The name’s Kite. Lachlan Kite. And he’s a major player in the third instalment of Charles Cumming’s seriously addictive Box 88 series, KENNEDY 35.

Kite’s been front and centre in the two previous novels, Box 88 and Judas 62, and again he straddles two time zones, the past and the present, as young agent in the field during the Nineties and as senior spook in the present day.

KENNEDY 35 begins, as did its predecessors, with a preliminary historical note, this time the genocide in Rwanda, that informs the story that unfolds thirty years on.

“You will not like what I am about to tell you.” This is the grim, foreboding opening line of the novel and there is a resonating truth in it. Atrocities committed are catalogued, redolent of current global conflicts.

The hunt is on for a couple of war criminals, Augustin Bagaza and his lover, Grace Mavinga, dubbed by the intelligence service, Lady Macbeth. She is a formidable presence who screws her courage to the sticking place and forces friends and foe to do the same.

Taking its title from an address in Dakar, KENNEDY 35 is a first rate espionage thriller, the subterfuge snaking its way through the pages with a climax as unpredictable as it is chilling.

Third in the series and arguably the best, which is saying a lot, KENNEDY 35 is full of fascinating multi-faceted characters, incendiary with intrigue, explosive in its violence.

All too real to be escapist, all too resonant to be speculative, a spy fiction loaded with spy fact, KENNEDY 35 is an always gripping thriller bristling with menace, sensitivity, action and insight.

A must for your holiday book bag.

KENNEDY 35 by Charles Cumming is published by Harper Collins

Review by Richard Cotter