Cover Image: BOX 88

BOX 88

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I am embarrassed to admit this is the first book I have ever read by Charles Cumming. How this has come to pass, I could not say, but I have rectified the situation and now there is no going back. My love of espionage has a new author to indulge in - hooray!

Box 88 jumps back and forth from current day to the summer of 1989 when Lachlan Kite was a fledgling spy on his first mission collecting information. I reveled in the referenced from the time as it took me back to my youth with the music and fashion of that era. Also joyous was the summer holiday in France with the freedom, fun and heat we couldn't enjoy to the fullest in this year of pandemic. Vacationing vicariously through the characters in this novel isn't necessarily a bad way to go.

Lachlan is a delightful character. Whip smart, quick acting and able to roll with the punches. I enjoyed his learning curve with Box 88 and the way the historical case created the current day events. Well thought through and thoroughly absorbing, I couldn't put it down and was so keen to find out what happened in 1989 and what would occur today with Lachlan's telling of that past story. Indulgent espionage that is possibly too smooth at times but the final blow made it all worthwhile. Enjoy! I know you will.

Was this review helpful?

Box 88 by the best selling novelist Charles Cummin is a fast paced spy novel that gathers you in and then spits you back out. Recruited as a teenager when he is about to leave his elite boarding school Lachlan (Lockie) Kite’s story weaves backwards and forwards in timeframes from 1984 when he arrives at Alford, the posh boarding school which is so well described, to the present day where we find Kite living in seeming obscurity in a rural idyll with his wife, pregnant with their first child. A host of convincing characters, handily detailed in an appendix at the front of the book, pepper the plot with many hiding their true identities. Both Kite’s early recruitment and training for Box 88, a secret organisation known only to the few, his backstory at school and his present day predicament are brilliantly detailed and make the reader really care what happens to Lockie and his wife. A really terrific modern espionage thriller with the added promise of more to come. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

Was this review helpful?

Kite is member of an organisation that doesn’t exist. MI5 try to uncover the organisation and Kite. Only they are out foxed by Iranian Intelligence who kidnap Kite and his wife. They want to know how Kite was involved with an event 30 years ago. How will this end, will the organisation be uncovered and what happened 30 years ago. Brilliant from start to finish would recommend.

Was this review helpful?

This book was fantastic. I have not read a book as brilliant as this for a while. I was totally disappointed when it came to an end. Please please let there be a follow on book. Edgy, exciting and well written this is a wow factor read.

Was this review helpful?

As usual with my reviews, I will not rehash the plot - plenty of reviews like that out there already!

I've read a few other spy stories and not enjoyed them (some were almost unintelligible to me, others proved excellent treatments for insomnia...) - however THIS one was very enjoyable!

The characters were interesting and well observed, and the whole "Box 88" scenario was novel (to me at least!) and added another dimension.

The plot was well thought out, and I liked the way that the story moved between different time periods, different locations, and different character points of view. Favourite characters were Lockie (a decent egg, not entirely an angel), Billy Peele, and Carrie.

This is the first novel I've read by this author, but I look forward to reading others.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

Was this review helpful?

I’ve read a few Charles Cummings books (though apparently haven’t blogged on any) and they are always an enjoyable easy read, just the thing if you are a spy fiction fan with a hankering. I like many genres of books, but sometimes I will just know that I need a Cold War thriller. (I think of that as a genre, and the setting doesn’t actually have to be of that era, it is a style of story.)

I liked this one very much: it opens with that classic moment: a phonecall from an old friend, news of a death, a decision to go to a funeral. After a slightly confusing section, it turns into a clear double-timeline story: In contemporary London, some bad guys are after Lachlan Kite, with a desperate need for information about something that happened in 1989. It was a big deal at the time for the people involved (one of them the person whose funeral has set things going), but why does it matter? And Lachlan’s colleagues and friends need to find out what has happened to him.

The other strand of the book tells the story of his life in his late teens: culminating in a summer holiday in a villa in the south of France, with the wealthy family of a schoolfriend, Xavier. There are connections with Iran (10 years after the revolution), worries about terrorism, and an important man coming to stay. This is a spy story, and Lachlan has been semi-‘recruited’ and is on the alert, but he is also like every other 18-year-old, then and now: worried about his A levels, drinking too much, fancying girls, listening to music. He is hanging around with his best friend, smoking and swimming in the pool, enjoying the glimpse of the high life.

Everyone is very class-conscious – Lachlan went to a school which is clearly Eton (though named Alford in the book) but did not come from a wealthy or upmarket background. He has a rather bleak and hard-working home life, and a distant mother, so we get the contrast with the trip to the welcoming family, the best friend, the sunshine villa and the pool.

