The Moroccan Girl

A Novel

By: Charles Cumming

Narrated by: Charlie Anson

Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

"Another Charles Cumming triumph.” (Jason Matthews, best-selling author of The Kremlin's Candidate)

In this gripping contemporary thriller, a successful spy novelist is drawn into a real-life espionage plot when he’s ordered to find a mysterious fugitive on the alluring but deadly streets of Morocco.

Renowned author Kit Carradine is approached by an MI6 officer with a seemingly straightforward assignment: to track down a mysterious woman hiding somewhere in the exotic, perilous city of Marrakesh. But when Carradine learns the woman is a dangerous fugitive with ties to international terrorism, the glamour of being a spy is soon tainted by fear and betrayal.

Lara Bartok is a leading figure in Resurrection, a violent revolutionary movement whose brutal attacks on prominent right-wing public figures have spread hatred and violence across the world. Her disappearance ignites a race between warring intelligence services desperate to find her - at any cost. But as Carradine edges closer to the truth, he finds himself drawn to this brilliant, beautiful, and profoundly complex woman.

Caught between increasingly dangerous forces who want Bartok dead, Carradine soon faces an awful choice: to abandon Lara to her fate or to risk everything trying to save her.

More praise for The Moroccan Girl:

“Charles Cumming has breathed new life into the spy novel.” (Ben Macintyre, best-selling author of A Spy Among Friends)

"Narrator Dan Bittner is back...bringing his full array of fantastic character voices...Bittner excels at combining drama and comedy in just the right proportions to make this audiobook a thoroughly enjoyable ride." (AudioFile Magazine)

©2019 Charles Cumming (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

great book, great narrator

this book is very good, and the narrator is excellent. i dont like the audible versions of Cumming's other books with a different narrator as much as this one. i hope this turns into a series of books with the same narrator.

Good Cumming.

Good story, excellent narrator!! I’ve read most of Cumming’s books, and this is better than most. Especially enjoyed the performance— tone and approach is exactly how I’d expect a reluctant British spy to sound. Hoping to hear more from Kit Carradine.

Already a classic...

One of the great modern spy novels, this story takes seemingly predictable events and transforms them into a riveting event. From beginning to end, this was thoroughly enjoyable.

Another fun ride from Cumming

This is a step away from the Le Carre type spy-centered story and toward the somewhat more fantastical "an everyman gets caught up in a complicated spy-related mess" plot. That said, it's a good ride, and if you like Cumming's other work, you'll certainly enjoy this. Not my favorite, but still strongly recommended. (Morocco is a setting for much of the story, and where "the girl" is found, but the principal characters are not Moroccans. This seems to be a complaint from some who do not like the book.) I think it's fair to say that the protagonist is the character best fleshed out and some of the others are a bit shallow, but I think this is partly a device to ensure that we are not entirely sure which side they are on.

The reader's performance is excellent. He does well with "voices" but doesn't go overboard about it.

There are a few who complain about "politics" in this book. I can only say that anyone offended by the (minimal) politics in here seem pretty thin skinned to me. At the beginning "the bad guys" are a left leaning group attacking (I will use the term loosely to minimize spoilers) well known loudmouth conservatives. No one exactly looks good. By the end, the bad guys are still pretty much bad guys, though unsurprisingly one of the main ones has more complex motives. It's a spy story.... At the very end, a few very few not-too-complimentary allusions are made (without naming names or being too specific) to the Trump administration. It's pretty light stuff and hardly a political screed. Honestly, my suggestion if you are that sensitive to a bit of political commentary in a novel is that you find a genre other than espionage. :-)

Pedestrian writing, formulaic plot.

Good narration of very average writing. It’s all plot without any pretense of character development, but sadly the plot isn’t that great. The first person narrator (in the story, not the reader of the audiobook) makes assumptions with certainty but without much credibility. And amazingly, they’re always correct.

Excellent read!

I loved everything about this book! I’ve visited Morocco several times so that added to the interest for me. Lots of intrigue. The reader was really good!

Excellent story, strong performance

I have read many of Charles Cumming's books, and highly recommend his latest. The story is interesting and topical, and it isn't totally clear until close to the end what happened. Very entertaining!

Outstanding

This was a great “listen” and wonderful book with a outstanding narrator. Kept me locked in the entire “read”.

Male Fantasy Writ Large

I had high hopes for this book: positive reviews, an exotic setting and espionage! Unfortunately very early on it was apparent that this was the writer’s knight in shining armor/James Bond wanna-be/Everyman hero fantasy. The titular character was neither Moroccan, nor a girl. She was the only female character in the book (beyond prostitutes and a weary wife of an unfaithful husband) and carried the heavy burden of trying to add realism to her femme fatale caricature, while being so overwhelming bewitching that most men fell at her feet and then risked their very existence for her. The plot was truly laughable-a bored, lonely writer is recruited by a spy ostensibly because he wrote well about espionage and happened to be taking a trip to Morocco (deep state intel via his Facebook page). Although the main character is often paranoid and unsure (much of the book is his insecure inner dialogue), he becomes the “girl’s” savior-punching out adversaries (he takes boxing lessons at home!) and saving her life countless times. She repays him with the only thing she’s been given as a character...well you can imagine. One ridiculous scene involved the main character who happened to walk in on the “girl” who happened to be sleeping naked. It was so implausible that it seemed to have been slipped in only to sexualize her further and as justification for a nude scene in the film version. The reader was good although his “girl” character voice wasn’t seamless and why do all Americans sound like John Wayne?

Thoroughly Enjoyable

Charlie Anson's SUPERB narration proves Charles Cummings’ characters deserve to be played by A-List actors. In The Moroccan Girl, they interact in a dense but lucidly presented plot with all the covered paranoia essential to excellent spy fiction. Kit Carradine, son of a spy and successful author of spy thrillers, runs up against a wonderful cast of mysterious people whom he is awkward at understanding. Is the man who recruits him to MI6 so good at his job that no other agents are implicated? Is Lara Bartok, repentant terrorist, truly the victim of a psychopath? An international assortment of vivid cameo characters add to the suspense. Several Moroccan locales are marvellously portrayed, without romanticised or cliched exoticism. We travel with Kit through the gleaming luxury of tourists’ hotels and the tacky, ominously shadowed dives of 21st century North Africa, where Western tastes and decadence have prevailed. While we await the streaming series this novel should inspire, I recommend Cummings’ straightforward but highly descriptive prose.