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The Hidden Man (Paperback)

by Charles Cumming (Author) "The Russian is sitting alone on the driver's side of a rented Mercedes Benz ..." (more)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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The Hidden Man + A Spy by Nature + The Spanish Game
Price For All Three: £17.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (2 Mar 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140294775
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140294774
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11.2 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 95,247 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Daily Telegraph
'Compelling...Charles Cumming is a man put on this earth to perpetuate the spy thriller'

Literary Review
'Disquieting, brutal, riveting. I hardly dared put the book down'

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The Russian is sitting alone on the driver's side of a rented Mercedes Benz. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Hidden Man
65% buy the item featured on this page:
The Hidden Man 4.1 out of 5 stars (16)
£5.99
The Spanish Game
12% buy
The Spanish Game 4.7 out of 5 stars (13)
£5.99
A Spy by Nature
10% buy
A Spy by Nature 4.0 out of 5 stars (29)
£5.99
Typhoon
9% buy
Typhoon 4.6 out of 5 stars (5)
£5.49
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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
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3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The undiscovered master of spy fiction, 31 May 2007
Why has nobody told me about Charles Cumming? I bought The Spanish Game in 06 and thought it was superb so worked my way through his other books, A Spy By Nature and this one - The Hidden Man. It's a dense read, but a fascinating insight into what happens to families when one of their members (or more...) gets wrapped up in the world of espionage. It's not Ludlum-light. You need to keep concentrating and to remember who all the characters are, but it's extremely well written and very tense. Highly recommended if you want something with a bit more meat on it than Andy McNab or Stella Rimington.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Blows the bloody doors off, 12 Jun 2003
This review is from: The Hidden Man (Paperback)
There was a famous review of an early Bruce Springsteen concert that ran along the lines of "I've seen the future of rock'n'roll - and his name is Bruce Springsteen". Well, I've just read the future of spy fiction, and if there's any justice it will be Charles Cumming. This is as immaculately plotted a thriller as you could want, with the added bonus - rare in the genre - of plausibility, literacy, and an understanding of how people tick.
The storyline is simple, and none the worse for it. Patrician M16 officer comes in from the cold to try to patch up relations with the sons he walked out on 30 years before, but just as the thaw begins he is murdered. Brother 1 - thrusting executive for a Ministry of Sound-style club - joins forces with Brother 2 - layabout artist with a flirtatious journalist wife - to find out who bumped off their old man, but are soon out of their depth as Russian gangsters and MI5 muscle in and the safety catches come off.
What distinguishes the book is partly Cumming's deft observation of contemporary London - though there is no shortage of characters meeting sticky ends, the mood in general is much more "bling-bling" than "bang-bang" - and also his grasp of human relations and motivations. It is this, rather than standard gung-ho action, that drives the book, and so renders the characters credible. The Hidden Man is thus much more of a spy novel in the tradition of Maugham or Le Carre than your average, thick-eared beach read, although Cumming's own time as an MI6 trainee (which he drew on in his previous book, A Spy By Nature) means that, as in Maugham and Greene's work, there is also no shortage of inside information on how the intelligence game is really played. Strongly recommended.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic read!, 21 Sep 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hidden Man (Paperback)
What on earth is "Ranald from Nr. Alresford, Hampshire" talking about? I couldn't disagree more with his reading of "The Hidden Man" which I found to be exciting both in terms of plot and writing style. In fact I wonder if he has actually read the novel as there is not one scene set in Paris and I cannot work out for the life of me to what he is referring when he writes, "his succint and surprisingly sex free stories of fragrant infidelity." I became a fan of Charles Cumming's writing after reading his impressive debut, "A Spy By Nature" and I found "The Hidden Man" more than lived up to its predecessor's example. Cumming continues to write about human relationships and internal conflict with incredible insight. Furthermore, the plot is superbly constructed and kept me on the edge of my seat right up until the last page. I highly recommend you ignore "Ranald" and buy a copy immediately.
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3.0 out of 5 stars THE LONELY SIDE OF THE STREET
As the two brothers Mark and Ben are shattered by the inexplicable murder of their father an extraordinary search begins to find his killer. Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than A Spy By Nature
I enjoyed Charles Cumming's first book, A Spy By Nature, enormously, but The Hidden Man is even better. Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars A novelist by nature!
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