There are so many new spy titles this summer, it’s actually hard to keep up. Hopefully, this selection will keep you in the loop. Starting with A Sting in Her Tail by Mark Ezra. It’s 2019 and pensioner Felicity Jardine is about to drown herself in the river when she sees a baby sinking into the water. Instinctively, she rescues the baby girl and hides her from the suspicious looking man combing the bank for the child. Felicity takes her home, determined to find out what’s going on and it’s not long before she becomes a target. In her village elderly neighbour, Mrs Price, who bears a striking resemblance to Felicity, is murdered. Clearly that is no coincidence. Felicity is no ordinary pensioner, she’s ex-MI6, and soon realizes what is happening now may be connected to the SIS work she was doing in Bonn back in 1976. This entertaining layered story has a couple of clever twists, neat cultural references and a pleasing nod to the women of the Secret Service, (No Exit Press). Digging further back into the past we have Catherine Merridale Moscow Underground. A convincing reimagining of Stalinist Moscow, steeped in the darkness of the period. 1934 and construction on the city’s new Metro is underway. Anton Belkin is an ordinary state criminal investigator, trying to stay under the radar of the secret police, the terror of the Show Trials is just around the corner. Anton’s former lover Vika is now a senior Cheka officer and when she comes to him with an investigation Anton reluctantly accepts. It’s soon clear this is a dangerous case. A prominent archaeologist, Andrei Dovlatov, has been murdered in an abandoned mansion near the Metro project. A young railway worker, Fedor Limonchik, was caught red-handed beside the body. The arresting officer, captain Lukas Jansons, claims he was just passing and happened upon the murder. Belkin believes limonchik is innocent. However, accusing the corrupt Jansons without proof will put Anton in the cross hairs of criminals and a power struggle between departments. Will Vika protect him, does their affair matter? Atmospheric, particularly strong when it comes to the shifting sands of power. Belkin would just like to get on with his job but as the Russians say ‘life is not so simple as crossing a field.’ Atmospheric and entertaining, (Fontana). Staying in Moscow but in the present for The Poet’s Game by Paul Vidich. A deep dive into character, peeling back the layers of Alex Matthews, former CIA Moscow Station Chief now very successful private equity fund owner. So what makes him tick? Duty and personal loyalties, always key to the literary spy novel, are the heart of this novel and, yes, there is a complex, in the moment, plot here too. Alex has worked hard on putting his life back together after the death of his wife and daughter but trauma is not something you just leave behind. Alex left the CIA, happy to leave the Washington bubble behind. A new love and successful business are new chapters of his life. Trinity House is big in Russia, but when the CIA Director comes asking for a favour Alex finds it difficult to refuse. Yet, it means everything could be on the line. A network of agents in Russia has been rolled up. The Director wants Alex, a friendly face for the last survivor Byron, to go to Moscow to bring him out, he has compromising intel on the President, a Trumpian figure. Things soon go wrong, is there a traitor in Washington? What makes a man who has everything take such a risk? Zeitgeisty, clever and emotionally rich, Vidich is pushing the genre forward, ( No Exit Press). The Snares Rav Grewel-Kök. 9/11 changes the rules of the game, the Americans are wounded and want to lash out. So a new federal agency is formed and Neel Chima is recruited to the cause, the mission is to exact revenge. He works on the selection of targets, foreigners picked for assassination by drone attack. Only, it has not escaped his attention that some of the men selected for this summary execution look just like he does. To complicate things, the deeper he gets in, the more he loses touch with his family. His moral qualms conflict with his sense of duty and personal ambitions but not everyone shares his scruples about agency business. When Neel makes a mistake he is manipulated into a highly dubious and very dangerous counterintelligence operation. Win and the possibility of a bright future opens up, anything else does not bear thinking about. An intelligent novel that questions the nature of our response to terrorism, revenge versus justice, identity and moral responsibility, sacrifice, duty and personal conscience, (No Exit Press). The Mainstay Richard Robinson, university student Sam Jacobs witnesses the murder of a Unionist politician in Ballycastle, thereby making himself a target. He is unwittingly drawn into a game of sectarian politics and police corruption. Chief Inspector Orla Massey runs the investigation with covert team Topaz but the interference of politicians, corruption within the RUC and past events hamper progress. Then there are MI5 officers, Jenny Richmond and Declan McNally, hunting the elusive ‘Big Man’. The third Topaz novel is a fast and engaging read combining a tough police thriller with the twists of a spy novel. A gritty slice of Northern Ireland life, (Spellbound Books). The Peak by Sam Guthrie takes us half way round the world to Australia and Hong Kong. Charlie’s job as spin doctor, enforcer, involves protecting his man, charismatic political rising star Sebastian Adler. The two have been friends for decades, all the way back to their school days. They share secrets from the past that are best kept out of the light. Sebastian is now Assistant Minister for Foreign affairs and Trade. He meets Chinese businessman SK Tang because his company want contracts for Australian infrastructure projects but strained relations with China makes negotiations complex. Then Tang mentions an ‘old friend’ of Sebastian’s from his Hong Kong days, Mr Zheng. The head of logistics at Overland Group, the second largest Chinese state owned enterprise and the father of Chloe Zheng. He passes on a message, ‘Zuò hào le’, ‘it’s done’. Sebastian is