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
Find all previous and future episodes listed here or in your podcast app under "Barbican Station". Donate to #TeamEvie and the Literally Healing program at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. Go to TinyURL.com/giveTE to make a monetary donation to the Literally Healing program or go to TinyURL.com/TeamE24, pick a book and make sure to …
Continue reading Interview – Duane & Meredith Swierczynski on #TeamEvie
By George Smiley, as told to Chat GPT As a former spy, I know all too well the toll that stress and danger can take on one's health. In my line of work, I've had to deal with everything from betrayals and infidelities to high-stakes espionage and assassination attempts. But through it all, I've managed …
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 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've made a few recent appearances on some podcasts that I wanted to let everyone know about. First, I was a guest on the Spy Hards podcast talking about the film The Day of the Jackal. It was a lot of fun and I hope folks check it out. I also was recently on the …
Continue reading Spy Hards, Cinema Junkies and le Carré Cast – Several new podcast appearances
I’m pleased to welcome guest writer Jeff Gelb to the site for this interview with author Robert Randisi. ROBERT RANDISI REFLECTS ON HIS NICK CARTER NOVELS By Jeff Gelb I was very fortunate to be a child of the 1960s. I grew up in the era when the Beatles changed the face of music forever, when the Marvel Universe …
Continue reading Robert Randisi on his Nick Carter novels – Interview
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 …
I’ve recently been asked a couple of times for authors I would recommend to read after folks have finished all the Slough House novels and novellas. My first suggestion would be to make sure you’ve read some of Herron’s other novels, like Down Cemetery Road, Reconstruction, Nobody Walks and even This is What Happened. If …
Continue reading Mick Herron’s Slough House – What to read next?
We have some news about upcoming Mick Herron releases book releases. December 7th will live in infamy for being the date Mick Herron’s short story collection Dolphin Junction will be released, according to Amazon US and UK. The description says - CWA Gold and Steel Dagger-winner Mick Herron's short fiction, collected for the first time. …
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, Hammond Innes, Helen MacInnes and Eric …
I’ve spread the word elsewhere but passing on the word to all you Quiller fans. Although it's been rumored to have been lost forever, a Michael Jayston fan has uploaded all thirteen episodes of the Quiller TV series to YouTube! The show has been slightly shrouded in mystery as it has been seen since it …
Every so often I’ll be highlighting some of the spy games I’ve picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven’t played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I’m hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. HOMELAND was the …
AppleTV+'s original offerings have been a bit slim as of yet, no doubt complicated by the coronavirus which has slowed all movie and television production to a crawl. They have had a couple high profile successes, THE MORNING SHOW and MYTHIC QUEST: RAVEN'S BANQUET, but of most interest to spy fans will be the show …
Very minor spoilers below. What do you do when that thing from your past you’ve moved on from, or at least tried to bury deep inside, comes back? Do you embrace it? Reject it? Run from it as fast as possible? Perhaps all of the above and more. That’s part of what River and the …
With all the disruption of this past year, things have been a bit quieter on the site than normal. I’ve been focusing on podcasts over some of my longer written pieces which has taken a healthy chunk of time. That said, the year did have some highlights and in what is becoming a yearly tradition …
In honor of the 10th anniversary of the release of Slow Horses in 2010 Soho Press has put out an updated edition of the paperback edition with new cover art, a new preface written by Mick Herron, a list of discussion questions and a short story previously unreleased in the United States. The cover art …
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
In 1964, just after The Spy Who Came in from the Cold came out, Mademoiselle Magazine ran a mystery issue and asked Rex Stout to interview the newly famous author John le Carré.
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. The way most …
Continue reading Spy Games – Robert Ludlum’s Game of Counter-Espionage
In this episode I take a closer look at the third book in the Slough House series, Real Tigers, with Gary Dexter. We talk about Chekov's Double Decker bus, why getting kidnapped DOESN'T make you want a drink, and the truth about the Thunderbirds.
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 …
Rarely am I shocked while reading a book, but this was the exception. As I perused my latest purchase, a binded transcript of a speech John le Carré gave at John Hopkins University in 1986 titled The Clandestine Muse, I had a shocking revelation. John le Carré had won Blistex lip balm’s 1985 “Most Beautiful …
Continue reading Secret Lip Services – The honor John le Carré doesn’t want you to know about
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.
