Quick Review: KENNEDY 35 by Charles Cumming (Harper/Mysterious Press)

Kite and Co. confront a loose end from decades ago

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 his resources to bring down a criminal network with links to international terror … and protect Martha from possible assassination.

This is the third novel in Charles Cumming’s Box 88 series. I’ve been a fan of the author’s since Typhoon (2008), and each new novel has been superb and often better than the previous one. Kennedy 35 is no exception, and delivers everything one could hope from an espionage thriller (and, especially, a Box 88 novel). I really enjoyed this.

Lachlan Kite, boss of the transatlantic intelligence agency, Box 88, is spending time with his estranged wife and infant daughter, trying to repair and strengthen their relationship. When a friend from the past arrives in London looking for Kite, he realizes that a job started in 1995 isn’t finished. As Kite revisits his memories and the events of the operation in Rwanda, he’s confronted with a number of regrets and not a few ghosts.

Cumming has brought everything that makes his novels so good to Kennedy 35. He weaves the espionage plot nicely into real global events of the time, while simultaneously balancing plenty of character-development. The returning characters remain engaging and continue to grow, and the new supporting cast is well-drawn, three-dimensional, and interesting. I quickly became invested in their fates, and their place within Kite’s operation and life.

The author has found an excellent “formula” for this series, and the dual timelines — in all three of the books — have worked very well. Comparing Kite as a newly-minted Box 88 operative to his temperament and style now that he’s older and in charge makes for an engaging story, as does comparing the times he’s writing about — the tools available to the present-day Box 88 are far superior to those available in the 1990s, and Cumming effectively offers a modern and “historical” spy thriller in one.

If you’ve enjoyed any of Cumming’s novels in the past, then I’m pretty sure you’ll find a lot to enjoy in Kennedy 35. This is especially true for fans of the Box 88 novels. Kennedy 35 is another great espionage novel, from one of the finest writers in the (sub-)genre writing today. I very eagerly await the next book!

Charles Cumming’s Kennedy 35 is due to be published by Harper in the UK (October 26th), and Mysterious Press in North America (November 7th).

Also on CR: Guest Post on A Colder War (Mole Hunt); Reviews of Typhoon, The Trinity Six, A Foreign Country, A Colder War, The Man Between, Box 88, and Judas 62