suddenly agitated. Within minutes he has committed suicide in his private office. So what happened as Sebastian and Chloe drove from the Peak in Hong Kong the night she died why does that have implications for Australia now. An intriguing story not least for its dive into the relationship between the two men, a strong friendship but what lies behind that. Sam Guthrie businessman and diplomat and uses his insider knowledge to create a pacy international political thriller, (Harper Collins). Black Gold by Rob Starr. Freelance fraud investigator Kiara Fox is caught up in an explosion on an oil rig, worse there are men shooting at her, someone wants this to be her grave. A month earlier in Brighton, Kiara was still reeling from the death of her husband, desperate for a distraction. She was talked into travelling to South Africa to investigate the mysterious en-route theft of oil from Adesco Oil tankers. Worldwide Marine Insurance CEO Tyrone Waterstone is angry at having to make expensive payouts. Adesco is about to launch Neptune, a new rig set to revolutionise oil exploitation. CEO Gavin Adriaanse wants to make the company an Eco-powerhouse, brother Tony wants to protect the family fortune. What Kiara uncovers is a deep seated global conspiracy that goes beyond Adesco, a world of betrayal, spying and murder. Things start unravelling quickly. Fast and action packed zeitgeisty thriller, (Just Once Publishing). Beattie Cavendish and the White Bowl Club by Mary Jane Riley. 1948, Beattie was in the SOE during World War 2 and now the war ended she had no intention of returning to an ordinary life. She takes a job at the covert operations centre of newly established GCHQ. Her first job is to keep an eye on politician Ralph Bowen, suspected of being a communist sympathizer. Beattie cozies up to his son Ashley in order to get close to the family and it’s no fun being around the dull playboy. Then things get complicated when Sophia Huber, the housemaid, is murdered. This is an homage of sorts to the women of the SOE and in acknowledgement that we did have women in active roles in the service shortly after the war. Beattie winds up investigating the murder alongside worn-down detective Patrick Corrigan. The question is what does this have to do with the Pearl Club in Soho. An engaging and fun read, (Allison and Busby). Whacky book of the month goes to Sheepdogs by Elliot Ackerman a truly funny farce and a breakneck paced rollercoaster adventure. Skwerl, good at chaos and killing not spelling, and his friend Aziz, aka Big Cheese, have been let go by the CIA paramilitary wing, the Office, which they served faithfully, if not well, for years. They take an off the books job from the clandestine Sheepdog Network to repossess a plane in Kampala, Uganda and fly it to Marseille. Only there’s a fortune onboard. After Marseille comes the world tour, including the US and Ukraine. The pair are joined by a host of off the wall characters as the real party starts; a French spy, a dominatrix, her Amish client, a bruiser looking for trouble and a kinky Congressman. Part satire, all black humour, this is a surprising and original thriller, (Penguin, Viking). You might also take a look at the latest from SW Perry Cairo Gambit, (Corvus), sadly a little too late for this review.
Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of talking to the great American spy writer Dan Fesperman. His new novel, Pariah, has just been published in the US. My interview with him is now available to listen to on Crime Time FM. Check it out if you get a chance.
Sadly, I have to finish with a couple of appreciations of two fine writers who died in July. RIP Martin Cruz Smith, aged 82. When Gorky Park was published in 1981 it drew comparisons with the work of Graham Greene and John le Carré. Such comparisons are always a little misleading but the impact of this novel on future writing should not be underestimated and the protagonist, Arkady Renko, struck a chord with readers too. The policeman was not only up against criminals but also the dark and corrupt forces of the repressive Soviet regime, often across his career the two were the same beast. Renko has acquired many battle scars over the years and though most of the novels in the series did not have the zeitgeist of Gorky Park they were decent enough reads. I’ve yet to catch up with his new one Hotel Ukraine, 2025, but I thought Independence Square, 2023, dealing with the charged political atmosphere of Russia’s war on Ukraine, was his best since Gorky Park and a fine novel. Putin’s regime provided a new edge for rebel investigator Renko. Cruz wrote other novels too, his first was Nightwing in 1977 which explored his Hopi native American roots. Cruz Smith leaves an impressive body of work. Also, RIP Dame Stella Rimington, who has died at 90. It was a privilege to interview Rimington a few short months ago for the release of her last spy thriller The Hidden Hand, 2025. Certain subjects were supposed to be off the table but I found her very open and we had a brilliant wide ranging chat. As you would expect Stella Rimington was sharp and insightful and extremely pleasant. Of course, most of the obituaries will concentrate on her brilliant career as a spy, she was the first named and first female director of MI5, the home security service. She published her memoir, Open Secret, in the face of criticism and opposition in 2001. In terms of her fiction, first novel, At Risk, 2005, featuring Liz Carlyle, portrayed the experience of a woman within the service. It was published with the writing support of Luke Jennings, which she readily acknowledged, it was a solid beach read. Rimington got better, much better, by the second Manon Tyler book, The Hidden Hand, Rimington was writing intriguing literary spy fiction. This novel was a zeitgeisty look at the pernicious Chinese influence within Britain society. The book was released around the time Prince Andrew’s links to a Chinese spy came out. Condolences to both families and to their many friends in publishing and the spy/crime fiction community.
Paul Burke will be publishing The Encyclopedia of Spy Fiction in 2026.