I'm back with yet another spy game; a card game called Ace of Spies. The game is very similar in concept to the blockbuster game, Ticket to Ride, but with a World War I spy theme.
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older.
I guest hosted a couple of recent episodes of the Spybrary podcast that I thought folks might want to check out.
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’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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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 …
I happened to be in London at the same time that John le Carré's latest, Agent Running in the Field, was released. The appearance of his latest book was a much more muted affair than the fanfare over A Legacy of Spies. Whereas Legacy had giant displays in every bookshop window, book release parties and …
Continue reading Collecting Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré – Signed Editions
Slough House gets a TV adaption.
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, …
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. Although it is …
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 …
An occasional feature highlighting spy related things found in the everyday world.
In the run up to the release of Agent Running in the Field I'll be highlighting some le Carré tidbits I've collected over time. As a celebrity, you are always more likely to get your letters to the editor published than most of the public. Bonus points if it's humorous or picking a fight with …
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 …
I was recently asked to write about various filming locations used in film adaptions of John le Carré movies by Discovery, the in flight magazine for Cathay Pacific Airlines. It was fun to hit some of the highlights, even if I couldn't touch on of his film adaptations as well as see it translated into …
Continue reading Filming locations of John le Carré adaptations
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. Shifty Eyed Spies …
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.
I'm always on the hunt for new bits of history or trivia about the Circus. I've made a new find and I think you'll find it to be quite the treat. I was digging through some archives at the library and found one of Control's commencement addresses to the graduates of the Sarrett training camp. …
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.
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.
Is this the best spy reality show? Yes.
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. Once upon a …
The 2002 book Spy’s Fate is one of those novels you’d never discover unless you went into a bookstore. A recommendation by one of the staff and only stocked because of their passion for it, I picked it up on a whim after seeing it several times on visits to a local bookstore called The …
I debated putting this out there, but decided that today is the day and not to wait. I received a huge surprise in the mail over the weekend. A package sent from Cornwall arrived on my doorstep. I've been eagerly awaiting the October release of Agent Running in the Field and in early April what …
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. A game that …
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 …
Spies and romance. They go together like hand to fingerprint disguising glove. But how do we rank some of fictions greatest spies in the romance department? Well, if you’re looking to romance a spy, buyer beware. Let’s take a closer look - James Bond - Pros - Frequently wears a tuxedo. Dines in the best …
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 …
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. My latest find ran in a magazine called Show - The Magazine …
Wilkinson kicks off 2019 right with her excellent novel American Spy.
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. I'm excited to …
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 …
The Literary Review, a quarterly publication by Fairleigh Dickinson University, dedicated their Winter issue in 2015 to fiction and poems that the editors felt in some way invoked the writings of John le Carré. Minna Proctor, the issue’s editor, refers to the issue as an experiment, and as such, I'd mark it as an interesting …
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 …
The Spybrary Spy Film Hall of Fame voting is in full swing and voters are furiously combing their dvd shelves and streaming platforms to catch up on movies they haven't seen. To assist in the process the full voting ballot sorted by year is below. Print out this page and check them off as you …
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Matryoshka Dolls
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 …
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. Did you ever …
Every so often I'll be highlighting some of the spy games I've picked up from various second hand stores over the years. I haven't played most of these yet, as finding willing spy game participants can be tricky, but I'm hoping to road test some of these as the kids get older. Here's one I …
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, …
There are a few different versions of the Moscow Rules, the term that refers to how a spy should handle themselves behind enemy lines. I like this version I found on a postcard in the International Spy Museum.
