Codename: 61
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley August 10, 2026
Author Alex Shaw
Distributor: Amazon
ISBN: 9781836784241
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Release Date: 9 August 2026
Website: https://www.amazon.com/Codename-pulse-pounding-unmissable-action-thriller-Beaumont/dp/183678418X
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Alex Shaw has delivered another riveting read with his new, at this time, stand alone, Codename:61 with two unlikely heroes in Jack Tate and Adrian Snow. Thrown together during the War they became friends as well as operatives, moving on once Germany signed the Armistice.
It is now 1961, the War is long over but to some, it never ended. Railwayman Jack Tate is now working in Kenya and Adrian Snow, still with the secretive ‘6’ meet up again, as a third member of their once active Unit has been gunned down on a quiet, sleepy, steamy street of Nairobi.
Julian Jones-Smyth managed to pass over his leather attaché-case to Snow seconds before his death. When Snow sees the contents, he is at once returned to a tragic and horrific time when a traitor within the close Special Operations Executive destroyed a team of Agents in Sangatte, France, in 1942.
Snow seeks out Tate to help him deal with what he perceives as a threat, also to right a terrible wrong. They find themselves under attack at Chemelil, a small out of the way railway station in Kenya, Tate’s two engineers held hostage.
This volent and once again unprovoked attack, cause the pair to rethink what it is they are prepared to do and decide that this time the traitor in their ranks, so very long ago, will be held to account; one way or the other.
Up against some powerful men, they find they must return to the days of subterfuge, resurrect long forgotten skills and ruthlessness to meet the enemy on his home ground, but they both discover the past has not finished with them either, as they return to Sangatte to pick up what should have been a cold, cold trail, but find it is not!
Using a dual timeline very effectively, Shaw builds a powerful plot that see two aging operatives returning to a skill base honed as operatives and agents during the Second World War, both haunted by times past, both out to make amends long overdue.
Highly recommended for lovers of a good read and fans of political spy fiction.