The Trap (Alias Emma Book Three) by Ava Glass

 

The Trap (Alias Emma Book Three) by Ava Glass.

Published 1st August 2024 by Penguin.

From the cover of the book:

How far would you go to catch a killer?

This is the question UK agent Emma Makepeace must ask herself when she is sent to Edinburgh for the upcoming global G7 Summit.

The Russians are in town and Emma and her team know a high-profile assassination is being planned.

But who is their target?

There is only one way to find out. Emma must set a trap using herself as bait.

As the most powerful leaders in the world arrive and the city becomes gridlocked, Emma knows the clock is ticking.

***********

Intelligence agent Emma Makepeace is on a mission to find out exactly why the Russians are in Edinburgh ahead of the G7 summit. She and her team know they must have something planned, but quite how this involves the apparently innocent Russian Oligarch Nick Orlov, a man who seems to have no connection to murky world of the security services, is hard to see.

With the clock counting down to the summit, Emma's job is to get close to Orlov and discover exactly what he knows about the threat to the G7 conference, by any means necessary - even if this means setting herself as bait in a honey trap...

Emma Makepeace's third gripping adventure starts very much as it means to go on, with a tense chase through the streets of London to discover exactly why a high-raking Russian intelligence officer is in Britain ahead of the G7 summit. His presence here can only mean one thing - that the Russians are planning to upset the conference in some way, and there is very little time to find out what this might entail.

The action swiftly moves to Edinburgh, and the game is afoot, with the kind of fast-paced spy shenanigans that make the Alias Emma books so deliciously entertaining - this time with an added police procedural twist. The team are all here, from man-of-few-words Ripley, tech genius Zach, and wardrobe mistress Martha, to get Emma undercover in the house of wealthy Nick Orlov to discover why an he is suddenly being visited by very dangerous men from his former homeland. Move follows counter move, as they gather the intelligence they need, with the co-ordinated help of other security forces, and the Scottish police - which allows Glass to develop a lovely partnership between Emma and Scottish detective, Kate Mackenzie.

Emma really comes into her own in this third book. Craving human connection in a job that almost entirely puts this out of the question, she is caught in a dilemma between wanting to trust those she is working with and fearing betrayal after the events in book two, The Traitor. At times she finds herself reflecting uncomfortably on the past and second guessing her instincts, ramping up the atmosphere of distrust nicely. Her emotions are complicated by the fact that even she does not know how far she is willing to go to get this job done, which adds welcome depth to the relentless energy of the espionage elements that drive the plot onwards - and there are more than enough of those to leave you in no doubt that Emma is the consummate professional, as always.

This is a spy thriller for the modern generation, and my absolute favourite of the series so far. I was totally immersed in Emma's mission, flipping between enjoyable moments of glamour and grittiness, from cracking opener to brilliant climax. There are golden nods to the other books for fans of the series, and although you can read this a stand-alone, I highly recommend going back to read The Chase and The Traitor if you enjoy page-turning adventures with a protagonist you can pin your colours to. There is a seductive hint that Glass intends to continue what promises to be a very rewarding partnership in future books too - something I am definitely here for! Roll on book four!

The Trap is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Penguin for sending me a ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Ava Glass is the author of the espionage series Alias Emma. A former civil servant and journalist, she once worked closely with spies, and that experience fuels her writing. Ava is the pseudonym for an international bestselling author who has written more than ten crime novels under another name. Her books have been bestsellers in multiple countries, and have been published in more than twenty languages. Alias Emma is currently being developed for television by The Ink Factory.