Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. We are here to recap episode 8 the season finale of the show Down Cemetery Road. We talk all about this season ender. Bus frustrations! Multiple gun standoffs! Church fires! Plus we discuss all those endings, Chekhov's grenade and …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Down Cemetery Road Season 1 Episode 8 – Recap
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. I've got a special Down Cemetery Road interview episode for you. I was lucky enough to get some time with both Fehinti Balogun who plays Amos and Darren Boyd who plays C. I thought both were really fascinating conversations …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Down Cemetery Road Interviews – Fehinti Balogun and Darren Boyd
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. We are here to recap episode 7 of the show Down Cemetery Road. I welcome Matthew Bradford back to the show. We talk about whether Amos is more Jason Bourne or Michael Meyers. Plus we discuss those great locations, …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Down Cemetery Road Season 1 Episode 7 – Recap
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. We are here to recap episode 6 of the show Down Cemetery Road. We talk about the joys of train travel, boat travel and helicopter travel. Plus we discuss why this episode would not be sponsored by the Scottish …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Down Cemetery Road Season 1 Episode 6 – Recap
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. The links to donate to Literally Healing are tinyurl.com/teame25 for the amazon wishlist of books and tinyurl.com/giveteame for a monetary donation. We are here to recap episode 5 of the show Down Cemetery Road. I’m joined by computer expert …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Down Cemetery Road Season 1 Episode 5 – Recap
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. We are here to recap episode 4 of the show Down Cemetery Road. We talk about the pluses and minuses of juggling, whether Amos and Axel grew up as theater kids and proper neighbor etiquette. Plus we discuss nosey …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Down Cemetery Road Season 1 Episode 4 – Recap
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. We are here to recap episode 3 of the show Down Cemetery Road. We talk about whether assassins make the best handymen, proper crime scene clean up and the best way to view CCTV. Plus we discuss dinners with …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Down Cemetery Road Season 1 Episode 3 – Recap
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. This episode I have an interview with Nick Mohammed who plays Mayor Jaffrey on SLOW HORSES. We talk about his playing a politician on show and why we're interested in spies behaving badly. Plus what's it like joining the …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Nick Mohammed Interview and Season 5 wrap-up
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. This episode I have an interview with Hiba Bennani who plays Tara on SLOW HORSES. We talk about this season and the surprising turn we see in episode 5. Plus how she integrated into the cast and that nightclub …
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. This episode I have an interview with James Callis who plays Claude Whelan on SLOW HORSES. We talk about this season and Claude's role as First Desk, Claude's wife and his inability to take control. We also get into …
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. This episode I have an interview with Ruth Bradley who plays Emma Flyte on SLOW HORSES. We talk about this season and Emma's relationship with Diana Taverner. Ruth talks about that epic fight from season four, acting with Christopher …
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. Welcome back as we look at season 5 episode 2 of SLOW HORSES. I'm pleased to welcome back Dr. Mary to the show to break down all the details of this episode. We talk about the Roddy's apartment, that …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Season 5 Episode 2 – Recap
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. This episode I have an interview with Christopher Chung who plays Roddy Ho on SLOW HORSES. We talk about this season and how Roddy is living his best life. Christopher goes into how the collaboration with the many different …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Christopher Chung Interview
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station”. Welcome back as we return to look at season 5 of SLOW HORSES. This season is an adaptation of the Mick Herron novel London Rules. I'm pleased to welcome back Scott Hardy from the SpyHards podcast to the show. …
Continue reading Barbican Station – Season 5 Episode 1 – Recap
Spy Write is hosting the exclusive debut of the new trailer for SHADOW STATE, out Feb. 21 from Crooked Lane and distributed by Penguin Random House. Frank Sennett's thriller is one of the first novels to explore the implications of the January 6 insurrection, and the infiltration of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys into law …
As I did before the release of Slough House, I look at some of the burning questions ahead of the next book. With Bad Actors just a few short days away, I’m ponder what we might see. Read the book and then laugh at my incorrect guesses! Warning – Spoilers ahead for all books in …
Publishers are always looking to refresh the backlist of authors and sell more copies. In the 70’s the beautiful painted book covers went out of fashion and photo covers came into vogue. The UK publisher Fontana had paperback rights to many of the well known thriller writers of the time like Desmond Bagley, Alastair Maclean, …
Continue reading Broken Covers – John Creasey, The Baron edition
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?
