Box 88

Lachlan Kite Series, Book 1

By: Charles Cumming

Narrated by: Charlie Ansen

Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

A secret agent comes of age - and reckons with the legacy of his first mission - in this thriller by New York Times best seller Charles Cumming, "the best of the new generation of British spy writers" (The Observer).

Lachlan Kite is a member of BOX 88, an elite transatlantic black-ops outfit so covert that not even MI6 and the CIA are certain of its existence - but even the best spy can't anticipate every potential threat in a world where dangerous actors lurk around every corner. At the funeral of his childhood best friend, Lachlan falls into a trap that drops him into the hands of a potentially deadly interrogation, with his pregnant wife, also abducted, being held as collateral for the information he's sworn on his own life to protect.

Thirty years earlier Lachlan, then just out of the upper-class boarding school where he was reared, was BOX 88's newest recruit. In the haze of a gap-year summer, in which the study of spycraft was intertwined with a journey of self-discovery, he cut his teeth on a special assignment on the coast of France, where a friendship allowed him special access to one of Iran's most dangerous men. Today, Lachlan's nostalgia for the trip is corrupted by recollection of the deceit that accompanied it, but in order to save his family, he'll be forced to revisit those painful memories one last time.

©2020 Charles Cumming (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Good story in need of an editor

This book has an interesting premise—a secret agency more secret than the CIA, MI6 etc and its recruitment of a young man to get inside an Iranian plot to blow up an American subway. It’s just takes too too long in setting up the story of the 18 year old recruit. The jumping back and forth between the past and present and multiple action points deprives the story of suspense. If I were reading this I would have skimmed a fair amount of it, but listening makes it a slower process. It was interesting overall but tightened up it would have been a lot better.

Excellent

A very well written story inspired by actual events that keeps you on the edge, without sounding farfetched. A great sequel to The Spanish Game, which up to now I thought it could not be surpassed. Also, a great job by the narrator Charlie Ansen.

A great story as a base for future series.

Great writing and story which flowed well, despite jumping from present to past. Can’t wait for future adventures of the Box 88 team.

Espionage — down and dirty

5 stars — I wish there was more than that. Diabolical? Yes. Believable? Yes. Any holes in the plot? If so, I missed them.

Cannot wait for Book 2

I loved this story. It really kept my attention and had so many twist and turns. Looking forward to book 2.

Very good, a bit overlong in parts

This is a great start for a new series .The characters are interesting and the writing is very good quality. In the first half especially there are several unnecessarily long passages about the protagonist' past, these should have been trimmed back for better pacing. Overall very good character driven spy novel, looking forward to book 2. The narrator here is excellent.

Excellent story, choppy read

Loved the plot and characters, very much looking forward to Book 2 and 3. But taking a star off for the performance by the reader, which was filled with odd pauses and phrasing. Not sure whether that was something the producers did or the choice of the voice artist but it made for a difficult listen. Kept wishing for the smooth stylings of John Lee or even Ray Porter. Terrible American accent too. A fair bit of French dialogue and place names, and those were handled well.

Great story

Well conceived and written. Very plausible plot which kept me engaged. Highly recommended. I look forward to more Kite books in the future.

Good but

I liked it, but it was not compelling. I want to want to keep reading. Here there was enough to keep me going, but not enough to be excited about it. And the narrator’s mispronunciation of “chutzpah” was aggravating.

One of Cumming’s best yet

I love Cumming’s books—especially the Thomas Kell trilogy and The Moroccan Girl. But Box 88 is probably my favorite.

Seems like spy novels fall into two categories now days; The super-cynical or the ridiculous super-hero type. Cumming writes smart, believable spy novels inhabited by rich characters and filled with intricate tradecraft and exotic locales.

Box 88 most definitely fits this bill in all respects. I can hardly wait to see where he takes Lachlan Kite and us from here.

And, Charlie Ansen, the narrator, is as good as it gets with this type of material.