If you take a look at any of the streaming services, you will see a number of spy titles available to watch. From classic movies to brand new long-running series. As the author of a book on espionage films, Spies on Screen, I have been keeping an eye on the genre and it is booming as never before. Happily, I can say the same is true of spy fiction, which is also hitting the heights like no time since the Cold War. Looking forward there are new titles from Alex Gerlis, David McCloskey, Alan Judd, Simon Conway and Sara Paretsky to come. I have already reviewed Frank Gardner, Alan Parks, Rory Clements, David Jarvis, Benedict Anning and RN Morris and I have interviewed CJ Merritt, Andrew Rosenheim, Charles Cumming and James Comey about new books. Believe it or not that is just scratching the surface. Here are some of the books I’ve read in the last few weeks, the one blessing during the heatwave has been the chance to sit in the warm shade with a good read.
Prey Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus). I have no idea how good Hurley’s crime novels are, I have no reason to doubt they are very good, but Prey is the latest his chronicling of WWII known as The Spoils of War series. That stands comparison with the very best historical fiction of any kind currently being written. These are war novels, political dramas and espionage thrillers all rolled into one. Hurley takes an event we think we are familiar with as WWII watchers and he nuances it adding depth to our understanding and, of course, his interpretation of the past. Hurley has a way of building a panoramic overview of an event, a pivotal point of the war, exploring it from the perspectives of both the men on the ground fighting the fight and of the planners and schemers who instigate the operation in the first place. He also ensures that readers see how things happen from the Allied, German and Russian sides where relevant. Prey is the eleventh novel in the series to dip into an aspect of the war.
Prey is set in 1943, the year of change, thanks to the momentous shifts in fortune of Stalingrad and El Alamein. Here Hurley takes us to the war in the air in Europe, another frontline battle. The war in the air hasn’t completely turned in favour of the allied as yet. The RAF are losing Lancaster bombers to Luftwaffe attacks on their sorties at an alarming rate. This is thanks to a cannon that can take out the unprotected underbelly of the otherwise well fortified bombers. When an investigation into an RAF officer said to be ‘causing trouble’ by raising the issue leads Tam Moncrieff to discover the depth of the problem. The MI5 officer then lobbies politicians and officials to do something but no one seems interested and the stir he creates and that makes him powerful enemies.
Moncrieff takes matters into his own hands and goes on a bombing raid over Nuremberg, where that takes him, I will leave you fine out. Just to say, on a clear night the Luftwaffe are wreaking havoc on the British planes. The story is also seen from the perspective of Luftwaffe pilot Dieter Merz. This is thrilling stuff, but Hurley is always aware of the bloody tragedy of war, decision making and its consequences. Prey looks at the mortality of bombing: Bomber Harris or Butcher Harris. What happens when the airmen are downed and the hunters become the prey? Powerful and insightful storytelling.
Hurricane Room Kim Sherwood (Hemlock Press). I cannot understand why some readers object to the ‘Double O’ books unless it is simple misogyny. You don’t have to read it but this is an intriguing and fun addition to the Bond canon. Sherwood had her own family connection to Bond even before writing the 00 series. Her grandfather was the actor George Baker, he was offered the role of Bond but wasn’t available to take it up due to existing commitments, of course, he went on to play characters in three of the Bond films.
Sherwood has now carved her own unique corner of the ‘Bondverse’ with the Double O trilogy. The double 0s are Joanna Harwood, 003, (so named in homage to Johanna Harwood the Bond screenwriter), Joseph Dryden 004 and Syd Bashir 009. They have been keeping the world safe in the absence of James Bond since Double or Nothing published in 2022. The mysterious chaos causing underworld terrorist cabal Rattenfänger is back, Britain is under threat. Also returned is James Bond, previously presumed dead or traitor, he is angry about the lost years. 007 is mistrustful if everyone and hellbent on revenge against the leader of Rattenfänger, his nemesis, Mora. After years of uncertainty about whether he was alive or had defected to the opposition Joanna has finally rescued Bond. Their first task is to get out of Russia but Bond already has other ideas. In London agents have gone rogue, double Os section has gone off the rails and Moneypenny has been kidnapped. Only working together can Bond and the Double Os restore order to an increasingly dystopian world. Clever and inventive, this is fun and a worthy addition to the realm of Britain most famous spy.
Aristocracy Patrick Worrall (Bantam). Worrall made a splash with his complex spy debut The Partisan. Together with the follow up The Exile, The Partisan explored a chunk of Eastern European history and politics much ignored and previously unnoticed by writers in the West of Europe and America. It was in part the story of the women of the resistance in Lithuania which was almost lost to time. These intense and satisfyingly original spy stories stretching from WWII through the post war decades have a relevance to the past and the present. This new novel is a change of gear. It is for the most part a contemporary tale, it opens in 2007. At the heart of the story is rough diamond Declan Rennard an intelligence officer, kicking his heels in London, amusing himself by aggravating his colleagues and his boss. That gets him back into the field but not an with an assignment he would have wanted. It means going back to his roots.
