CANR
WORK TITLE: SECRET SERVICE
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: London, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME: CA 228
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 13, 1967, in Malta; married Claudia Hill Norton (a jewelry designer), 1994; children: three;
EDUCATION:Attended Sherborne School and Edinburgh University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and television correspondent. Independent Television News, London, England, editorial trainee, 1990-92, producer, 1992-93, Ireland correspondent, 1993-96, political correspondent, 1996-98, Asia correspondent, 1998-2001, Royal correspondent, 2001-03, UK editor, 2003—, political editor 2005–, The Agenda, host, 2013–, News at Ten, main newscaster, 2015–.
AWARDS:Shortlist, Crime Writers Association (CWA) Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year, 2010, for The Master of Rain; shortlist, CWA Historical Crime Novel of the Year, for The White Russian and The God of Chaos.
WRITINGS
Also author of ITV drama, The Great Fire, 2014.
Shadow Dancer was adapted for a film in 2012, starring Clive Owen.
SIDELIGHTS
Tom Bradby covers domestic news for Great Britain’s Independent Television News (ITN). His other positions at ITN have included serving as a correspondent covering the royal family, and as Asia correspondent from 1999- 2001, during which time he was seriously injured in Jakarata, Indonesia, in a political riot. Bradby was an Ireland correspondent during the development of the peace process and Irish Republican Army (IRA) cease-fire. He has also covered events in China and Kosovo.
Badby is the author of a number of historical mystery and suspense novels, including The Master of the Rain, The White Russian, The God of Chaos, Blood Money, and Secret Service.
While living in Hong Kong, Bradby researched records of 1920s Shanghai and wrote his book The Master of the Rain. Other sources included records from London’s Imperial War Museum archives and memoirs of British Special Branch officers working in Shanghai. With this research he wrote a mystery set in 1926 Shanghai, though Brian Bennett noted in Time International that “Bradby doesn’t bore us by showing off all that historical research. Instead, he weaves together a vivid portrait of the times and a ripping good crime tale as he slowly unravels the characters’ hidden secrets (and they all have them).” Englishman Richard Field arrives in Shanghai to escape his life and to work for the special branch of the international police force, which keeps the city in order and communism at bay. His first job, with his American partner, Caprisi, is to investigate the murder of a Russian prostitute who worked for Pockmark Lu, the most powerful man in the city in both politics and crime. Field questions the victim’s neighbor and fellow Russian aristocrat, Natasha Medvedev, who also is connected to Lu. Field finds other cases of murdered Russian women, and thinks Medvedev may be the next victim. He is drawn to her, even though she is uncooperative and mysterious, and others warn him not to trust her. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly maintained that the historical base of the novel is overshadowed “by the more modern focus on frenzied sex and death. Likewise, the obvious film noir look the author goes for is undermined by the late twentieth-century serial-killer shtick he injects in the plot.”
Shanghai is full of foreigners working within and outside of the city’s corrupt systems to make money and serve their own agenda. Although Field’s uncle is a local government official who can sometimes be of assistance, this complex web of people and interests creates many roadblocks in his investigation, especially because the police care more about capturing Lu than solving the murder of the Russian women. Determined to stay honest, he learns the police are corrupt, and eventually feels he cannot completely trust anyone. Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times, “The best of Mr. Bradby’s suspense comes from a good-versus-evil struggle for ultimate authority. And his most clear-eyed writing is reserved for this side of the story.”
Another murder mystery, The White Russian, begins in January, 1917, in St. Petersburg with the Bolshevik Revolution looming. As a contributor to Publishers Weekly pointed out, Bradby demonstrates the “urban lawlessness, food shortages, unrest, and Imperial decadence that characterize the period.” Chief Investigator Sanrdo Ruzsky, recently returned from exile in Siberia for the death of a secret police informant, investigates the murder of a man and a woman found on the ice of the Neva River near the tsar’s Winter Palace. The woman worked as a nanny for the royal family, confirming that the crime is political, and Ruzsky wants to know why she was fired from imperial service. The victims seem to be Yalta revolutionaries, but Ruzsky wonders if they were double agents for the tsar’s secret police, who hinder his investigation. Ruzsky continues his inquiries even after he is dismissed from the case.
In addition to the investigation, Ruzsky’s relationship with his family is uneasy. His father blames Ruzsky for his brother’s drowning and Ruzsky’s wife left him in Siberia, where he lives with family that includes his surviving brother, Dmitri, and his sister-in-law. He finds his personal life becoming interwoven with the investigation in surprising ways. A Kirkus Reviews contributor felt that Bradby effectively connects all the components of the story, including the upcoming revolution, Ruzsky’s personal life, and the royal family’s politics, and “sustaining interest literally down to the last line.” “This one really isn’t over till it’s over,” the critic added, “not till Bradby types The End.”
Bradby’s 2006 novel, The God of Chaos, is set amid the chaos of World War II in North Africa. It is June, 1942, and former New York policeman Joe Quinn is investigating the murder of a senior British officer whose bloodied body was found in a rubbish tin. Quinn has history, thrown out of the New York police after the death of his son, and now he tries to vindicate himself on this case, chasing down a deadly spy. The problem is, the only witness to the killer is Amy White, an American woman, and Quinn is falling in love with her.
