The Trinity Six

Starred review from January 3, 2011
British author Cumming (Typhoon) revitalizes the moribund cold war spy novel in this stunning stand-alone that centers on the "Cambridge Five" (Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, et al.), who betrayed their country to the Soviet Union during and after WWII. Fifteen years after 76-year-old Edward Crane is pronounced dead at a London hospital in 1992, academic Sam Gaddis learns that Crane was the oft-rumored sixth man in the Cambridge spy ring—and that he's alive and ready to tell his story. Gaddis, a well-regarded scholar of modern Russia who needs money to support his ex-wife and their daughter, thinks he can turn this bombshell into a bestselling book. But the people who know about it, including one of Gaddis's best friends, journalist Charlotte Berg, are turning up dead—and the intelligence agencies in Britain and Russia would prefer to squelch the story. Cumming's knowledge of the spy business, his well-crafted prose, and his intensely engaging plot make this a breakthrough novel. 100,000 first printing.

June 27, 2011
The Cambridge Five (Maclean, Burgess, Blunt, Philby, and Cairncross)âwho were recruited in their university days as Soviet spies, then became members of the British governmentâhave long been a source of inspiration for international thrillers. In Cumming's superb rendition, the hapless Russian scholar Sam Gaddis, in need of money, inspiration, and a future, discovers that a sixth Cambridge spy, Edward Crane, assumed dead like the others, is still alive and looking for someone to write his story. It makes for a superb spy novel, which makes it all the more unfortunate that John Lee isn't quite up to the material. Though unmistakably and appropriately British, he is also brusque, choppy, and sometimes pointlessly harsh and angry sounding. The audio package also includes a short intriguing interview with the author. A St. Martin's hardcover.