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The Trap follows Ava Glass’ debut spy thriller The Chase and her critically acclaimed 2023 thriller The Traitor, which was a Grazia Book of the Month, Sunday Times Book of the Year, Washington Post Book of the Year, Cosmopolitan Book of the Year, and Richard & Judy Book Club pick.
Film rights to The Chase and The Traitor have been acquired by the producers of The Night Manager, who are currently working on a pilot, now in the final stages. Next step will be casting!
One of very few women shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, the UK’s spy fiction prize, and one of the vanishingly few female authors writing about spies, Ava Glass is breaking down the door to the most male dominated genres in the English language – the espionage novel.
Ava Glass’ fiction is based on her first-hand experience working with female spies for the British government, which has seen her dubbed “the new queen of spy fiction” by The Guardian. This alongside a decade working as an investigative journalist and crime reporter in America covering homicides for publications including the New York Times and Reuters makes her writing both fresh and dangerously believable. Follow @AvaGlassBooks on X
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About the book
Edinburgh. The 50th annual G7 Summit is being hosted by the UK, and intelligence agent Emma Makepeace, has less than a week to decode, defuse and disable a deadly threat to the leaders of the free world.
The Russians are in town and Emma and her team know a high-profile assassination is being planned. But who is their target? And who is the assassin? There is only one way to find out. Emma must set a trap using herself as bait.
From the majesty of the Scottish Highlands to Europe’s most lavish hotels, using private jets, phone taps, and her training and instincts honed by three years hunting Russian spies, Emma Makepeace must trick her way into the moneyed, champagne-fuelled playground of the super-rich in order to trap the killer.
But Emma doesn’t count on liking her target, or the fact that he might actually fall for her, and with the clock ticking and her cover wearing increasingly thin, danger looms over her. One false move and they could both be dead.
This summer’s hottest read by “The new Queen of Spy Fiction” (The Guardian) Ava Glass’s storytelling is compulsively readable, combining twisting plotlines, intelligent dialogue and ambiguous characters, all skilfully brought together in an epic climax. Never before has spy fiction been so nail-bitingly real.
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Review
Intel suggests someone is planning something big at the G7 summit in Edinburgh. The presence of certain high value targets in the same place as particular agent who is known for being in the midst of plots to destabilise countries, political spheres and just peace in general - it's a recipe for well-planned disaster. No wonder Emma ends up smack bang in the middle.
It's interesting how the relationship between Emma and Kate evolves - from initial irritation to an acknowledgement of similarities, and what could be deemed as recognition of the need to recruit. I wonder if there is an element of disassociation when it comes to ignoring the negative aspects of her job, because they outweigh the thrill and the positives.
If The Traitor and/or this series in general gets developed I hope they get the casting right. Whoever embodies Emma will have to be the same follow your instinct, tough cookie with the ability to adjust to the need of the moment, and the operative who never hesitates to do whatever necessary to achieve her goal.
This is the kind of series with the potential to go a long way, and it's refreshing to have a spy thriller series with a female main character. All Emma needs now is to be pulling those strings herself.
Buy The Trap at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Penguin | August 1st 2024 | £8.99| Paperback Original. Buy at Amazon com.