Joe Quinn is reprised in Bradby’s Blood Money, a prequel set in New York in 1929. It is Quinn’s first case, investigating what could be the suicide of a banker who falls from a Wall Street building. There have been others taking this route out of the onset of the Great Depression. But Quinn thinks otherwise, that this is in fact a murder. His hunch is proven correct when colleagues of the first victim are suddenly are eliminated in particularly brutal ways. These victims are old buddies who appear to have secret connections with organized crime. Ultimately, the investigation leads to a high-ranking cop who is on the take, and Quinn learns hard truths about staying honest in vastly dishonest circumstances.
Writing in the online Euro Crime, Terry Halligan dubbed Blood Money a “superb novel.” Halligan added: “There is a slow build up of suspense and it doesn’t let up until the end. The background detail is brilliantly defined and is wonderfully evocative of 1929 Prohibition-era New York City with a vivid picture of the everyday life at this time. The author has done a lot of meticulous research to get the historical detail just right.” Similarly, Historical Novel Society website contributor Marilyn Sherlock termed this a “fast-moving story involving Joe’s family as well as the politics of the day.” Sherlock went on to note that the “tale moved along at a great pace with enough twists and turns to suit the most jaded critic.”
Bradby’s 2019 novel, Secret Service, is his first set in contemporary England. It features senior MI6 office Kate Henderson, who, as a Kirkus Reviews critic noted, “has a borscht bowl of troubles.” She and her team have discovered that the British Prime Minister has cancer and will need to step down. However, one of the primary candidates to replace him could by a Russian asset inside the British government. Kate is caught in the wilderness of mirrors that is espionage: is this real information or Russian disinformation to mess with British politics? Could the Russian mole be Kate’s boss, who is dismissive to the information? Or could it be her own husband’s boss, the minister of education? Is she actually being set up? Added to this are domestic troubles: she wonders if her husband is cheating on her, worries about her two teenage children and her mother who is beginning to suffer from dementia.
“Ops go sideways, betrayals abound, and good people die,” commented a Publishers Weekly reviewer of Secret Service. “Bradby keeps the reader guessing to the last. Fans of cerebral spycraft in the vein of le Carre will enjoy this outing.” A less positive evaluation was offered by a Kirkus Reviews critic who commented: “If all this seems reminiscent of some of the trials and tribulations of George Smiley, well, it’s a new generation. Old wine in a new glass, slightly past its prime.” A higher assessment came from online NB contributor Philipa Coughlan: “Bradby authentically portrays the world of politics as one would expect and his insight into the machinations of the intelligence services come from a wide knowledge of the internal conflicts and power struggles that cross from MI6 to MI5 and the world diplomacy that so often fails. I enjoyed it immensely as a personal read and will look to others by him to catch up.” Similarly, a For Winter Nights – A Bookish Blog writer noted of the novel: “Secret Service is intricately plotted, tense and full of menace, and at its centre is a very appealing, likeable character who has to make the most difficult of decisions, each of which has consequences. If I had a recipe of what I would put into a spy thriller, Secret Service has the lot.” Likewise, online Shots Magazine critic Ali Karim concluded: “Complete with short chapters, a powerful voice, a slippery and terse narrative, the reader finds that a bookmark is superfluous, such is the engaging nature of Bradby’s return as a novelist. Miss Secret Service at your peril.”
Bradby once told CA: “I was an only child and spent many hours as a boy creating elaborate imaginary worlds with which to entertain myself. As a result perhaps, when I want to relax and switch off now, I am still happier spending time in a world I have created myself than one realized by others. Given the choice, I’d rather write than read a book or watch television.
“As a history student, I was fascinated with the idea of people living ordinary lives in extraordinary times. I recall reading about the Russian and French revolutions and trying to imagine people getting on with everyday life as the world around them disintegrated. I find the notion of researching a period of history and then trying to mentally ‘live’ it for a year or two completely intriguing and uniquely satisfying.
“I wish I had a [writing] process. I am aware that the main challenge I face with each book now is what my agent calls the ‘mesh,’ by which he means the process of weaving together the history going on in the background, the plot and the personal dramas of the novel’s lead characters into one satisfying whole. However, each novel seems to present a completely different set of challenges.
“To write something okay isn’t that difficult. To try and turn it into something (hopefully) quite compelling requires a huge amount of effort, and almost limitless capacity to go over scenes again and again and, above all, an ability to accept criticism.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2002, review of The Master of the Rain, p. 5; March 1, 2003, review of The White Russian, p. 327; September 15, 2019, review of Secret Service.
Library Journal, April 15, 2002, Barbara Hoffert, review of The Master of the Rain, p. 123; April 1, 2003, Ann Forister, review of The White Russian, p. 126.
New Statesman, April 1, 2002, Alex Gibbons, review of The Master of the Rain, p. 54.
People, June 17, 2002, Allen Salkin, review of The Master of the Rain, p. 47.
