C. J. Daugherty

Emma Makepeace #2!
Emma is assigned to go undercover to investigate a Russian oligarch. She is shocked to find that their is a third man they should be investigating, and that it could be someone inside MI6. Emma gets close, but is pulled from the operation. She refuses to give up, and is shocked to discover the traitor.
I love Emma, and her gutsy response to danger. She also shows emotion, compassion, and grit as she does her job. I like the fast pace of these thrillers and am looking forward to book #3. Emma is the heroine we all love to support!
Would have been 5 stars, except it was obvious to me who the traitor was throughout the book - though I still loved it!… (meer)

(2023) A followup to the very good Alias Emma, but not quite as good. Emma gets assigned to the yacht of an arms dealer in order to determine how and with whom the man is working on his deals. Kind of a locked room situation. Moves a lot slower than the first book, but enjoyable nonetheless. Washingon Post: There is, within spy fiction, some consternation that the genre has typically favored male writers and protagonists, content to leave women in the shadows. Thankfully, writers such as Ava Glass, Alma Katsu, I.S. Berry and others are stepping out of those shadows and using their real-life experiences and considerable narrative powers to reframe the field. Glass?s new novel, ?The Traitor,? is a case in point.

?The Traitor? delivers everything fans of spy fiction could want: an absorbing plot, shadowy characters, page-gripping tension. A follow-up to Glass?s 2022 ?Alias Emma,? the novel continues the story of young British secret agent Emma Makepeace as she investigates a Russian oligarch suspected of killing an MI6 operative, and the thriller rarely relents from its brisk opening pages.

Ava Glass's ?The Traitor.? (Bantam)
Emma Makepeace?s investigation ? and, yes, her self-invented last name is a bit on the nose ? leads her to work undercover as a crew member on the oligarch?s luxury yacht, all the while snooping and hoping not to be discovered. Confined to the boat, she?s soon unable to contact her superiors and has to navigate an assortment of staff members, questionable colleagues of the oligarch and his mistress. And, as she soon finds out, there is absolutely no one Emma can trust.

In pandemic-fueled thrillers, the danger is in the house

Much of that is because Glass ? a former crime reporter and civil servant whose given name is not Ava Glass ? has crafted such a wonderful character in Emma. She?s mission-oriented but vulnerable. Loyal yet informed by past experiences of the dangers of nationalism. Pragmatic and compassionate, and it is this compassion that occasionally threatens her and the undercover operation ? but Glass never plays it as a weakness. It?s that compassion, coupled with a realistic, keen intelligence, that sets both Emma the agent and Ava the author above their peers. ?At its heart,? Glass writes, ?spying is lying. ? There?s always a chink in their armor where you can plunge a sword.? But it?s Emma?s hesitancy to draw her sword, displayed by her discomfort when she lies to those she likes, that wonderfully complicates both her mission and character. There?s real weight and resonance here, and the constant threat of Emma losing an identity she so desperately needs.

Glass?s prose is crisp but never lazy, the descriptions telling without being overwhelming. (A mammoth skyscraper is described as a ?vertical city,? a dangerous criminal?s contempt turns ?the expression on his scarred face into a gargoyle?s leer.?) Side characters, such as the oligarch?s girlfriends and bodyguards, as well as the agency staff supporting Emma?s mission, are fully formed. The end of one chapter propels readers to the next, but without artifice.… (meer)