Beaumont's previous book, A Spy Alone, ended with a shocking event that is the mainspring of this one. This second installment of the "Oxford Spy Ring" series features the same protagonists and some of the same antagonists. And like the earlier work, this one is written with chapters presenting narratives from different timelines and places.

Simon Sharman is undercover in Kyiv during the early months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, hoping to find a Chechen assassin with whom he has unfinished business. He is informally supported by his previous employer, the Joint Intelligence Directorate, and one of their officers, his Oxford classmate and sometime love interest Sarah du Cane, who in turn are pursuing their own interest in the assassin. Things proceed somewhat slowly and deliberately for the first 70% of the book, then suddenly turn frantic heading toward the climax and resolution. The very end opens up exciting possibilities for the next book in the series.

I enjoyed this espionage thriller slightly more than the previous one, which really needs to be read prior to this; otherwise the main source of conflict will be somewhat obscure. The characters are better developed and the author's technical disquisitions are more convincingly integrated with the plot. Patience and care are required to follow the story as it unfolds and to keep all the players and organizations sharply identified. Beaumont does play fair with the reader in supplying information and clues, and the denouement is satisfying.

Thanks to Canelo and Netgalley for an ARC.

A Spy at War is an excellent spy novel that is highly topical being set in Ukraine.

The tension is kept high throughout by the author which keeps the pages turning from the first to the last page.

Definitely recommended.

Charles. Beaumont is rapidly establishing himself as an elite writer of spy thrillers as this is a worthy addition to his first book.

Having read and enjoyed books focusing on the IRA and Islamic terrorists it is good to read a book that is so topical, dealing as it does with the invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s attempts to conduct war also through social media and the efforts of useful idiots ostensibly working for the opposition.

The scene setting is accurate and the action frenetic. This is a book that has been published at exactly the right time and deserves to become a best seller.

A worthy sequel to A SPY ALONE, Beaumont continues to move toward the pole position as a worthy successor to Le Carre. The book -- a spy thriller set in Ukraine in 2022 -- takes a while laying its groundwork before racing into some truly thrilling moments; that groundwork is riveting and exudes the authority of an author who has lived in the world he writes about.

What is unsettling is how the book -- dealing with Russian efforts to poison support for Ukraine through political stooges in the UK -- manages to be prescient, topical, and behind the times as of this very week. As the President of the United States asserts himself to be the weak kneed supplicant of Kremlin manipulation that the book anticipates, the book offers a slender hope of sanity and moral rectitude in a time where reality gives us a lot less cause for optimism. It is a cry for justice tucked inside a very satisfying potboiler... the most persuasive kind of statement possible.