Publishers Weekly, January 7, 2002, review of The Master of the Rain, p. 49; April 28, 2003, review of The White Russian; August 19, 2019, review of Secret Service, p. 76.
Spectator, April 13, 2002, Charles Mitchell, review of The Master of the Rain, pp. 55-56.
Time International, February 25, 2002, Brian Bennett, review of The Master of the Rain, p. 49.
ONLINE
BookPage, http://www.bookpage.com/ (October 23, 2003), Sam Harrison, review of The Master of the Rain.
Bookreporter.com, http://www.bookreporter.com/ (October 23, 1999), Joe Hartlaub, review of The Master of the Rain; (October 23, 2003), Kate Ayers, review of The White Russian.
Capital Crime, https://www.capitalcrime.org/ (October 19, 2019), “Tom Bradby.”
Crime Time, http://www.crimetime.co.uk/ (October 23, 2003), Ingrid Yornstrand, review of The Master of the Rain.
Euro Crime, http://www.eurocrime.co.uk/ (December 7, 2009), Terry Halligan, review of Blood Money.
For Winter Nights – A Bookish Blog, https://forwinternights.wordpress.com/ (May 6, 2019), review of Secret Service.
Historical Novel Society, https://historicalnovelsociety.org/ (May 1, 2009), Marilyn Sherlock, review of Blood Money.
Independent Television News Online, http://www.itn.co.uk/ (February 15, 2004).
London Telegraph, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (May 13, 2018), Joel Adams, “ITV News Anchor Tom Bradby ‘Kept Away from Work for Five Weeks Due to Insomnia.'”
Mostly Fiction, http://mostlyfiction.com/ (October 23, 2003), Cindy Lynn Speer, review of The Master of the Rain.
NB, https://nbmagazine.co.uk/ (March 20, 2019), Philipa Coughlan, review of Secret Service.
New York Times Online, http://query.nytimes.com/ (October 21, 2003), Janet Maslin, review of The Master of the Rain.
Press Gazette, https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/ (May 20, 2019 ), Charlotte Tobitt, “ITV News at Ten Anchor Tom Bradby Says Insomnia Was ‘Ten Times More Frightening’ Than Being Shot.”
Shots Magazine Online, http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/ (October 23, 2003), Russell James, review of The Master of the Rain; (May 30, 2019), Ali Karim, review of Secret Service.
Sun, https://www.thesun.co.uk/ (September 16, 2019), Kathy Giddins and Claudia Aoraha, “Who Is Tom Bradby, What Is His Net Worth And Who Is His Wife?.”
Tom Bradby is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. As a broadcaster, he is best known as the current Anchor of ITV's News at Ten, and presenter of all recent overnight election and referendum programmes on ITV. In his first year in the job, he was named Network Presenter of the Year by the Royal Television Society.
He has been with ITN for almost thirty years and was successively Ireland Correspondent, Political Correspondent, Asia Correspondent (during which time he was shot and seriously injured whilst covering a riot in Jakarta), Royal Correspondent, UK Editor and Political Editor - a job he held for a decade - before being made the Anchor of News at Ten in 2015.
His 2010 novel, The Master of Rain, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Steel Dagger for Thriller of the Year, and both The White Russian and The God of Chaos for the CWA Historical Crime Novel of the Year. He adapted his first novel, Shadow Dancer, into a memorable film directed by Oscar winner James Marsh and starring Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson and Andrea Riseborough. His script for the film was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards.
Tom Bradby
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Not to be confused with Tom Brady.
Tom Bradby
Born
Thomas Matthew Bradby
13 January 1967 (age 52)
Malta
Nationality
British
Education
Westbourne House School
Sherborne School
Alma mater
University of Edinburgh
Occupation
Presenter and journalist
Years active
1990–present
Employer
ITN
ITV
Notable work
ITV News at Ten
The Agenda with Tom Bradby
Spouse(s)
Claudia Hill-Norton (m. 1994)
Children
3
Website
Website
Thomas Matthew Bradby (born 13 January 1967) is a British journalist and novelist. He was political editor for ITV News from 2005 to 2015,[1] and currently presents the News at Ten and political discussion series The Agenda with Tom Bradby.
Contents
1
Early life and family
2
Career
3
Publications
4
Personal life
5
References
6
External links
Early life and family[edit]
Bradby was born in Malta in 1967. After a short spell in Gibraltar he moved to Britain and was educated at Westbourne House School, Sherborne School and the University of Edinburgh.[2] In 1994, he married Claudia, the daughter of Vice-Admiral Hon. Sir Nicholas John Hill-Norton.[3]
Career[edit]
Bradby has worked for ITN, producer of ITV News, since 1990 when he joined the organisation as an editorial trainee. He subsequently became producer for ITV's political editor Michael Brunson in 1992.
