The author Charles Beaumont is a former MI6 Operative and while he obviously brings his experience to this spy novel it is no John le Carre or even an Alistair Maclean. In fact, I found the plot rather convoluted and the characters lacking real depth or development.

But what saves this novel and makes it interesting is its setting – Ukraine 2024 and the background about Russia’s role in the invasion (or as the Russians put it ‘limited military operation’) and the way in which disinformation (fake news) is created and used by the Russians to muddy the water about the war.

Simon Sharman, a former British Intelligence officer, navigates the perilous landscapes of war-torn Ukraine and the political corridors of London. He is on a mission of revenge. His girlfriend (one assumes although it is never spelt out), Evie, is murdered by a Chechen working for Russia, however, Chovka (our Chechen assassin) has decided to defect to British/US intelligence. The scenes at the Ukraine/Russian frontline are some of the best written and certainly evoke the confusion and fog of war. It is also interesting that the war is not just being fought by regular Russian armed forces but also by mercenaries (of which the Wagner Group are the most well known), Chechens and other ethnic groups and as we know now, even North Koreans.

Meanwhile in Whitehall an adviser to the PM is trying to get Britain to pull out of the war, using fake news that is being fed to him by Russians through multiple channels. The construction of this fake news and how it is devised (by bots) and then spread so that in the end even the BBC will air it is fascinating.

In the end this novel is not history, but it weaves into it much that we already know or suspect about the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Reviewed by Anthony Llewellyn-Evans