- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Penguin UK; 6th edition (July 1 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140294775
- ISBN-13: 978-0140294774
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.2 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #266,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Mark and Benjamin Keen haven't seen their father, Christopher, for more than twenty years. He has only just begun to shed light on his life as a master spy when he is murdered in cold blood by an unidentified assassin. Was his death connected to his MI6 past? Had Christopher uncovered a dangerous conspiracy involving his eldest son? And what were his links to Moscow, Afghanistan and the Russian mafia in London? To discover the truth and avenge their father's death the brothers are drawn into the legacy of his life as a spy. And inheritance can be deadly.
About the Author
Charles Cumming was born in Scotland in 1971. Author of the bestselling thrillers A Spy by Nature and The Hidden Man, The Spanish Game is his third novel.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The Russian is sitting alone on the driver's side of a rented Mercedes Benz. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The Russian is sitting alone on the driver's side of a rented Mercedes Benz. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finest espionage novel ever?, Dec 24 2009
By Craig McMurtry "Craig" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Hidden Man (Paperback)
Charles Cumming's "The Hidden Man" is certainly the finest espionage novel I've read. While I love the works of Littell, Deighton, Greene, McCarry, Ignatius and Le Carre, as well as Cumming's own "A Spy By Nature," "The Hidden Man" is unique in how effectively it deals with the effects of cold war espionage on very ordinary people. The main characters in Cumming's novel are not spies, ambassadors or diplomats, but a businessman and an artist. Nor does Cumming succumb to having them turn into James Bond. History simply reaches into their lives, and unravels them. Even one is not interested in that particular theme, one will be treated to a fast, engrossing drama. By page fifty, Cumming has amassed so much intruiging plot with remarkably little prose.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Multiple layers of intrigue, Nov 4 2010
By TChris - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Hidden Man (Paperback)
As of this writing, there are thirty customer reviews of Charles Cumming's first novel, A Spy by Nature, but only one of his second novel, The Hidden Man. This is unfortunate because The Hidden Man is the better of the two books. Readers who enjoy well written, character-driven espionage fiction should seek it out.When Christopher Keen's two children were young, Keen abandoned his family to take a job as an SIS operative. Thirty years later, Keen works for Divisar Corporate Intelligence. His wife is long dead. Keen has reestablished a relationship with his son Mark, but his son Ben refuses to speak to him. Mark is a senior executive at Libra, a nightclub chain that is about to open a club in Russia. The lawyer putting that deal together is under investigation by MI5, in cooperation with Russian police authorities who observed his meetings with an organized crime figure during trips to Russia. Keen has given professional advice to Libra about its Russian business dealings, and MI5 not only wants Keen's assistance, it wants to use him to get information from Mark. Hours after Keen has his first serious conversation with Mark since leaving the family, a Russian with an apparent score to settle enters Keen's flat and kills him. (The killing is actually the first event in the novel; the early chapters fill in the backstory.)
The bulk of the story centers on the sometimes independent, sometimes cooperative efforts of Mark and Ben to learn who killed their father and why. Cumming builds suspense slowly as we learn about each brother: Mark's enthusiastic but naive willingness to assist MI5; Ben's curiosity about a father he's so long detested; Ben's shaky relationship with a wife who finds herself attracted to his boss. Cumming creates a strong sense of atmosphere and danger as the plot develops; a particularly tense scene has the brothers meeting with Latvian gangsters in a strip club. Each brother is a fully developed character; their very different relationships with their father, and their reactions to conflicting stories they hear about him after his death, is fascinating. A turf war between intelligence agencies working at cross-purposes has become standard fare in spy novels, but it's used to great effect in The Hidden Man. The brothers are caught in the middle, they don't know who or what to believe ... it's a great story.
The careful plot, the depth of the characters, and the nice pace at which the story unfolds all make this an excellent, rewarding, five star novel.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
A disappointment, Jan 23 2012
By Stoney - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Hidden Man (Paperback)
In this book Mark and Ben Keene become involved in the investigation of their father's murder, mostly in England, but in the world of nightclubs and the Russian mob. This is the third Charles Cumming book I've read. While I found The Spanish Game to be good, and Trinity 6 to be very good, I was very disappointed by "The Hidden Man".The Hidden Man starts off slowly with a large cast of poorly identified and imminently forgetable characters, and really doesn't improve from there. I did not find a single character remotely interesting (except possibly Christopher Keene who is murdered a few pages into the book). The book is very idiosyncratic British, and the audiobook is narated in a particularly annoying British accent. Several British intelligence/security/law enforcement agencies are involved (mostly at cross purposes) but I never figured out which ones or why they were involved. Even most American authors have learned to at least identify-in-context obscure American intelligence/security agencies, but Cummings doesn't bother. Well actually there is an exception, Cummings does have a character explain that "the cousins" means the CIA. Duh! There is no satisfying resolution, in part because there are no clear "good guys" or "bad guys". Having read the whole book, I still don't know why Christopher Keene was murdered, nor why any of the action happened, and I couldn't care less. I find Cumming's recurring theme of adultery to be depressing.
In short, I found "The Hidden Man" to tedious and depressing. Readers who are into the dreary "realistic school" of crime/espionage (in which everything is ultimately pointless, all are betrayed, all are disillutioned, and all die pathetic, meaningless deaths) may enjoy it.
If like me, even at 62, you believe that life is a great and exciting adventure, and that each of us is (or should be) contributing to a brighter future for humanity, then you too will probably be disappointed with "The Hidden Man".
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