From 1993 to 1996, Bradby was ITV's Ireland correspondent, reporting on events including the Northern Ireland peace process, the IRA ceasefire and Bill Clinton's visit to Ireland in November 1995. Bradby later became ITV's Asia correspondent from 1999 to 2001. In October 1999, he was injured whilst covering the riots in Jakarta against the newly elected President, Abdurrahman Wahid.[4] He was hit in the leg by a flare attached to a chain as demonstrators clashed with armed police in the Indonesian capital. He underwent a three-hour operation for a compound fracture of his fibula and spent several days in a Jakarta hospital before flying home to Hong Kong to convalesce.
Bradby returned to Britain and began a stint as royal correspondent, covering a number of key stories, including the Queen's Jubilee year, as well as the deaths of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. He later became UK editor and then political editor, taking on the role in 2005.
On 16 November 2010, Bradby carried out the first official interview of Prince William and Kate Middleton at St James's Palace after the couple's engagement was announced. It was reported that Bradby was chosen specifically to conduct the interview owing to a long-standing acquaintance with Prince William.[5] He subsequently attended their wedding as a guest.[6]
Bradby has since transitioned from reporter to presenter for a variety of programmes: In February 2012, ITV launched a weekly political discussion programme, The Agenda, hosted by Bradby; in August 2013, Bradby presented an edition of News at Ten for the first time; and in May 2015, he presented ITV's main coverage of the 2015 general election. In October 2015, Bradby took over as the sole main newscaster of the flagship News at Ten.[7]
In June 2016, Bradby led live coverage of the EU Referendum 2016 for ITV News.
Publications[edit]
Bradby has written six novels:
Shadow Dancer (1998) ISBN 0-552-14586-6
The Sleep of the Dead (2001) ISBN 0-552-14587-4
The Master of Rain (2002) ISBN 0-552-14746-X
The White Russian (2003) ISBN 0-552-14900-4
The God of Chaos (2004) ISBN 0-593-05267-6
Blood Money (2009) ISBN 0-552-15308-7
Secret Service (2019) ISBN 9781787632035
Shadow Dancer was adapted by Bradby into a film of the same name starring Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough in 2012.[8] It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.[8]
Bradby wrote the ITV drama The Great Fire, broadcast in 2014.
Personal life[edit]
Bradby lives in Hampshire with his wife Claudia, a jewellery designer, and their three children.[2] Bradby stated in 2007 that he is apolitical with no "coherent set of political views".[2]
ITV news anchor Tom Bradby 'kept away from work for five weeks due to insomnia'
Save
Tom Bradby, ITV newsreader, has been absent from the nightly News at Ten programme Credit: Julian Simmonds for The Telegraph
Joel Adams
13 May 2018 • 11:32am
Follow
A
nchorman Tom Bradby has been missing from the helm of News At Ten for more than a month due to a bout of insomnia.
Fans of the ITV newsreader, 51, have noticed his absence from the flagship nightly news bulletin, with many turning to Twitter to ask where he has gone, and when he will return.
Bradby, who was ITN’s royal correspondent and then political editor before taking over News At Ten in October 2015, was last on air in a brief segment announcing the birth of Prince Louis.
But otherwise he has not presented the programme for five weeks.
The Mail on Sunday reported a source close to Bradby said: "Tom has been off dealing with insomnia.
"It looks like he will be off for a further three weeks as it would be silly for him to return before he has recovered properly.
"He is resting and having some time to recuperate but is looking forward to getting back to work as soon as he is ready."
An ITN colleague added: "Tom has been in and out of the office a few times in the past month or so, but he has kept odd hours and hasn’t been able to go on air.
“His colleagues have been concerned about his prolonged absence. But everyone is in the dark as the powers-that-be have kept it hush-hush."
An ITV News spokesperson said: “Tom’s off sick at the moment. Until his return, regular News at Ten presenters Julie Etchingham and Rageh Omaar will anchor the programme.”
The news anchor was last seen in public at a charity lunch in London on March 6.
He is understood to be recuperating in the £1m Hampshire home he shares with his wife Claudia, a jewellery designer.
He is friendly with the Princes from his time as a Royal correspondent.
In 2010 William chose Bradby to conduct his engagement interview and invited him to the wedding the following year. Health permitting he is expected to be a guest at Prince Harry’s wedding this weekend.
Tom Bradby
Author
Tom Bradby is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. As a broadcaster, he is best known as the current Anchor of ITV’s News at Ten, and presenter of all recent overnight election and referendum programmes on ITV. In his first year in the job, he was named Network Presenter of the Year by the Royal Television Society.
He has been with ITN for almost thirty years and was successively Ireland Correspondent, Political Correspondent, Asia Correspondent (during which time he was shot and seriously injured whilst covering a riot in Jakarta), Royal Correspondent, UK Editor and Political Editor – a job he held for a decade – before being made the Anchor of News at Ten in 2015.
NEWS ON TOM Who is Tom Bradby, what is his net worth and who is his wife?
Kathy GiddinsClaudia Aoraha
16 Sep 2019, 21:05Updated: 16 Sep 2019, 21:15
TOM Bradby is best known for presenting the News At Ten on ITV and has been a journalist for nearly 30 years.
Most recently, he interviewed David Cameron and revealed the EU referendum still "haunts" him - but who is Tom Bradby, what's his net worth and who is he married to?
