Charles Cumming: the pulse of the past beats in the present

With its preoccupation with the potentials of the internet and social media for good and ill, Charles Cumming's latest thriller has its pulse firmly in the present. Humourously, Cumming applies layers of timeworn spy tropes.

After Robert Mantis makes the approach, author Kit Carradine goes to an internet cafe and tapes over the camera. Seeing that Mantis has no internet domain or checkable credit record, and is "not listed as a director at Companies House nor as a shared freeholder on any UK properties," the new recruit is satisfied that he's "a genuine Service employee." But for Carradine, the exciting game of spydom is cut short. "His career as a support agent, a counterpart to Maugham and Greene, and his attempt to live up to the example set by his father, had ended in ignominy." In real life, Cumming was approached by MI6, but didn't accept their offer. Unless he did, and writing thrillers is his cover.