A Financial Times Best Thriller of 2023 Veteran agent Lachlan Kite—“a spy for the 21st century” (Daily Mail)—reckons with the fallout from a mission in Senegal carried out early in his career. 1995: In the wake of the Rwandan genocide, 24-year-old spy Lachlan Kite and his girlfriend, Martha Raine, are sent to Senegal on the trail of a hunted war criminal. The mission threatens to spiral out of control, forcing Kite to make choices which will have devastating consequences not only for his career at top-secret intelligence agency BOX 88, but also for his relationship with Martha. 2023: Eric Appiah, an old friend from Kite’s days at school and an off-the-record BOX 88 asset, makes contact with explosive information about what happened all those years ago in West Africa. When tragedy strikes, Kite must use all the resources at his disposal to protect Martha from a criminal network with links to international terror. Charles Cumming once again straddles two timelines to create a high-tension thriller in this latest Lachlan Kite novel.