3/5 stars
The Traitor, by Ava Glass (2023)
A few years ago I read Alias Emma by Glass, and really enjoyed. Good spy novel. The Traitor is a continuation, with the same main character, Emma Makepeace.
An analyst for MI6 is found dead in his sparse apartment. Not just dead, but stuffed inside a padlocked suitcase, after having been murdered with a nerve agent. After some investigation, Emma finds that the last project he was working on was investigating two Russian oligarchs thought to be profiting from the sale of chemical weapons to anti-Western countries.
Because Emma is fluent in Russian (she and her mother immigrated from Russia after her father was killed for his anti-government activities), she is sent undercover on the private yacht of one of the oligarchs. While there it becomes apparent that MI6 has a leak when her cover is blown. Now she's not only searching for clues to the analyst's murder, but trying to uncover a traitor - all while sailing from port to port on a super yacht that often has no cell service.
As in Alias Emma, Emma is a strong-willed, creative, and gutsy woman in a world of male spies. I love the ways she bucks against the system while working within it to "fight the bad guys." The plot is fun, and the various locations - yacht, plus multiple Mediterranean cities - make for a beautiful and interesting backdrop. It's a suspenseful spy story, despite the fact that I figured out who the traitor was pretty quickly. But the rest was a surprise, and even having guessed part of the "big reveal," it didn't lose much of the gripping storytelling.
You don't have to read Alias Emma to fully understand and enjoy The Traitor, but I do think it adds to the original story in a compelling way, so I do suggest reading them in order. There is a third in the series, called The Trap, which I'll definitely be reading at some point!
UP NEXT: Witchmark and Stormsong, by C.L. Polk
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