Charlie Muffin Thrillers

You’re not aware of Charlie Muffin. You don’t see him at all, because Charlie is the sort of man that crowds are made of, a chameleon-camouflaged, world-class spy. His Hush Puppies are stretched to accommodate uncomfortably flat feet that strangely ache even more at times of danger, his store-bought suits are bagged and shined from wear and his shirt tail sometimes carelessly sticks out like a rude tongue. Which is how it genuinely points at both his colleagues in Britain’s MI5 and Russia’s intelligence system during its transition from the KGB to today’s FSB. He’s been its target for years but in the Red Star trilogy – Red Star Rising, Red Star Burning, and Red Star Falling – his importance reaches Kremlin level after he destroys a KGB operation 20 years in the making. Charlie accepts the revenge hunt as part of the job but it means he had to get his wife, Natalia, and their daughter to safety. Which involves getting them out of Moscow, as Natalia is a senior KGB colonel, a role she continued in the FSB. Charlie has kept their relationship secret from Moscow, London, and America until now, which has made him the target of not one but three intelligence services. At all of which Charlie goes on sticking out his tongue.