2
Tom Bradby has presented News At Ten on ITV since 2015Credit: HANDOUT
Who is Tom Bradby?
Tom Bradby, 52, is a British journalist who was born in Malta.
He has worked at ITN since 1990 when he joined the broadcasting company as an editorial trainee.
In 1992 he became the producer for political editor Michael Brunson.
From 1993-1996 he was ITV's Ireland correspondent and reported on events such as the IRA ceasefire.
From 1999-2001 he was ITV's Asia correspondent and was injured while reporting on the Jakarta riots.
He later became a royal correspondent and in November 2010 carried out the first official interview with Kate Middleton and Prince William.
Tom Bradby conducted David Cameron's first in-depth television interview about his time as Prime Minister - which revealed that the former PM is still haunted by the 2016 EU referendum.
Mr Bradby revealed that Mr Cameron is "sorry" about the state the country has got into because of his decision to hold the EU referendum.
2
Tom Bradby conducted 'The Cameron Interview'Credit: ITV
Play Video
News reader Tom Bradby introduces the Genoa road bridge disaster on ITV News at Ten
Who is Tom Bradby's wife Claudia and do they have any children?
Claudia Bradby, 49, is the daughter of Navy officer Vice-Admiral Hon. Sir Nicholas John Hill-Norton.
She is a jewellery designer and married Tom in 1994.
The couple live in Stockbridge, Hampshire and also have a flat in London.
They have three children - Jack, 22, Louisa, 20 and Sam, 19.
What is Tom Bradby's net worth?
Tom's net worth is estimated to be huge - accumulated from his successful career as a journalist, television presenter, and writer.
It's been speculated that his net worth is $11million, which is just over £8.8million.
What was his Genoa Bridge collapse report?
In 2018, Twitter users blasted ITV News’ “insensitive”, “tactless” and “smug” opening to the Genoa bridge disaster which has killed dozens - including children.
Tom Bradby has sparked outrage on social media while introducing a video package about the tragedy in northern Italy.
He said: “How often have all of us driven over a motorway bridge? Has it ever crossed your mind that it might actually fall down beneath you? “Well today in Genoa, one did with devastating consequences.”
Twitter users slammed the coverage branding it “ridiculous.”
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One wrote: “Is it me or is Tom Bradby’s delivery on @itvnews totally out of sync with the headlines he’s reading out! “Absolutely ridiculous tone for the Genoa tragedy.”
Ann Bell wrote: "Thomas Bradby tone introducing the collapse of bridge in Genoa is totally inappropriate. Sounds like he thinks it is funny."
May 20, 2019
Broadcast Journalism
News
Television Journalism
ITV News at Ten anchor Tom Bradby says insomnia was 'ten times more frightening' than being shot
By Charlotte Tobitt Twitter
ITV News at Ten anchor Tom Bradby has said suffering from insomnia last year felt “ten times more frightening” than being shot in the leg in Indonesia earlier in his career.
Bradby was forced to take about four months off from presenting the news last year after he began to struggle to sleep, with five totally sleepless nights over the course of three weeks.
On other nights, he would still be awake and in a “total panic” at 3am when he would take a sleeping pill and wake up three hours later nonetheless.
The 52-year-old opened up about his insomnia battle for the first time in an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine this weekend, revealing how he “limped through” the news before finally being signed off work in April.
Throughout that period, he insisted to colleagues he was alright and remembers being exhausted at work on the day of the birth of Prince Louis on 23 April.
“I got through that day but I felt terrible the next morning and couldn’t get out of bed,” he told the Sunday Times.
“Suddenly, I was in a really bad crisis, a total mess. I was trying to do News at Ten and literally limping through it.”
Bradby, who was hit by a flare in the leg in Jakarta while reporting on riots as ITV News’ Asia correspondent, said: “Once you get to the point where you’ve had no sleep for a number of nights — I mean, I got shot in Indonesia in 1999. This was ten times more frightening.”
Bradby was prescribed antidepressants and cognitive behavioural therapy and told to switch off by his doctor, who described what he was going through as the “mental health equivalent of a heart attack”.
His ITV bosses were “amazing” when he told them what he was going through, he added.
He also revealed he believes his psychological issues were triggered by the deaths of his parents in 2012 and 2016 respectively.
Bradby returned to TV screens in early August after three months signed off in which he “just walked the dogs and sat in the garden and cooked”.
He is still on an antidepressant “with a very sedative effect” but is in a “massively better mental place,” he said.
Bradby, Tom SECRET SERVICE Atlantic Monthly (Adult Fiction) $26.00 11, 19 ISBN: 978-0-8021-4803-2
Russians meddling in British politics.
