Spy Trade by Matthew Dunn, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Enigmatic MI6 officer Will Cochrane is called in to assist when CIA officer Bob Oakland is captured while on a mission in Syria, in Spy Trade, a Spycatcher novella by Matthew Dunn.

The captors are demanding a prisoner exchange. But the US Government, which has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists, is puzzled nonetheless by the person they are demanding be released, a low-level agitator with no obvious ties to the group leadship. Cochrane meets with the prisoner, determines he is of little value, but agrees that no exchange should take place. Still, he, too, is intrigued by the request, and continues to dig deeper into why the terrorists seem so desperate to get this man freed.

Rather long for a novella at over 200 pages, Spy Trade is still a quick and entertaining read. The well-structured narrative is told from multiple points of view, but there are relatively few characters and it's easy to keep track of them. The storyline is a good one, peppered with a few twists and turns, and ends with an unexpected (though completely reasonable) resolution to the tense situation. For the most part, this is a character study, an introduction to Will Cochrane for new readers, if you will, and it is not necessary to have read any of the previous books in this series to enjoy this novella. But even those readers familiar with the character will appreciate visiting with him in this setting.

Spycatcher
William Morrow (Hardcover), August 2011
ISBN-13: 9780062037671; ISBN-10: 0062037676

Spy Trade

A William Cochrane Mystery Novella by Matthew Dunn