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BOX 88 cover art

BOX 88

By: Charles Cumming
Narrated by: Charlie Anson
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Publisher's Summary

An organisation that doesn’t exist.

A spy that can’t be caught.

Years ago, a spy was born....

1989. The Cold War will soon be over, but for Box 88, a top secret spying agency, the espionage game is heating up.

Lachlan Kite is sent to France to gather intelligence on the Lockerbie bombing. What he uncovers is terrifying....

2020: Kite has been taken captive and brutally tortured. He now has a choice: reveal the truth about what happened in France 30 years earlier – or watch his family die.

In a battle unlike anything he has faced before, Kite must use all his skills to stay alive.

©2020 Charles Cumming (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"BOX 88 is a wonderful spy novel; Charles Cumming’s most ambitious - and his best - yet." (Mick Herron, Sunday Times best-selling author of the Jackson Lamb series)

"Box 88 is so good. Charles Cumming is up there with the very best espionage writers." (Ian Rankin, Sunday Times number one best-selling author of the Rebus novels)

"Great work from Charles Cumming with a multi-layered plotline and an engaging hero." (James Swallow, Sunday Times best-selling author of Nomad)

What listeners say about BOX 88

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An author at the very top of his game

Box 88 oozed quality. Somehow Charles Cumming mixed a 'coming of age' novel with a spy thriller and produced a masterpiece. Cumming dips into his childhood experiences to bring a touch of authenticity to his main character and builds up the tension in his story like a ticking time bomb. His novels have just the right balance of spy tradecraft, geopolitics, love interest and plot to keep the reader enthralled. Superb narration by Charlie Anson who 'nailed' the French and other accents. My only tiny criticism is that the hero's childhood love interest could have been so much more intrinsic to the plot, but ultimately fell flat.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A slow start but gripping to the last

My first Cummings, but it won’t be my last. A slow start but once the story’s hooks take hold it grips to the very last. A few poorly-timed (irksome) pauses in the narration (or editing) but other than that, a strong 4.5/5 from me!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dull, plodding and childish. The work of an 18 year old with James Bond fever dreams. Easily his worst book.

Dull, plodding and childish. The work of an 18 year old with James Bond fever dreams. Easily his worst book.

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6 people found this helpful

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  • GED
  • 21-04-2024

Nothing to the plot

Very boring, not believable wouldn't recommend. Not in the league of Slough House series.

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