Icarus 17 (Signed Preorder released after Event 27th July 2026)

Signed – for details of our Event 27th July 2026 please click here

Lachlan Kite should have left fieldwork behind by now. As director of covert intelligence agency Box 88, he’s at the apex of his espionage career. But when Martha Raine – a woman he hasn’t seen in twenty years – begs for his help, Kite finds himself back in the game, racing to avert disaster.

Kite must find Martha’s son, Max, who vanished in Athens with his girlfriend, Yasmine. But the couple aren’t just missing, they’re running for their lives. Two rival agencies are hunting them, both with orders to kill on sight.

Max and Yasmine are carrying a dizzying secret, one which could pull apart the foundations of the Middle East for a generation. If Kite fails to save them, the costs – both personal and professional – will be catastrophic.

‘If there was any question as to who is the rightful inheritor of John le Carré’s crown as the king of elegant spy fiction, this proves that it’s Cumming beyond any doubt’ Observer

‘An instant classic of the spy genre’ MICK HERRON

‘Atmospheric and full of sharply-realised characters’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘An ambitious fusion of coming-of-age novel and gripping thriller’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘I read it in one breathless sitting’ IAN RANKIN

‘Nobody writes more enjoyable spy thrillers than Charles Cumming’ ANTHONY HOROWITZ

‘A real page-turner’ DAILY MAIL

‘Charles Cumming gets better with each book’ THE TIMES

‘An enviably sharp-eyed and satisfying read’ HENRY PORTER

‘A layered and seamlessly constructed story with all the hallmarks of the finest spy thriller, combining insider knowledge, effortlessly drawn settings and characters that leap off the page’ CHARLOTTE PHILBY

‘Charles Cumming knows how to write a good spy novel’ THE HERALD

‘Cumming knows his stuff […] giving the novel an admirably authoritative air’ LITERARY REVIEW

‘Charles Cumming has breathed new life into the spy novel’ BEN MACINTYRE

‘Deliciously twisty’ DAILY TELEGRAPH