was just enough of a novice in spy craft to be endearing and he had a level of integrity missing in almost everyone else in the story. The plot has enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the last pages. I listened to audio CDs where the very talented John Lee narrated the story. Lee was able to differentiate voices very well and gave the story a real European feel with his ability to portray authentic regional accents.
I listened to audio CDs provided to me through the Amazon Vine program
3 comments:
I like thrillers, but in most, character development is sorely lacking, as most of the emphasis is on the action. A thriller that also has good character development is rare to find. This one is going on my list. Thanks for the review!
Thanks, Kathy! Sounds like we liked it pretty much equally well. I may seek out some of Cumming's earlier work one of these days...or I might lazily wait until his next comes out.
Becky
Great post, thanks
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