A Spy at War

The Oxford Spy Ring, Book 2

By: Charles Beaumont

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Russia is struggling to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield. But can it win the war for influence?

August 2022. Simon Sharman is out for revenge, pursuing the assassin of his former colleague across war-torn Ukraine. Back in London, a Russian spy ring at the heart of the British Establishment remains active, attempting to sabotage the West's support for Ukraine.

In the fiercely contested Donbas region, Simon finds himself sucked into a terrifying shadow conflict between Russia and the West. Can a lone spy make a difference to the course of a conflict?

©2025 Charles Beaumont (P)2025 Isis Audio

A dreaded second book

The second book after a successful debut tends to fail. This is unfortunately the case with this one. Charles Beaumont's first book "A Spy Alone" was a great read – fresh, entertaining and most importantly, it felt very adequate and knowledgable. For behind the pseudonyme of Charles Beaumont, there seems to be a real-life British spy sharing some of his real-life experience. The first book was full of keen observations and small details describing a tense, but miserable existence of a former government operative. As a reader I thought I learned a lot about the spy craft. This one, in comparison, is a lazy piece of writing. In "A Spy Alone", the story was given through a first person view of the protagonist. The reader didn't know more than the main character did. This kept us guessing, raising tension and expectancy. "A Spy at War" has many viewpoints and storylines making the hero but one of several characters lowering the stakes. Although the first book was mainly taking place in the protagonist's head with all of his memories and doubts slowly generating the full picture, the second book somehow feels much smaller and narrower in scope (although the action takes us from London to the raging war in Ukraine). The author seems to have lost his footing in this setting. It feels like he's obtained his knowledge about the subject matter from mainstream media, and it doesn't run very deep. No more keen and surprising insights about the details of the story. Too many convinient coincidences and lucky breaks to tie the ends up neatly. Though it's welcome the terrible war in Ukraine gets a treatment in popular literature, the book doesn't do the momentous events any justice. It feels distant and aged, as the real life, and even evening news seem to give us more appropriate perspective to many unjustices and betrayals of this war. So, don't expect much from this one. Judged by his first book, the author is a skilful writer. Let's wait for his next entry where the action maybe takes place closer to his home turf and knowledge base.