Kate Henderson, a senior officer at MI6, has a borscht bowl of troubles. When her team bugs an oligarch's yacht, they learn that the Russians have co-opted a British politician and that the prime minister is ailing and will soon leave office. Is this disinformation, intentionally leaked to gum up internal British politics? The detail about the prime minister's health is key: No one in Britain has been aware of any issue, and when he unexpectedly resigns for health reasons, the report seems to be confirmed. But as Kate drills down on which politician may be the Kremlin's person, it also becomes clear that there's a mole on her team, and in fact there are potential betrayals swirling all around Kate. Is her boss, Ian Granger, head of the Europe and Russia desk, genuinely doubtful, or is he dismissing her suspicions because he's the mole? Is her husband cheating on her? Is her 15-year-old daughter really having sex with the pierced and tattooed Jed, who is a few years older? And will the MI6 director, known as C, force her to reveal her secret source in the Russian diplomatic corps? Dauntless, Kate slowly unravels the twisted skeins of deceit and betrayal, and though she loses much in the process, she perseveres. If all this seems reminiscent of some of the trials and tribulations of George Smiley, well, it's a new generation.
Old wine in a new glass, slightly past its prime.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Bradby, Tom: SECRET SERVICE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A599964469/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b40f2895. Accessed 5 Oct. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A599964469
Secret Service
Tom Bradby. Atlantic Monthly, $26 (368p) ISBN 978-0-8021-4803-2
Senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson, the heroine of this tense spy thriller from Bradby (The White Russian), receives information from a trusted source that Russia's three top foreign intelligence chiefs will meet in Istanbul on the super-yacht of a billionaire Russian oligarch. Surveillance of the meeting reveals the impending resignation of the U.K. prime minister and the possibility of a mole, code-named Viper, within the Secret Intelligence Service. The investigation threatens to implicate a number of high-ranking British government officials, including Kate's boss, Ian Granger, and education secretary Imogen Conrad, Kate's husband's boss. Or is it misinformation planted by Kate's source to frame her as the counterspy? The author reveals a rarely seen facet of secret agents: the domestic side. Not a cliched Jane Bond, Kate is a mother to two teenagers, daughter to a spiteful mother sliding into dementia, and wife to a civil servant who may be working for a traitor. Ops go sideways, betrayals abound, and good people die. Bradby keeps the reader guessing to the last. Fans of cerebral spycraft in the vein of le Carre will enjoy this outing. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (Nov.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Secret Service." Publishers Weekly, 19 Aug. 2019, p. 76. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597616438/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6d06bbe9. Accessed 5 Oct. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A597616438
Secret Service by Tom Bradby
Mar 20, 2019 | Crime & Thriller, Fiction | 0 comments
I’m not sure why this best-selling author’s work has passed me by as I am obviously aware of him as a political editor (2005-2015) and then ITV news anchorman and had seen him about Westminster when I worked there (1997-2010). He’s obviously well established as a bestseller with some varied thrillers and many fans.
I was intrigued by the idea of this book in particular as its theme is Russian interference in the election of a new Leader… a familiar theme wouldn’t we say after Trump in America!
Kate Henderson is an experienced intelligence officer at the Russia desk at MI6 and we start off as she is following up some information in Istanbul on Russians meeting on an oligarch’s large and expensive yacht, whilst getting a young Serbian woman – Lena – to spy for them with the oligarch’s son and family as their nanny.
When her team overhears the Russians say they are going to influence one of the candidates to be British Prime Minister when he resigns due to terminal illness they are surprised – a) because no one in the powers that be at intelligence or in Westminster know the current PM is ill and b) who would be the candidate that could potentially be a Russian spy?
Today, following the killings of Litvenyenko and the Novicok poisonings of the Scripals in Salisbury nothing seems impossible and Bradby uses all the past cases to expound the breadth that Russia might use to infiltrate our establishment. But it would mean there is a mole somewhere in government or the intelligence services (known as the Viper), so immediately Kate is suspicious of everyone, including her own husband, Stuart, who happens to work as a civil servant for one of the candidates for the top job.
The writing is fast paced and sweeps us along with the yacht to Istanbul and Greece alongside a backdrop of Russia past and present and the glamorous and of course incestuous world of power, sex and money.
I wasn’t entirely convinced by Kate as the spy catcher agent and Bradby struggles a bit having her as a woman and slipping into needy mother/wife/lover but perhaps giving her these weaknesses allow us to feel she has more emotional insight into why people behave as they do often with extraordinary dismissive violence to achieve their ends.
Bradby authentically portrays the world of politics as one would expect and his insight into the machinations of the intelligence services come from a wide knowledge of the internal conflicts and power struggles that cross from MI6 to MI5 and the world world diplomacy that so often fails.
I enjoyed it immensely as a personal read and will look to others by him to catch up. Book groups will like it to as its topical and as a thriller provides everything you’d need in an almost 007 film-like read.
Philipa Coughlan 4/4
Secret Service by Tom Bradby
Bantam Press 9781787632035 hbk May 2019
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Secret Service by Tom Bradby
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Bantam Press | 2019 (30 May) | 368p | Review copy | Buy the book
Kate Henderson has a lot on her plate. She’s got a full family life with two teenage children and a mother stricken by dementia, who also happens to be an extremely unpleasant woman. And then there’s the busy job, which involves a great deal of travel, often at short notice. For Kate is a senior officer in Britain’s Secret Service, M16, with responsibility for the Russia desk. A tip off has sent her and her small team to Turkey where it is believed that some of the most important members of Russia’s own secret service are gathering on a yacht. Kate has recruited someone to plant a bug on that yacht and what they overhear throws the UK and Russia back into the freeze of a cold war. They hear that the British Prime Minister is about to resign through ill health and that one of the candidates in his Cabinet is a Russian agent. As if this isn’t bad enough, this also tells Kate that there is a mole in M16. But who is it?