The atmosphere of the time is beautifully done, and very much with the feel that Cumming remembers it rather than researched it – I recognized so much of the detail. I was also very familiar with the international politics of the time, and enjoyed the going over of it.

I have one tiny catch – and I truly only offer this because everything about the book was so authentic – and that was that I don’t think the motherly hostess would have suggested that the teenage girl cover up with a ‘pashmina’ in 1989: that name for a cashmere shawl didn’t become common till much later. But, I am forever tripping over anachronisms and being fussy and pedantic about books set in the past, and I was hugely impressed by the absence of such mistakes in this one.







The thriller plot was very good and he kept one step ahead of the reader. It was involving and exciting, switching between the two lines, but – again, unlike so many books – this was not at all confusing. There was a lot of tension and jeopardy, and Lachie’s constant low-level feeling of dread in the 1989 sections was very well done, very imaginable given the strange situation he found himself in as an 18-year-old. An appealing cross between being in trouble with the teachers, and putting people’s lives in danger. No snitching, vs betraying your country.







Good descriptions: ‘he was a triple-dyed shit of outsized ego, possessed of boundless tenacity and cunning. Such characteristics were always an asset to any team.’ But that is not – of course – Lachlan, a great protagonist. I don’t think it’s spoiler-esque to say that it seems he will be back in future books.

The Box 88 of the title is a secret organization – doing what? Goodies or baddies? You will have to read the book to find out...

Pictures of the idealized south of France holiday from fashion magazine of the era.

Was this review helpful?

A Brilliant Back and Forth Spy Thriller!

This first book of a long-awaited new series from Cumming does not disappoint. From its prologue of the Lockerbie disaster, the story then sends the reader back and forth into the life of Lachlan Kite and the mysterious clandestine world of Box 88, a joint service underground intelligence network. The story concentrates on how Kite found himself recruited into this organisation through a series of chronological events as well as putting the protagonist into an up to date life-threatening situation with Iranian terrorists. This may sound complicated as far as the plot is concerned and would be something I would strongly recommend my students not do, however, the non-linear structure formula works extremely well in this novel and the added technique of keeping the chapters short aid this process. On the whole, Box88 is a thrilling page-turner as the typical Cumming style is unleashed with great effect. The characters are very three-dimensional and the plot is easily followed even with the odd twist and turn thrown in when you least expect it.
I would thoroughly recommend this book and cannot wait for the next time we see Lachlan Kite and Box 88. I know it’s coming,, as Mr Cumming himself has let slip this information in his recent video to promote this first book of the series.

Was this review helpful?

An unusual take on a storyline of espionage in that the abduction of a secret agent is directly related to circumstances and events thirty years previously. The death of a former classmate , companion and confidante is the catalyst that projects Lachlan Kite, chief protagonist into a life and death scenario threatening not only himself but that of his wife and unborn child. A story unfolds in flashbacks of an eighteen year old privately educated yet somewhat socially awkward Kite, on the cusp of university , recruited by an obscure agency into a summer of terrifying cat and mouse intrigue. Alternating between the ever present threat of execution and the events of a holiday in Europe , when naivety was replaced by spy-craft skills and actions that would cause the destruction of , and mayhem for, many of the participants . As the story unfolds against a ticking clock we learn of friendships damaged, innocence destroyed culminating in an explosive cliff hanger conclusion revealing all and yet still allowing tantalising threads to remain frustratingly obscure. Perhaps a follow up book allowing further development of characters and extension of storyline. A thoroughly enjoyable read of a genre and author that are unfamiliar yet of high standard and made for compulsive reading. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

Was this review helpful?

This is the first book by Charles Cumming that I have read - impressions after reading are: a fluent writing style; well constructed characters; and a clever way of weaving together stories that are unfolding many years apart. Cumming introduces a fair amount of contemporary material that makes it seem both credible and current. This reader wonders, however, whether this will age well or even have any easy resonance with readers even two or three years in the future.
Running alongside the satisfying espionage storyline are themes of coming of age; the bitter sweet experiences of first love: and the agony of betrayal of friends. The only mild reservations in this reader’s mind relates to the seeming implausibility of the ease with which the lead character - a highly experienced agent - is tricked and kidnapped in the opening section of the book. However, this needs to be seen in the context of a well written thriller that is hard to put down.

Was this review helpful?

I am so pleased to be able to give feedback on yet another fantastic, unputdownable book by Charles Cumming, who is right up there for me with Le Carré, with a dash of Ludlum thrown in for thrills.