Although it is not the first place you would think of having a spy pedigree - Chicago, Illinois - smack dab in the middle of the United States, does have a few notable spy connections. Over the next two posts I will discuss some of the real and fictional spies we’ve seen in Chicago. True …
In my recent quest to visit spy related locations I’ve found that there is nothing better than being immersed in your subject. Milwaukee institution the Safehouse has done just that for decades. Looking like an abandoned warehouse on the outside and with “secret” entrances and exits, spy themed food and memorabilia throughout, on my visit …
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, Alistair MacLean, …
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 …
This is another in my posts on spy tourism. Read other posts in the series here. Located in London, I had marginal expectations for the London Film Museum’s Bond in Motion exhibit. I'm not any sort of huge car guy and as this is an exhibit looking at Bond vehicles, how much am I really …
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
This past summer I was able to take a road trip to Washington D.C. and while there visited the International Spy Museum. Open since 2002, it's one of the few museums dedicated to espionage. It's set to move to a new, bigger location in early 2018 so this is a last look at the museum's …
If you are a spy fan and you are in London, odds are you will want to take a spy tour. I was able to take advantage of many of the ones I found during my recent trip there and wanted to offer a list of the various options. I didn't take a bad one, …
In honor of publication week for A Legacy of Spies I've collected a "best of" list of some of my le Carré posts. I also recommend reading Matthew Bradford's great series of posts looking back at the Smiley series book by book. First, here's my spoiler free review of the new book, A Legacy of …
For a review of an even newer spy reality show, click here. Everyone has their guilty pleasures and one of mine is reality TV. When spies and reality TV mix, how can I resist? SPY was a BBC show that aired back in 2004 and spun out of the success of the show MI-5. 8 …
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is hosting another traveling spy-themed exhibit following up on its successful hosting several years ago of Spies, Traitors and Saboteurs. This new exhibit, Operation Finale, is focused on the secret plan to kidnap Adolf Eichmann and bring to him to Israel for trial. Eichmann was one of the officers responsible for …
You've read all of John le Carré’s novels, short stories, opinion columns, letters to the editor, his biography and autobiography. Before you go back to the beginning and start all over, you want to try something different. What to do? Read books le Carré has recommended of course! Le Carré is very deliberate in what …
We left off discussing an abridged version of "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" and I'm back after digging up another one. From 1937 to the present Readers Digest condensed books have been providing shortened versions of the popular fiction of the day. The winter 1964 release saw a collection of four novels.Included …
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 …
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 …
In honor of John le Carré's new release, The Pigeon Tunnel, throughout the month of September I'm highlighting some trivia about his past novels. I thought about including this one with the other The Spy Who Came in from the Cold editions in part one but this seemed worthy of a couple posts of it's …
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
Abel Uribe/Chicago TribuneLinking here to a short profile that appeared in the Chicago Tribune book supplement Printers Row a couple years back. They have a weekly feature on various local book lovers and their collection. The story was written by Laura Pearson, @tislaurapearson, and the pictures below are by a great Tribune photographer Abel Uribe. …
The 50th anniversary of the release of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold passed us by a couple of years ago, and I thought I'd post about a few copies of that important piece of spy fiction that I've picked up over the years. In addition, I'll comment on what to look for when …
Continue reading Collecting The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
Who knew that Chicago was such a hot bed of intrigue? This story from 1977 in the Chicago Reader brought it to light. The article tells the story of how the CIA used (uses?) legitimate companies to provide a cover for CIA agents in other countries. In return these companies received lucrative contracts from the …
For anyone interested in up to date information on the bleeding edge of spying in the modern world, Wired's Danger Room blog is a must-visit site.
Does it get any better than Computer Animated news on spies? I didn't think so. The news came out through another cable that Wikileaks has released. As discussed in this full story at the Telegraph, Japan has had no spy agency since WWII.
Recently Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former member of the KGB, cracked a spy joke
Women Suffragists who were nearly prosecuted under the Espionage Act in 1917 when they protested Woodrow Wilson in front of the White House.
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…
Ok, get ready for the coolest spy concept ever - Astrospies!!!
NOVA just aired a program about how the military was training pilots to orbit the earth and spy on Russia in the mid-1960's. It's a bit more hype than anything, the program never put anyone in space, but the idea is awesome.
