TERMINAL BLACK

A retired MI5 officer risks everything to rescue an old friend.

In central London, Irina, a no-nonsense Russian agent, is heading up a "stop and snatch" operation. At the last minute, she decides to kill the woman she was targeting, angering her colleagues. Irina uses the dead target’s laptop to send a message to the woman's contact, former MI5 officer Rik Ferris. Meanwhile, at the Minsk International Airport, MI5 agent Clare Jardine worries about the dicey situation of her Russian partner, Katya Balenkova, who’s embarked upon an unwise affair with Ferris, whom Clare fortuitously spots across the airport. Sir Iain Colmyer, the British government’s Chief Whip, is very concerned that a “low level mouse of an IT worker in MI5” (that would be Ferris) has looked at his file, and he announces he wants that mouse found. Enter former MI5 agent Harry Tate (Execution, 2013, etc.), enjoying a piece of chocolate cake when he’s buttonholed by “minder” Ben Cramer, who wants him to find Ferris, unaware that Ferris is being held prisoner by Irina and company. It’s strongly implied that Cramer has enough incriminating information on Harry to leverage him back into service. From this point on, the plot goes round and round from one front to the next. Clare, who has a sketchy history with Harry, also seeks Ferris while Colmyer monitors the situation from the Home Office and Harry reluctantly embarks on his mission. Harry’s progress is uncertain; his time away from the service makes him slow to appreciate how completely methodical technology has replaced gritty fieldwork. But soon enough he finds himself in the middle of the crossfire, not sure whom he can trust.

Magson adroitly shuffles a double handful of desperate characters in his sixth Harry Tate thriller. Brisk and bracing.