In 2022 my goal is to write brief reviews of all the books I read. Here's to a good year of reading! Dolphin Junction by Mick Herron I'd read most of these stories previously in various other places but enjoyed dipping back into them in this collection. Diving into some dark places, Herron explores broken …
Continue reading Dolphin Junction & The Eighth Detective – Book Review Quick Takes
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 …
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.
I’m always excited to find a new spy novel series by an author that does something fresh in the genre. I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of reading one such series recently. Thanks to the recommendation of the excellent Spybrary discussion group, I listened to the audiobook for Khurrum Rahman’s debut novel East …
Continue reading East of Hounslow & Homegrown Hero by Khurrum Rahman – Review
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
When I first heard of a television adaptation of the movie Three Days of the Condor, itself an adaptation of James Grady's novel Six Days of the Condor, I was slightly skeptical but willing to give it a chance. The book is a classic, what spy fiction fan doesn’t love a book about a guy …
In addition to spies, I'm very much a political junkie. For those who are aware of his work that should make it no surprise that the writer Ross Thomas is one of my favorite authors. Although he rose to prominence with a spy story - his first book The Cold War Swap which he banged …
Continue reading Ross Thomas rarities – Brown Paper and Some String and Spies, Thumbsuckers, Etc.
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.