After being teased by Nick Harkaway, one of le Carré's sons, during book events surrounding the release of Silverview we now have additional details on a book of John le Carré/David Cornwell correspondence. The book, currently titled A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré, 1945-2020, has a UK release date of November 3rd, …
After an off year of reading in 2020, I had a return closer to form in 2021. Below I’ve highlighted some of my favorite spy related novels in no particular order. Slough House by Mick Herron - Herron continues to fire on all cylinders with his seventh book in the Slough House series. This one …
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 …
UPDATE: Both US and UK covers for Bad Actors have now been released. The book will be released via John Murrays new thriller imprint Baskerville. We see some slight adjustments from the style we've seen for the past several books. The US cover via Soho Press stays simliar to what we've seen previously. The book …
Surprising news broke this morning that a final complete novel from John le Carré would be published in October titled Silverview. According to his agent Jonny Geller, via The Guardian, le Carré had been working on the novel on and off before The Pigeon Tunnel and had recently completed it, giving permission for its publication …
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.
These were released a couple of months ago, but still worth highlighting. Book seven of the series is titled Slough House, I'm guessing to coordinate with the, now COVID delayed, TV series. No major redesign to the covers on offer. Publisher John Murray makes a minor adjustment by adding a splash of color to their …
In this episode I take a closer look at the second book in the Slough House series, Dead Lions, with Alice Dryden. We explore the truth behind a dickie bow, melting cars, whether all small English villages contain hidden evil and Dorset knob throwing.
In the first episode of Barbican Station we take a closer look at Mick Herron, the author of the Slough House series. What makes him write these books?
Future episodes will explore the books in the series.
I posted previously about the book description for the next book in Mick Herron's Slough House series and it looks like it might now have a title. According to Amazon and Barnes and Noble the next book is titled - Slough House. It's a title that's appropriately full circle from the first novel Slow Horses, …
A production timeline and news about the upcoming AppleTV+ show, Slow Horses, an adaption of the Mick Herron spy series.
If you’re lucky enough to find success as a novelist, I imagine there is no greater feeling than having your work translated into a whole new language. Knowing that your book is now available to people all across the world has to feel very empowering. However, the work of a translator is more of an …
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
5/24/2020 UPDATE: The book's title appears to have been released. We've got a long wait ahead of us before the next Slough House book, currently scheduled for release on February 4, 2021. However, there is a bit of news to tide us over until then, with the release of the book description for the next …
Over the past few years I have been looking at versions of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, particularly ones that had artwork created for the story. Previous posts looking at various editions and collectibles related to le Carré’s most famous novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold can be found …
A man who is able to seamlessly blend in with the native cultures of Siberia is sent by the US to infiltrate a hidden Russian base and escape with crucial information on what the Russians are up to. Can you guess the title? If you guessed Kolymsky Heights, you’d be correct. But if you said …
My regular posts have been a bit more sporadic of late as I've been working on a couple of special projects. First was hosting a two part podcast panel on Spybrary looking at Adam Hall's famous spy creation - Quiller. This resulted in a fair bit of research as I reread a bunch of the …
Over time many authors have sung the praises of the Quiller books. I found authors as varied as a spy novelist who writes from a Christian perspective to a writer of Florida based pulp novels. I found quite a few examples of writers expressing their admiration online. Among them was Shane Black screenwriter of Lethal …
Publishers are always looking to refresh the backlist of authors and sell more copies. In the 70’s the beautiful painted book covers went out of fashion and photo covers came into vogue. The UK publisher Fontana had paperback rights to many of the well known thriller writers of the time like Desmond Bagley, Alastair Maclean, …
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 this episode I provide an introduction to the world's most famous spy writer. John le Carré began writing novels as a way to relieve the boredom of his duties as an upper-class raised British diplomat. That was what the world was told. The reality was that he wrote under a pseudonym; in truth he was a spy for MI6. His ability to live two lives at once was what made him both a successful spy as well as one of the most famous espionage novelists of all time.
Much of the research came from Adam Sisman's essential biography of le Carré.
James Olson's book Fair Play was also quite helpful along with the collection of le Carré interviews called Conversations with John le Carré edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman.
I highlighted the first lines from Eric Ambler and John le Carré novels awhile back and I thought it would be interesting to do something similar for Mick Herron. Will we see any changes or discover heretofore undiscovered trends? Hard as it was, I tried to stick with just the first sentence, although I couldn’t …
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 …
A complete list of all of my Mick Herron related writing is here. And that was her own true self talking, or the person she liked to believe was her own true self; the decent liberal who'd be the first to flare up when ignorant bigotry was aired. Although it was also true that the …
Continue reading All the livelong day and other stories – Mick Herron
Publishers are always looking to refresh the backlist of authors and sell more copies. In the 70’s the beautiful painted book covers went out of fashion and photo covers came into vogue. The UK publisher Fontana had paperback rights to many of the well known thriller writers of the time like Desmond Bagley, Alastair Maclean, …
It's been over two years but I've laid hands on yet another abridged version of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. We've seen two previous abridged versions, one in a magazine called True and the next in Reader's Digest. Over three issues of Show - The Magazine of the Arts, October through December …
Wilkinson kicks off 2019 right with her excellent novel American Spy.
