Agent 6

In the last book, the time was 1956; Stalin had died, and it was the time of Nikita Khrushchev’s revisionist pronouncements (such as the ‘secret speech’ of the title, in which the Stalinist regime was – for the first time – roundly denounced). Leo Dormidov, his wife Raisa and their daughters are in mortal danger again, because of the new public view of the police as criminals; Leo’s efforts to save his family plunged him into situations of fear and tension. Both books were novel of striking authority (despite the controversial stylistic notion of putting all speech in italics, so that everything appeared over-emphasised). Agent 6, the third and final outing for the conflicted former MGB officer, brings the trilogy of novels to a resounding climax. Leo’s new civilian life with his wife Raisa and his family has acquired equilibrium, but the USSR and the US are still bitter enemies. A visit to the states by Leo on a diplomatic mission has a tragic outcome, and Leo loses everything. Only the grim plains of Afghanistan offer him a way back – or death. Tom Rob Smith has utilised cinematic technique here (not to mention upping the number of suspenseful set pieces), and some will prefer the more complex character building of the first book (still the finest in the sequence), but for most readers this final Leo Dormidov novel will push all the requisite buttons. --Barry Forshaw