LONDON STATION asks readers what happens when the “special relationship” between the US and the UK is no longer so special.

This fast-paced thriller from David McCloskey is set in a near-future where a Trump-like president decides to shake up government agencies. The CIA has been put under the control of Bobby Jerome, a businessman brought in with a strict remit to overhaul the agency. He plans to run it the way he managed his home-building business in Texas, and he brings in employees (some of of whom are family members) to help him.

"While LONDON STATION is a fast read with unforgettable characters and a surprising amount of gallows humor, it ultimately delivers a chilling look at modern espionage and the dangers that arise when the focus is not on the enemy."

One of McCloskey’s most memorable characters, Artemis Aphrodite Procter, is tasked with heading up the CIA station in London, though she would rather be anywhere else than that genteel British city. Outspoken, irritable and prone to insubordination, she is far more at home in danger zones like Damascus and Moscow.

The book opens with Procter, not yet tapped to run the station, heading to London to try and recruit a Chinese official by pretending to be a British spy. It does not go well. However, it does make her a more attractive candidate to the new leadership because she flouts the rules and riles the Brits. It isn’t long before she’s trying to keep both sides from sabotaging each other.

But there is already a lot going on at London Station even before the new gang at the CIA gets moving. A staff member has been seeing a psychiatrist who is not on the agency’s approved list and may be a double agent. The former head of the station is still kicking around London, possibly helping the Brits. And a private organization is employing ex-spies to do its own intelligence gathering. What the end goal is remains unclear, perhaps even to the man running the company. Meanwhile, significant security leaks are discovered, and informants in China start dying.

All of this comes to a head when an attempted kidnapping takes place outside London with disastrous results. The Yanks are obviously involved. But is it the old guard, the new gang, or just a bunch of bad actors?

While LONDON STATION is a fast read with unforgettable characters and a surprising amount of gallows humor, it ultimately delivers a chilling look at modern espionage and the dangers that arise when the focus is not on the enemy.