Darren Sinfield is gangster royalty, the most notorious inmate of maximum-security prison HMP Lower Marston. Or, he was, now Sinfield is on the run, assumed to have gone back to his old stamping ground of Avonfield. A rundown town in the Southwest of England with a grim aspect and plenty of crime. Things have moved on in the underworld and nobody wants the old kingpin back. He has no idea who he can trust.
Meanwhile Rennard is on his tail. a man facing his own demons, with an issue or two from the past weighing him down. He tries to put himself in the shoes of his prey to find his man. This is an intelligent character study, a sophisticated cat and mouse chase that pivots and flips, multi-layered, morally complex and thought provoking. It’s a blend of crime thriller and spy drama that once again has an original take on society, class and the law. The aristocracy refers to the hierarchy of crime where armed robbers and contract killers are barons and earls.
Solitary Agent David Goodman (Headline). Some of you may remember last year’s A Reluctant Spy, Goodman’s debut. Civilian Jamie Tulloch is in the perfect place to become a spy, as a NOC, non-official cover. Next thing he is in the field and in grave danger. The book was striking for the way it leaned into the complex world of modern technology and all the problems of surveillance. That is a complexity most writers shy away from by setting their stories further back. Goodman, like David McCloskey, has mastered the fear of the new age. The second novel has moved on a year, Jamie is back, no longer content to be a tech guy he wants to formally join the intelligence service. He and washed-up corporate lawyer Sam Li, who is actually targeted by MI6, are now in training for the service. Red Poacher is their final training exercise, this will determine who makes the final cut, in or out. The operation means infiltrating secret sites, retrieving sensitive information and bringing it back to base. The MI6 (SIS) trainees are up against an MI5 crew and both are under surveillance by their supervisors. The competition is fierce and things hot up when Jamie and Sam witness what appears to be the murder of a one of the other recruits. Is this part of the exercise or have things gone badly wrong?
You will find out about Operational Retrospective Assessment and threat models, insider details that ground the narrative in the secret world. The story has the feel of an operation in progress, as if it is a real training exercise that goes awry. The novel is less complex than A Reluctant Spy, it is very readable with strong characters and a convincing Highlands setting. Although we later get around in this novel too. Spy readers will note Goodman’s homage to realist spy fiction and the best traditions of le Carré but this is a perfect beach read, there is plenty of page turning action that will please fans of high octane authors such as James Swallow. Tense and smart fun.
A Nest of Wasps Mark Ezra (No Exit Press). Ezra made a splash with his blistering, finny, rambunctious adventure A Sting in Her Tail a year ago. In the present day pensioner Felicity Jardine was about to commit suicide when she came across an abandoned baby, then a murder and she repurposes, her efforts take her back in to the Cold War, Bonn in 1976, where she was working for SIS. In the new novel Felicity is back a few months after the murder of ‘Callan’, a necessary last resort, there has been a clean-up and she’s returned home to her quiet country cottage. No sooner has she settled in than an attempt to kill her ruins her cream tea with her new friend Percy and forces her into hiding in a Ladbroke Grove safehouse. Former colleague, Matthew Fawcett, still MI6, offers Felicity a chance to trawl the files for old ops by way of something to do. No sooner has she hit on a case from the 1980s when she was in Greece than we are taken back to then. We are with a younger less savvy Felicity investigating trouble at the embassy. Back to the present and naturally, the sprightly septuagenarian is soon back in the field, someone is intent on betraying her and she is intent on finding answers to past and present mysteries. It is a pleasure to spend time with the irascible un-Marple-like Felicity.
A Spy in the Blood Paul Warner (Zaffre). I just finished this novel when I saw it was being adapted as a series by Netflix, the cast includes David Harbour as Matt Wolfe and Millie Bobby Brown as his daughter Rebecca. For the screen, the MI6 officer becomes a counterintelligence FBI agent as we head across the pond. Watch this space I’ll come back to that in the future, meanwhile back to the novel.
Mark Wolfe is a legend in the spy business, a field officer with a track record of success revered by his colleagues and an example to the next gen. Decades in the field, dead drops, behind the lines’ ops, double crosses and near misses, a career around the world’s hot spots and danger zones. Times are changing, Wolfe has had his day, now he’s stuck behind a desk at Vauxhall Cross, SIS HQ. Private security firms hover, a man with his skills and knowledge has a lot to offer, the pay would be a massive step up but he’s not interested. Wolfe has been placed in charge for the recruitment and asset validation of the next generation of Wolfe’s, agents in the field. To his family Wolfe is a quiet conscientious, slightly jumpy, slightly grumpy civil servant but they don’t see how unhappy he is with the desk job.
Wolfe’s daughter Jody joins the service but MI6 keep her recruitment a secret from him. Then she’s given her first job, a classified assignment behind his back. When Jody goes missing in the field MI6 disavow her as the op goes pear shaped. Agents are dead and Jody is painted as a defector. It all brings Wolfe back into the game, he doesn’t know how to tell his wife Alessia but he has to go find his daughter starting in Kabul. Now this is a game that has changed, it’s a steep learning curve for Wolfe and the stakes were never this personal before. This is an impressive debut. The father daughter relationship is the pivot of an intelligent action thriller.
Zaffre
Spies on Screen by Paul Burke will be published in October by Oldcastle Books.
