I missed it last year, but I’m back with my end of year reading wrap up. I read just over 90 books this year, but only about 11 or 12 books that actually came out in 2024. I’ll hit some of the highlights before touching on my favorite recent releases. Best recommendation from an 11 …
I’ve always been fascinated with the history of the cold war spy novel. I had previously considered Atomsk, released in 1949 and written by Carmichael Smith, the first but it appears to only be the first US Cold War novel. The UK’s Humphrey Slater wrote Conspirator and beat Atomsk by a year. Conspirator follows a …
Continue reading Conspirator by Humphrey Slater – The first Cold War novel?
I’m pleased to welcome guest Dick Woodgate to the site for the below book review. ‘I don’t like killing, but I’m good at it.’A Kill in the Morning by Graeme Shimmin As opening lines go, it’s a good one by any standard. It’s memorable too – I read Graeme Shimmin’s novel, A Kill in the Morning a few years ago now, yet I didn’t need …
In this episode I take a closer look at the fourth book in the Slough House series, Spook Street, with Clarissa Aykroyd. We talk about hipsters in Shoreditch, literary references, corporate-speak and Herron's love for London transport mayhem. Each month we’ll be exploring a different book in the series. All leading up to the release …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Spook Street – Episode 5
Whether it's the streets of London or the dusty roads of Afghanistan, you’ll want to join Rahman on this ride. His unique characters continue to provide a fresh take on the modern spy thriller.
It’s been 8 years since we’ve had a novel dedicated to the trials and tribulations of Milo Weaver, Olen Steinhauer’s former spy turned spymaster. Milo was a member of a secretive CIA department called Tourism, it’s agents tasked with cleaning up messes that the government didn’t want to have to acknowledge. Members of the department, …
Continue reading The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer – A Review
For more on Mick Herron's Slough House series go here. Mick Herron has seemed to enjoy playing in the expanded sandbox of the Slough House universe, writing a novel adjacent to the series, multiple novellas and with The Last Dead Letter, his first short story in the world of the Slow Horses. This story was …
Charles McCarry, who passed away this past February at the age of 88, wrote what might be the most intriguing and enjoyable spy novels ever in his first novel The Miernik Dossier. The 1973 book is in the epistolary format, told through 89 different documents that make up the file looking at the suspected Polish …
Continue reading The Miernik Dossier by Charles McCarry – Review
Night Heron by Adam Brookes is a spy novel with China as its focus. It manages to pull off the hat trick of teaching you something new, creating realistic characters and being a thrilling adventure. The story follows the stories of three people caught up in the web of modern espionage. The first is Peanut, …
I've read a few spy related books recently and thought I'd offer a quick round up of some recent releases. The Bayern Agenda - Dan Moren I've always thought that spies and scifi can be a good fit. By setting your book in the far future you can play with some of the spy tropes without …
In the history of spy novels, Mick Herron’s Slough House is becoming as memorable a location as le Carré’s spy headquarters the Circus. Compared to London Rules, which took off like an out of control car, Joe Country is a more sedate affair. In a narrative shift from previous books, the first pages reveal that not all of our slow horses will be returning to the stable, leaving a sense of impending doom hanging over all the characters.
In anticipation of Mick Herron’s US release of London Rules, the fifth book in his Slough House series, I did a re-read of his Slough House related work. Reconstruction came out in 2008 and is in many ways the proto-Slough House novel. Read more I've written on Herron and other Slough House books here. For as …
Wilkinson kicks off 2019 right with her excellent novel American Spy.