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 …
The largest espionage case in the US was the Duquesne spy ring. Led by Fritz Duquesne who despised the British and became a spy for Germany in both World Wars I and II, the ring was caught and prosecuted by the FBI in 1941. Interestingly they were found guilty on December 13th, 1941. I would …
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
Leon Theremin is known for the creation of the Theremin, the electrical instrument made famous in the 50's for it's eerie usage in the soundtracks of low budget sci-fi movies. However, what is not as well known is that he also functioned as a spy for Russia. Theramin became a bit of a celebrity in …
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 …
Following up on a quick look at Union spies, here is Belle Boyd a spy for the Confederacy. She was captured on suspicion of spying three separate times and died after the war in Wisconsin Dells, WI. More at Wikipedia.
Following up on the this weeks site of the week, this is a letter from George Washington to a member of the Culper Ring his collection of spies against the British. This letter was captured by the British and never made it to it's intended recipient.
This site, organized by the Clements Library of the University of Michigan, is a collection of letters to and for American and British Spies in the Revolutionary war. It's fascinating to see the actual letters that went back and forth between folks spying in the Revolutionary War and some of the history behind them. It …
Continue reading Revolutionary War Spies – Spy Website of the Week
There are few events that attracted as much attention a hundred years after the fact as the mystery around the accused spy, Mata Hari. Even now, the court records related to her trial are still sealed until 2017! Look here for a interesting first person account of the execution from a reporter on the scene. …
Continue reading Mata Hari’s execution – Spy Image of the Week
In my internet travels I stumbled on this site, The Literature of Intelligence, dedicated to nonfiction books and articles on the Intelligence business. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of what is found there but the depth of information collected is pretty extraordinary. Being organized by a former member of the CIA turned …
Continue reading Intelligence bibliography – Spy Website of the Week
NPR's Talk of the Nation in 2005 had a interesting interview with a number of former CIA workers that have written spy related fiction and nonfiction. It's well worth a listen - NPR Talk of the Nation - Spy Writers
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 …
In just another example of how much things have changed since the Cold War, the US government is looking to pass a law to make it easier to collect information on people using the internet. The software programs these plans are aimed at relate to sites that offer encryption or allow peer to peer traffic. …
Continue reading The Spies want to be your Facebook Friend – Spy Story of the Week
A pretty widely reproduced picture of Lincoln with Allan Pinkerton. Pinkerton is well known for his founding of the Pinkerton Detectives, but he was also a crucial part of the Union military as head of the Union Intelligence Division. He's also one of the few civilian members of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. More …
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 …
I caught this show on PBS several years ago and really enjoyed it. SPY was a BBC reality show spinning out of the show MI 5 where 8 regular folks were given spy like training and sent on psuedo-spy missions. Here's the opening - Although it only lasted a season it was really fun and …
Continue reading SPY – The reality show – Spy Website of the Week
"A map from the trunk of Royal Air Force soldier Douglas Britten's car is just one piece of evidence proving his guilt in acting as a British spy for Russia." - Photo from Corbis Images. Link found through University of Warwick page on GCHQ.
My newest goal - find a way to have "spy-like" experiences. Here are the ideas I've had so far - - Take an advanced driving class to learn how to drive fast and in adverse conditions. - Self defense training. Not having been in a fight before, I could use some practice. - Take Boot …
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 …
In January of 1968 the crew of the USS Pueblo were captured off the coast of North Korea and accused of spying. The US finally secured their release in December of that year. Full story at Wikipedia. A interesting video of a visit to the ship, still held by North Korea, is at VICE TV.
The 39 Steps stars Rupert Penry-Jones (of MI5/Spooks fame) as a military intelligence officer caught up in Events He Cannot Control in this loose british adaption of the John Buchanan novel. When a spy with coded details on a German plan to defeat Britain before World War I has even started is killed, Penry-Jones is …
There's something about the first person narrative that can really make a spy novel come alive. I think it's the fact that you are stuck inside the spy's head with all the paranoia that being alone and undercover would require. There was no writer better at this than Adam Hall in his Quiller novels. His spy, codenamed …
When you’re a tie-in novelist, you're always going to lag behind the TV show you are writing about. That’s certainly the case with Tod Goldberg’s The Giveaway, based on the USA show Burn Notice. His book has the unfortunate luck to use Biker gangs and Safety Deposit box robbing, both of which have played large …