Execution: A Harry Tate Thriller

Magson’s exciting fifth Harry Tate thriller pits the former MI5 operative against a pair of Russian assassins gunning for his friend Clare Jardine, an ex-MI6 agent who was shot while saving Harry in 2012’s Retribution. After an attempt on her life while she was recovering from her gunshot wounds in a London hospital, Clare goes underground. The extremely competent former agent is angry at just about everyone, except her girlfriend, Katya Balenkova, an officer in the Russian Federal Protective Service. Complicating Harry’s efforts to find Clare and protect her from the Russians is traitor George Henry Paulton, once an operations director for MI5 and now on that agency’s and MI6’s “seek and detain” lists. Focused on action and tradecraft, this straightforward entry bypasses the usual cross, double-cross, and triple-cross of most spy fiction as it builds to a highly satisfying conclusion in respect to turncoat Paulton. Agent: David Headley, DHH Literary (U.K.). (Sept.)