BOX 88

December 1988. The serenity of a trans-Atlantic flight home for Christmas is torn asunder by a bomb. The remnants of the plane and the humans aboard plummet over Lockerbie, Scotland. Three decades later, Lachlan Kite is stunned when he is informed of his friend Xavier’s sudden passing. Kite and Xavier were friends going back to prep school. Kite attends the funeral, unaware that he is about to be held accountable for his past actions and betrayals.

Kite was approached in prep school by a teacher to covertly glean information about another guest when Kite vacationed with Xavier’s family in France. The guest has connections to the Iranian government, which has been suspected of involvement in the Pan Am 103 bombing. Kite would need to be stealthy in his actions to avoid detection, and thirty years later, he will need to be even more wily to get out of his predicament alive.

BOX 88 is the new pulse-pounding espionage thriller from Charles Cumming (The Trinity Six, Typhoon). A story that is a combination of innocence lost and the danger of clandestine sleuthing, the intensity of the action never wavers. Lachlan Kite is a spy for modern times, making his story even more convincing. A+.