One To Watch: Charles Cumming

Described as "the best of the new generation of British spy writers who are taking over where John le Carré and Len Deighton left off" by The Observer. His fifth book, The Trinity Six will be released March 2011 in the U.S. (Feb 2011 in the U.K.).

According to the Advance Reading Copy I received, there will be a first print run of 100,000 by St. Martins Press. List price will be $24.99/$28.99 Canada.

From the back cover:

1930's: Maclean, Burgess, Blunt, Philby, and Cairncros, aka the Magnificent Five, were the most celebrated Russian spies in history. But was there a sixth Cambridge spy? The Trinity Six brilliantly culls from one of the twentieth century's seminal mysteries of espionage to deliver Charles Cumming's most accomplished work to date.

PRESENT DAY: Sam Gaddis, a British academic, finds himself in search of the sixth man in the Cambridge Spy Ring. But when the few remaining people with any connection to this enigmatic spy begin dying unexpectedly, Gaddis is caught in the crosshairs of a very real, very dangerous plot.

Cumming's first four books include:

A Spy By Nature (U.K. 2001; U.S. 2007)

In 1995, Charles Cumming was approached for recruitment by the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). A Spy By Nature, a novel partly based on his experiences with MI6, was published in the UK in June 2001. The novel's hero, Alec Milius, is a flawed loner in his early 20s who is recruited by MI5 to sell doctored research data on oil exploration in the Caspian Sea to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [wikipedia]
First U.K. edition lists for $100 on AbeBooks
First U.S. editions list for up to $55 on AbeBooks & Amazon

The Hidden Man (U.K. 2003: U.S. 2004)

His second novel, The Hidden Man (2003), tells the story of two brothers investigating the murder of their father, a former SIS officer, at the hands of the Russian mafia. [wikipedia]
Penguin Books Ltd, London, 2004 edition lists for up to $73 on AbeBooks (unsigned)

The Spanish Game (U.K. 2006; U.S. 2008)

The Spanish Game (2006), marks the return of anti-hero Alec Milius, who becomes involved in a plot by the paramilitary Basque nationalist organization ETA to bring down the Spanish government. [wikipedia]
Lists for at or below cover price on AbeBooks

Typhoon (U.K. 2008; U.S. 2009)

Typhoon, published in the UK in 2008, is a political thriller about a CIA plot to destabilise China on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. [wikipedia]
Michael Joseph, NY 2009 (Hard cover) editions list for up to $100 on AbeBooks
Penguin Books Ltd, London, 2008 list for up to $50 on AbeBooks

Labels: British writer, Charles Cumming, Hypermodern collectible, spy, St. Martins Press, The Trinity Six, thriller