Having read (and loved) several of Cumming's previous works, most recently, The Man Between, I was so excited to be offered an ARC of this book and it did not disappoint. This time the action centres around Lachlan Kite, a young Scottish lad recruited to the enigmatic Box 88 espionage unit. I really hope that this is going to be part of a bigger series involving Lachlan Kite because he's been built up so well in this novel - he feels like a fleshed out character, which is sometimes missing from fast-paced thrillers.

Put it on the Christmas lists for those who love well-written espionage thrillers!

Many thanks to HarperCollins, NetGalley and Charles Cumming for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review and I look forward to seeing promotion events up here in Scotland so I can get a copy signed.

Was this review helpful?

A well written, engrossing espionage thriller.

The story switches back and forth between present and past. The past detailing our protagonists’ enrolment into the world of spycraft; an exciting, yet daunting prospective for a naïve, but moralistic and intelligent 18 year old Lockie. The present sees a mature, confident Kite fighting for survival. Both timelines shed a light on who Kite really is, and his internal battles balancing his personal life and that of a secret agent.

Charles Cumming has written a really well-crafted, perfectly flowing spy classic.
The ending does open itself up to a follow up book, which took me a bit by surprise. Anyway, it was enjoyable throughout.

Thanks NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a review copy.

Was this review helpful?

An exciting spy story about a secret organisation operating outside MI5 or CIA control. The story concerns the hiring of a young public schoolboy to the organisation and his kidnap 30 years later with how the two events are connected. Rather violent at times it all cleverly comes together as a satisfactory opener for what one hopes becomes a series.

Was this review helpful?

I have never come across Charles Cumming before however I will now be looking out for any books by him.
From the start with the description of the Lockerbie plane I was hooked. The pages were turned very quickly on a fantastic story.
Bravo we have a brilliant series in the making.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc in return for an honest review

Was this review helpful?

A good spy thriller with great characters. Lachlan Kite is recruited into Box 88 a international spy agency at the young age of 18. Hired to spy on his friends father and Iranian friend, Lockie heads into a secret world that soon follows him into his future.
This book is a steady pace of action and flicks back and forth between 1988 and present day.
I look forward to reading more from this author

Was this review helpful?

Lachlan Kite belongs to Box 88, a secretive official organisation of whose aims and organisation little is known.
MI5 get a break when Lachlan surfaces to attend the funeral of an old school friend, but he is kidnapped by Iranian intelligence before they get far with surveillance.
Box 88 is a well written and enjoyable thriller. On the plus side it does not rely on madcap action sequences to carry it along, but on the minus, it lacks the tension and headache inducing double crossings of Le Carre. For me, this was espionage lite, slightly unbalanced with too much teenage time in 1989, the summer holiday in France where the trouble all started.
Enjoyable even so. It looks like Lachlan will be back, would I read another? Yes, I would.
With thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK

Was this review helpful?

Great spy story with an eighteen year old taking his first steps as a spy. Needed to stay focused as the story oscillates between past and present.. Definitely a story I couldn't put down with lots of action and tension. Open ended conclusion, possible sequel..

Was this review helpful?

Stunning and ruthless . What I like about Cumming"s thrillers, and I've read many..are the atmospheres and characters who come alive to me as I read .. the moral dilemmas of performing their covert v activities and the sheer intelligence of the author in navigating and refreshing the tropes of spy thrillers. An excellent addition to his works ...

Was this review helpful?

Well written spy book. Character list at beginning not useful when reading on an electronic device, but need to keep cross referencing as far too many characters in the book to keep track of

Was this review helpful?

This is a very well written book and plot for the young adult market.

Trouble is that this book is written for a conventional adult market and so it failed to impress.

I feel it is also a bit misleading to title the book Box 88, with the usual implied association that 88 has and this book does not.

Was this review helpful?

What a read! A blend of John le Carre, William Boyd and Rory Clements (Wilde series) at their best with a twist of something different - a truly winning combination. I started reading on Friday evening and had finished by Saturday lunchtime (with some time for sleeping!).

I rarely use the phrase ‘unputdownable’ but this book fits the cliche. Well-drawn characters, a pacy plot full of twists, turns and heart accelerating suspense with a very plausible and likeable (both at 18 and when older) narrator.

The backdrop of the Cold War in the early narrative is expertly drawn, giving relevant contact in an engaging way.

Do not miss out on this superb read! I am hoping the ending means there will be at least one or more sequel/s and soon. Enjoy!

Was this review helpful?