The Second Traitor

Double Agent Series, Book 2

By: Alex Gerlis

Narrated by: Phillipe Bosher

The countdown to invasion begins....

It's September 1940, and British intelligence is desperately worried: the Nazi invasion of Britain is imminent.

A sinister organisation called The Group, a collection of British and Irish Nazi collaborators, is at work trying to support Hitler's plans...

But that is not the only concern for the spy chiefs: the search for double agent 'Archie'–the Soviet spy and British traitor–is proving fruitless, and now they know there’s a second traitor, Bertie, also in play.

Will they be able to foil the invasion plans without their schemes being leaked to the enemy?

Taking the listener from wartime London to the south coast of England, from Berlin to neutral Ireland and from the German intelligence headquarters in Hamburg to the port of Rotterdam, The Second Traitor is the second novel in Alex Gerlis’s highly acclaimed Double Agent series, a follow-up to Every Spy a Traitor.

©2025 Alex Gerlis (P)2025 W. F. Howes Ltd

Better than the First Book

Great listen. Lots of threads to untangle. Lots of fun. Narration was sooo much better than the first book

Enjoyable, But Confusing at Times

As a fan of Alex Gerlis’s work, I was eager to dive into the audiobook of The Second Traitor. While I enjoy his writing, this installment left me with mixed feelings, landing at a 2.5 out of 5 stars for me.

My main challenge was keeping track of the vast array of characters. I understand the physical and ebook editions include a lengthy character list, and I found myself wishing for a similar compendium for the audio version. The plot is intricate, and without a reference, I was often confused about who was who. At one point, I mistakenly thought Timothy Kerr-Walters was the elusive traitor, Archie. This isn’t the first time I’ve felt this way; I had a similar experience with the first book in the series, which leads me to believe it’s a combination of the sheer number of characters and the plot’s complexity.

I also found it difficult to jump back into the series. While many series allow you to pick up the next book without an immediate reread of the previous one, this wasn’t the case here. There was significant carryover from the first book, but I felt the key plot points weren’t reintroduced in a way that easily refreshed my memory.

Regarding the narration, I think Philippe Bosher did a decent job overall. However, as someone who has spent a significant amount of time in Ireland, I must comment on his portrayal of the Irish characters. The accent he uses feels stereotypical, the kind you’d be hard-pressed to find in Ireland today. The book features five Irish characters, all from different parts of the country, yet they all spoke with the exact same accent. In my experience, you can find a different accent from one end of a road to the other in Ireland, so this lack of variation was noticeable. On a more detailed note, I’d give his pronunciation of “Tallaght” an A+, but his “Dun Laoghaire” gets a C—it started strong but ended poorly.

Despite these challenges, I remain a fan of Gerlis’s storytelling and am genuinely looking forward to the next book in the series. Perhaps the best approach will be to re-read the first two books before the next one is released to fully appreciate the complex world he has built.