Kate Atkinson’s latest book Transcription tells the story of fictional spy Juliet Armstrong. She’s an eighteen year old who is recruited to assist with an operation to track German spies in London during WW2. While a colleague reels them in from the apartment next door, she transcribes their recorded conversations. Atkinson jumps between three timelines …
In anticipation of Mick Herron’s US release of London Rules, the fifth book in his Slough House series, I did a re-read of the first four books. London Rules was published after the novel Spook Street. Find a glossary on Slough House terms here and the full list of pieces on the book series here. …
In anticipation of Mick Herron’s US release of London Rules, the fifth book in his Slough House series, I’m doing a re-read of the first four books. The Slough House book Real Tigers was released in 2016 and followed the short story The List and the novels Dead Lions and Nobody Walks. Read more on other …
Over the past several years author Mark Henshaw has quietly been putting out some of the best modern CIA based espionage novels. Henshaw (currently or formerly, it’s kind of hazy) worked for the CIA as an analyst. While other former Agency employees such as Jason Matthews have gotten the buzz, Henshaw's spy thrillers rival the …
A look at Mick Herron's spy novel, Slow Horses
I"m back with another addition to my growing list of books le Carré has recommended or blurbed. Catch up with my previous posts - Part one Part two Here are the new additions - The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith - JlC review - "I’m not sure why I returned to this classic account of one …
Wow. After over twenty five years we have a new Smiley book. Something I never thought I'd see happen, has happened. Was it worth going back to the well? I think so. Before we get too far, it's best to set expectations. In truth, A Legacy of Spies is about Peter Guillam, not Smiley. It’s …
Continue reading Non spoiler review: A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré
A few weeks back I wrote about books that John Le Carré has either introduced or recommended. I've found even more Le Carré books that either have a JlC written introduction, blurb or essay. He also recently revealed the three books he had recently been reading. The Rape of a Nation by Marcus Bleasdale - …
For even more of my posts on John le Carré, click here. I recently read A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré and loved it. It's surprisingly maligned by most critics and fans but it’s very readable. The book follows Alan Turner, the Foreign Office cleanup man, as he's sent to the …
Continue reading A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré – An appreciation and rarity
Licence Expired : The unauthorized James Bond Edited by Madeline Ashby and David Nickle This review is was originally posted on the website Literary 007. This book is the first to explore James Bond outside of the constraints of the officially licensed Bond continuation novels. Currently in Canada rights over written works revert to the …
"It's a Wonderful Life" meets the 9/11 report If Susan Hasler’s Intelligence was “24” meets “The Office”, it’s sequel, The Flat Bureaucrat, is “It’s a Wonderful Life” meets the 9/11 report. In case it isn’t readily apparent, that’s a good thing. Hasler’s years as an analyst in the CIA have served her well in her …
In my research on Eric Ambler’s “lost” novel, "Gentleman from Abroad," I saw a few first lines from his previous novels. As I looked through them, I realized that they were a master class in getting your reader interested in your story from the start. Sure there are a couple that aren’t as intriguing as …
Eric Ambler's "lost" novel
Spy out the Land by Jeremy Duns From the book jacket, see below for the review - A time of turbulence 1975. A summit has been arranged between the Rhodesian government and various nationalist leaders, and is due to take place in railway dining car 49, midway along Victoria Falls Bridge. But Matthew Charamba, a key …
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is the State Department’s security arm and is responsible for the safety of all U.S. diplomatic workers and any visiting foreign dignitaries. Ghost: Confessions of a Counter-Terrorism Agent, the true story of Burton’s time working on the Counter-Terrorism team for the DS, is riveting reading.
Morrell’s The Spy who came for Christmas hits the spot for a book you never knew you needed – the Christmas spy tale. Paul Kagan is an undercover intelligence operative who breaks his cover to save an innocent baby, who just might bring peace to the Middle East. He finds refuge with a mother and son alone on Christmas eve, but his enemies are hot on his trail…
David Morrell follows up on his previous spy novels Brotherhood and Fraternity with this double sequel, The League of Night and Fog. The two protagonists from each of his previous novels, Saul and Drew, team up. The plot mix includes Nazis, ancient Mossad agents, international assassins and, of course, the CIA. The author begins the …
Ok, I'll admit it. Until now I hadn't read the most influential spy novel of the 20th century, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John LeCarre. Now that I have, it's easy to see why it had such a big effect. To discuss the plot too much is to spoil it, but …
Continue reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – John LeCarre
When the word “spy” is used in popular culture, it conjures up images of James Bond and ice-cold assassins. The reality is that the majority of modern intelligence work is done in an office cubicle. Hasler, with 20 plus years of experience in the CIA, mines that untapped area with a very funny book that …
Continue reading Intelligence: a novel of the CIA – Susan Hasler
It may be hard for me to fully explain how much I disliked this book, but I'm going to give it a try. It begins with the opening pages when we meet the improbably named hero, Court Gentry, otherwise known as The Gray Man. The Gray Man is a former CIA assassin that was burned …
Picking up with ideas he started to explore in Brotherhood of the Rose, Morrell continues to look at the long term impact a life spent on killing would have on the soul. Can a person find peace and forgiveness when everything they've ever done has caused destruction and pain? Of course, this is all done …
David Morrell, better known as the writer of the novel the first Rambo movie was based on, wrote a spy trilogy in the early 1980s that has just been released in ebook format. The first, Brotherhood of the Rose, follows two orphans that have been raised as brothers and trained to become expert operatives for …
The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer is the sequel to his first book in the series, The Tourist. Milo is an everyday working shlub trying to keep his marriage from falling apart. The only difference is that he works for the Department of Tourism, a secret CIA organization dedicated to doing the work that's so …