I love spy thrillers and I really liked the sound of this one. Tom Bradby is a journalist and author who now presents the ITV News at Ten. He definitely knows his stuff but, just as important as that, he really knows how to tell a good story. Secret Service is a brilliantly clever and thrilling read from start to finish. For some reason, perhaps because I’ve visited and like the country very much indeed, I particularly enjoy spy thrillers with a Russian element. They might be traditional but Tom Bradby shows here that this long-held friction still continues – and suspicions that Russia’s secret service has meddled in elections are extremely topical. And then there’s the matter of a British Prime Minister resigning, resulting in a leadership battle… that sounds rather familiar. Secret Service is undoubtedly a topical and timely thriller.
Kate Henderson is very much at the centre of the novel. She’s not presented as some cold, calculating spy master. Kate is a fully rounded human being, a woman who has to juggle family and work, with all of the guilt and demands that this entails. We spend time with Kate’s family as she has to deal with troublesome kids, a really nasty mother, and a husband who is accommodating and caring but has a pressing job of his own. Kate’s job involves a lot of soul searching as well as sacrifice. She has to decide how far she is prepared to go to protect her country, to do her job. How much will she risk? Who is she prepared to endanger? And how will she live with the consequences? The novel is full of personal stories and Kate is responsible for the lives of many of these people. It’s an engrossing and involving novel.
In a spy thriller you want puzzles, action and (as you’d expect) thrills. Secret Service provides all of these. On top of this there’s politics and the ambition of senior politicians, not to mention the ambition of Kate’s immediate superiors at M16. There is intense rivalry across the board and Kate is caught somewhere in the middle. Secret Service is intricately plotted, tense and full of menace, and at its centre is a very appealing, likeable character who has to make the most difficult of decisions, each of which has consequences. If I had a recipe of what I would put into a spy thriller, Secret Service has the lot.
Bradby, Tom - 'Blood Money'
Hardback: 384 pages (Feb. 2009) Publisher: Bantam Press ISBN: 0593054636
It's October 1929, and Joe Quinn, a young detective has been transferred to the New York City Police Department Head Quarters and whilst he has been a policeman for some time in another precinct of the City, here he is treated by his superiors as a "rookie".
His first case is the death of a banker who apparently fell from the roof of a high building. Joe believes it is a murder because the victim's footprints on the roof are reversed, showing he fell backwards after being pushed, whereas his colleagues seem to want him to believe it was a suicide. This occurred near Wall Street and there is a lot of worry about the overheating of the stock market.
Joe is assigned to partner an Italian cop close to retirement but their investigations are thwarted by their superiors at every step. Soon other colleagues of the first dead man are killed in more tragic ways. The men all appear to have connections with a mob gangster called "Lucky" Luciano and other figures in organised crime. Their leader, whose identity remains a closely guarded secret is an individual known as the "bagman" which indicates he is a high ranking cop on the take.
This is the time of prohibition and such blatant corruption is supposed to have been stopped by the FBI but perhaps they missed somebody? Joe's own father is also working at NYPD HQ but he is moody and unfriendly and more supportive of Joe's older brother Aidan. Joe's step-sister Martha, is photographed in a sexy, compromising situation and he sees one of the prints at a scene of crime but tries to keep her name out of it. In addition, Joe is haunted by memories of his mother who died when he was a child.
There is a slow build up of suspense and it doesn't let up until the end. The background detail is brilliantly defined and is wonderfully evocative of 1929 Prohibition-era New York City with a vivid picture of the everyday life at this time. The author has done a lot of meticulous research to get the historical detail just right.
This is a superb novel, but is perhaps written mainly for the US market. There are some vocabulary touches which puzzled me slightly, but I appreciated that an American reader would understand them more quickly. It is done in a subtle way and doesn't detract from the general readability and I'm sure BLOOD MONEY will be as successful as his previous books have been.
Terry Halligan, England
July 2009
Blood Money
WRITTEN BY TOM BRADBY
REVIEW BY MARILYN SHERLOCK
Blood Money is set in America during the Wall Street crash of 1929. Joe Quinn is a young detective who has just been drafted in to the headquarters of the NYPD. On a Monday morning a corpse lies on the ground on his back, presumably having thrown himself off the roof of a nearby building. The instructions from those in authority are clear—it is no more than the suicide of a desperate man in desperate times. But, when Joe discovers two sets of footprints on the roof, one pointing backwards, he is convinced that the dead man was pushed, meaning murder, not suicide, and this becomes even more convincing when a plug of cotton wool soaked in chloroform is found stuck in his throat at the autopsy.
What follows is a fast-moving story involving Joe’s family as well as the politics of the day. Everyone wants to play the event down, but why?
