Richard's Review:

Write about what you know, the expression goes. And The Traitor’s author, Ava Glass, certainly knows about the world of spying and murder: she’s an ex-crime reporter and civil servant. During her time working for the British government, Ava came into direct contact with espionage and the double lives that spies lead. She stored those experiences away and, years later, we have The Traitor – an authentic, genuinely thrilling piece of spy fiction.

Stomach-turning at times, too. The story opens in early-morning London and a gruesome find: the discovery of a body in a heavy, tightly padlocked suitcase. Investigator Emma Makepeace is called in and quickly confirms the obvious: a case of cold-blooded murder. She also establishes that this is no ‘domestic’ – the dead man had been deep undercover tracking two oligarchs enmeshed in the UK’s illegal arms trade. That must be the reason he was killed. But who blew his cover? That’s what she – and we – are going to find out.

Judy's Review:

I loved the character of Makepeace. She has a sharp brain and phenomenal courage. Emma quickly works out that the only way the murdered man could have been exposed to lethal ‘cancelling’ was if someone working deep within the British government betrayed him. Someone on the side of – and in the pay of – two ruthless oligarchs.

In other words, a traitor.

Emma decides she has no choice to go undercover herself. She flies to Nice, and under the blue Riviera skies steps aboard a superyacht owned by one of the oligarchs. It’s the best way of getting close to the operation. But is she too close? What if her cover doesn’t hold? Once out to sea on the balmy Med, will the hunter become the hunted?

A darkly glamorous story. We loved it.