Cat and mouse – and a rat

St James’s Park, London © C A Lovegrove

The Chase by Ava Glass,
first published as Alias Emma.
Penguin Books, 2023 (2022).

A cat and mouse game taking us through London’s streets. A possible rat who seems bent on jeopardising a covert mission. An enemy who seems to anticipate one’s every move. Ava Glass’s thriller not only keeps the reader on the edge of their seat but introduces us to a protagonist who deserves to survive after all that’s thrown at her.

But survival is not all that she has to accomplish because her mission is to persuade a potential victim to accept the protection that’s being offered to him, a protection he seems strangely unwilling to accept. Will his reluctance over-complicate matters, a situation already compromised when back-up fails to materialise?

The Chase is more than merely a chase, though that’s at the core of this novel; we are given backstories to encourage us to invest in characters, intrigue to keep us guessing, and familiar landmarks made sinister by the nature of the pursuit, the prospect of capture, and the reducing chances of escape.

Secret Intelligence Services building, Vauxhall Cross (Laurie Nevay via Wikimedia Commons)

A thriller is not a thriller if all is explained and spoilers given, so any discussion will have to be somewhat obtuse or obscure – but that being the nature of espionage fiction has to follow suit. For example the author’s name is a pseudonym, carefully chosen: “Ava” is a palindrome, and “Glass” not only suggests reflection but emphasises the palindrome aspect of the forename. So it is with our protagonist: Emma (who’s misnamed as the palindromic “Anna” at one point) has as an assumed surname Makepeace, which not only implies one of her ostensible roles as an agent but may also reference a classic British TV series about mismatched cops, Dempsey and Makepeace.

The same kind of echoes attach to Emma’s secret service handler, Ripley, a name which in popular culture (think Patricia Highsmith, think Alien) suggests subterfuge and bravery in the face of risk. He it is who instructs Emma to conduct Michael, the son of Russians who spied for the West, to safety when it’s clear Michael is the target of GRU agents.

But at a key point in the attempted safe conduct Ripley drops out of the picture, leaving Emma on her own to fend off Russians who have hacked into London’s public CCTV system, with their agents always close to intercepting Emma and Michael. It feels awfully close to present-day political realities and real-life international perils …

Anything more than these hints would reveal much more than the blurb to the paperback intends us to glean. All I would add to this appreciation of an extremely effective thriller are two comments: although it’s no Le Carré tale of espionage it definitely grabs the attention with its gripping narrative; and it may be of interest that a sequel, Game of Spies, is scheduled for publication in the summer of 2023. I rather fancy investigating what that one has to offer too.

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Thanks go to Annabel of Annabookbel.net for providing a copy of this thriller after I expressed interest in it. Her own excellent review can be found here.