Not having read many American thrillers, I found the dialogue distracting at first, but the tale moved along at a great pace with enough twists and turns to suit the most jaded critic.
Secret Service
Written by Tom Bradby
Review written by Ali Karim
Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
Secret Service
Bantam Press
RRP: £12.99
Released: May 30 2019
HBK
It’s been a decade since Tom Bradby published a novel. He’s been busy screenwriting and working as a broadcast journalist for the British news network ITN, but I am delighted to report that his latest novel SECRET SERVICE has been worth the wait, and the anticipation.
Secret Service is an international thriller that has urgency straited throughout its prescient fusion of geo-politics, and the personal lives of people caught in the shadows of those events, the geopolitics of the world stage. It also casts a compassionate eye, as it makes the reader think beyond what is presented, to uncover the reality beneath the veneer that masks our lives and the lives of others, namely the powerful, as well as those we love, and those we fear.
At the centre of this geopolitical thriller is Kate Henderson, a senior intelligence officer based at London’s Vauxhall Cross, the H.Q. of Great Britain’s Special Intelligence Service (MI6 / SiS). Some say Paranoia is a heightened sense of reality, while others consider it a mental illness, but in the circles that Henderson navigates, it can be an advantage.
Henderson believes she has uncovered a Russian plot to covertly place an asset at the summit of British politics. She gathers her team to investigate to obtain credence, to support her mounting paranoia. Her point-man, Ravindra [Rav] with Danny on the technical side start to investigate this rumoured Russian asset Viper, allegedly placed in Whitehall and/or Westminster. Kate and Rav, secure the services of a tough Eastern European girl, Lena - to gather evidence of this Russian operation. Lena’s abilities came to the attention of Kate Henderson following the girl's escape from the abuses of her father in Belgrade, and then from the clutches of Milos, a sex-trafficker.
Bradby’s novel commences with the starting gun, being Lena falling into Kate Henderson’s recruitment trap, a sting operation where she is caught ‘apparently’ shoplifting. Lena came to the attention of British intelligence due to her guile and resourcefulness. She showed her talents in her ability to escape Milos, and make a new life for herself as an au pair in London.
Kate Henderson offers her a job to work undercover for SIS / MI6, with the promise of helping her get her younger sister away from their abusive father in Belgrade. The mission appears a suicide-run even for the resourcefully athletic Lena, so she declines, only to be told if she doesn’t help, then she faces deportation back to Belgrade, and back into the arms of her abusive father.
Lena’s Mission is for her to secure a position as an au pair to three-year-old Alexei, son of Katya and a senior player in Russian Intelligence - Mikhail. The mission would place Lena on a super yacht, The Empress to observe the machinations of a guest list that includes Russian oligarchs and senior espionage officials Markov, Barentsev and Vasily Durov who work Russian Intelligence overseas operations (the SVR). There will also be call-girls and ‘heavies’ on the decks of the yacht and down in the guest bedrooms. These crude, powerful and wealthy men within the SVR are to Russia, what MI6 is to Great Britain, the covert octopus-like tentacles that oversee international threats on behalf of its respective peoples.
Lena is no fool, despite her fears of being placed on that yacht, her fears for her younger sister, and her former life in Belgrade, are greater than those posed by these dangerous Russian, and British Intelligence people.
Kate Henderson is convinced in the veracity of Viper, being the rumoured Russian mole, one that she fears is headed for the top table in Westminster. With the Prime Minister ill, with rumours of cancer, there might be a position that Viper could fill - the post that comes with keys to 10 Downing Street.
Henderson’s boss at SIS / MI6 Ian Granger is sceptical about his colleague’s growing paranoia, instead thinking Viper is a Russian construct, a game to seed disinformation and confusion among their ranks. However, ‘C’, Sir Alan Brabazon (Head of SIS / MI6) is prepared to allow Henderson to follow her paranoia – much to the annoyance of Kate’s boss Ian Granger.
Bradby sets up SECRET SERVICE adroitly, like a geopolitical chess-board. Though what adds an intriguing dimension to the proceedings, are not the powerful pieces, the King, the Queen, the Rooks, the Bishops (with the Russian and British overseas intelligence services sitting either side of the board) - it’s the Pawns and the Knights. The smaller pieces, the secondary characters that pepper Bradby’s narrative that give this novel that added depth. These are the supporting players within the halls of Whitehall, the Kremlin and Westminster; as well as Henderson’s team, her family, her husband Stuart, her estranged mother Lucy now in a care home with dementia, the fractured past of her late father, and his nemesis David ‘underpants’ Johnson. There is teenage angst in Henderson’s daughter Fiona (‘Fi’) which will resonate in those of us balancing a family life whilst managing a demanding career.
Complete with short chapters, a powerful voice, a slippery and terse narrative, the reader finds that a bookmark is superfluous, such is the engaging nature of Bradby’s return as a novelist.
Miss Secret Service at your peril, for this geopolitical thriller has the bite of that rumoured Russian asset, Viper; while its narrative venom will stay within your mind longer than the memory of its sting.