The Spanish Game
A Novel
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3.9 • 92 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Introduced in A Spy by Nature, Alec Milius returns in The Spanish Game, a compelling, modern espionage novel from Charles Cumming, widely acclaimed as a modern master of the form.
"A worthy successor to masters of the spy novel like John le Carre and Len Deighton." --Chicago Sun-Times.
Six years ago, after working for the British Secret Intelligence Service, Alec Milius got out of the spy game after being drummed out by MI6. His retirement came at unbearably great personal cost. But just because he's walked away from the life, it doesn't mean that that life has walked away from him.
Now living in exile in Madrid, quietly and as far under the radar as possible, Milius keeps a constant eye out for the enemies he made, hoping to avoid any future involvement. Yet when a prominent Basque politician goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Milius soon finds himself embroiled in another international conspiracy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Alec Milius, the protagonist of Cumming's well-received first novel, A Spy by Nature (2007), has created a new life in Madrid working as a researcher for a British private bank in this sterling sequel. His former employer, MI6, dismissed him in disgrace after a plot against the CIA went wrong. Alec lives alone, constantly watching for agents from his past who he thinks are intent on hunting him down and exacting revenge. He's having an affair with his boss's wife, drinks too much and is consumed by regret and guilt. When his boss, Julian Church, sends him to Basque country on a project, he meets Mikel Arenaza, a former member of the ETA, the Basque separatist party, who quickly turns up dead. The plot is pleasingly convoluted, the twists unexpected, the characters flawed and interesting. This is spy fiction of the highest order; Cumming deserves to be ranked with the best of the genre's practitioners.
Customer Reviews
Kill Alec
It is an interesting book about an English ex-pat in Spain who gets involved in Basque terrorism and the fight against it. It is a neat picture of modern Spain.
The problem is the main character Alec. He is, perhaps, the most stupid man to ever walk our planet and yet nobody ever kills him. When somebody tells him this is an important meeting he thinks if I show up drunk and late it will throw them off guard.