As is becoming a bit of a tradition, I’m rounding out the year with a couple of posts looking at some of my favorite things from the year. Some are spy related, some are not but all were memorable experiences. Following up on my previous post focusing on some things that I did here's the …
Publishers are always looking to refresh the backlist of authors and sell more copies. In the 70’s the beautiful painted book covers went out of fashion and photo covers came into vogue. The UK publisher Fontana had paperback rights to many of the well known thriller writers of the time like Desmond Bagley, Alastair Maclean, …
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. Herron's short story/novella The Drop was released a few months after London Rules in the fall of 2018. Read more I've written on Herron and other Slough House …
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. Spook Street appeared after the novel Real Tigers in 2017. Read more on other Slough House books here. "First law of Spook Street. Secrets don’t stay secret.” The …
Find even more on the slow horses and the Slough House series here. There is a lot going on in Mick Herron's Slough House books and following the tradition of John le Carré he's created his own spy jargon. As the series continues I thought having a cheat sheet might prove helpful for refreshing memories …
The Throwaway by Michael Moreci is a spy thriller made for the moment. It’s a fast moving read that jumps right into the story and throws its lead into a situation that quickly spins wildly out of his control. Mark Strain is an on the make Washington D.C. lobbyist with a growing family who is …
Michael Moreci has become known for his sci fi and comics work but this summer he’s branching out into thrillers. His Roche Limit comic trilogy is sci-fi storytelling at its best. The first part reads like a Blade Runner-esque noir thriller, the second Aliens meets the Southern Reach trilogy and the finale is reminiscent of …
The biggest story of last year was the announcement that John le Carré had written a new Smiley novel. Fans of le Carré's all over the world were shocked. Le Carré had seemed to put a button on Smiley with The Secret Pilgrim so every fan is excited about the new novel. As a collector, …
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. Second is Dead Lions from 2013. Read more on other Slough House books here. “Dead lions,” Molly said. “What about them?” “It’s a kids’ party game. You have …
Publishers are always looking to refresh the backlist of authors and sell more copies. In the 70's the beautiful painted book covers went out of fashion and photo covers came into vogue. The UK publisher Fontana had paperback rights to many of the well known thriller writers of the time like Desmond Bagley, Alastair Maclean, …
Finding books that John le Carré has recommended, contributed to or written introductions/forewords to has become something of a passion project for me. In the process of doing this research I came upon its flip side - the fake le Carré blurb scandal. Back in 1991 a writer named Derek Van Arman was involved in a …
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 …
Ian Fleming didn't leave to the reader's imagination what James Bond liked to read. As written by Edward Biddulph on the excellent James Bond site - Artistic License Renewed - we can see some of the books Bond perused while off duty. We're not as lucky with other famous fictional spies. That's the idea behind …
Continue reading Reading recommendations for spies – Quiller
I wrote at the end of last year about lost spy novels by famous authors. Recently a new book came to light that I am extremely excited for and wanted to make sure readers knew about. Donald Westlake Westlake was a prolific author and has the distinction of creating two iconic crime fiction characters. The …
For more on John le Carré click here. I highlighted the first lines from Eric Ambler's novels a few weeks back and in honor of John le Carré's newest release, The Pigeon Tunnel, I thought it would be interesting to look at his first lines and whether any changes or trends could be discovered. Hard …
Following up on my previous post about "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," in the next few posts I'll be highlighting some of the odd or rare versions of the book I have. First is a compilation of le Carré's third, fourth, and fifth novels - The Spy Who, A Small town in …
Eric Ambler's "lost" novel
This site lists just about every spy novel series with two books or more and allows you to search by both author and by character name.
The man who runs the site obviously loves spy novels and the number of authors and books is huge. This is a great resource for anyone looking for new espionage stories.
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
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 …
The Department of Defense is attempting to block publication of the book Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan by Anthony Shaffer, a former agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The book had been vetted by the Army Reserves but apparently has still has some sensitive information included. Full story …
Continue reading DOD suppresses spy book – Spy News Story of the Week – 9/10/2010