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.

Charles 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.

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