Five years after writing the superlative spy thriller A Single Spy, author William Christie returns to the embattled World War II Soviet spy Alexsi Smirnoff. The Double Agent opens as if almost no time has passed for Smirnoff. It is still 1943 and World War II is in full swing. But Alexsi finds himself captured by the British after he foils a plot to assassinate Winston Churchill and others.
Having burned himself with his Soviet spy brethren, Smirnoff must now figure out a way to carve a new life for himself while avoiding the inevitable retribution the Russians are sure to throw at him for his betrayal. Indeed, an attempt on his life is made, after which he finds himself spirited away to England where the British are bound and determined to get every last bit of information out of him about his Russian background and his time undercover in the German Army.
But thanks to Russian agents buried in British Intelligence, his enemies are soon once more on his tail. The British establish a new identity for him and send him back to the front lines of the war. Now serving as a sergeant in the German communications corps in Northern Italy, Alexsi soon finds himself caught up between the Germans who are desperate to keep control of Italy, a variety of forces trying to get their hands on the Vatican, and a countryside filled with Italian communists who would like nothing better to see them all dead. Caught between any number of rocks and a hard place, Alexsi is forced to choose once and for all what side he’s on, as he races to save those he can.
I found The Double Agent to be a fully worthy successor to A Single Spy that also stands quite well on its own as a separate tale. William Christie’s attention to the most minute details of spy craft during World War II was just as fascinating as his action-oriented set pieces. His descriptions of the places Alexsi goes and the things he sees ring with such authenticity that you feel as if you are walking side by side with Alexsi through Iran, England, and Italy.
I will say that I was originally a little disappointed in where the book left off at its ending. But as I thought more about it, it struck me that Christie leaves things in such a way that there could very well be another Alexsi story down the line.
The Double Agent, a brilliantly constructed tale, once more establishes William Christie as one of the premiere authors of the spy thriller.
