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Aug 16, 20231 min read
1086. Joseph Conrad - The Secret Agent
One of my favourite books and every time you read it, you pick up different aspects. I found the opening chapters hard work, but was...
Jun 9, 20231 min read
1073. John Le Carré - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
This was a brilliant TV drama twenty plus years ago, but I think the book has dated. Heavily imbued in the English class system as it was...
Jan 13, 20231 min read
1041. Mick Herron - Real Tigers
Can’t remember the titles of all these books (particularly if read on a kindle), but this is the one that starts with Catherine Standish’...
Jan 7, 20231 min read
1040. Sean Lusk - The 2nd Sight Of Zachary Cloudesly
This is very good and a lot better than no.1039. Set in the late 18th century in London, Istanbul, and elsewhere, it involves a...
Oct 17, 20221 min read
1022. Antoni Horowitz - With A Mind To Kill
I like Horowitz, but this is no.3 of a series of post Ian Fleming James Bond novels. The last Ian Fleming I read must have been about 50...
Jul 19, 20221 min read
997. Mick Herron - Bad Actors
Worth a re-read, but not much to add to no.995 above. Still very good. Get this on Amazon
Jul 9, 20221 min read
995. Mick Herron - Bad Actors
This is brilliant. After an uncharacteristically slow start (with the slow horses being lined up and introducing themselves partly with...
May 14, 20221 min read
978. Janice Hallett - The Twyford Code
Very good, quite difficult, and very different. Most of it is 200 audio files created by a dyslexic (I think?) and semi-literate ex-con...
Apr 10, 20221 min read
966. Lawrence Durrell - White Eagles Over Serbia
I love the Alexandria Quartet, but this is a fairly lightweight thriller set in communist-occupied Serbia in the 1950’s. The central...
Jan 6, 20221 min read
931. Graham Greene - Our Man In Havana
One of his ‘entertainments’ which I don’t on the whole enjoy. The conceit is quite amusing, a vacuum salesman in Havana is recruited by...
Nov 7, 20211 min read
914. Cristina Loggia - Lucifer's Game
This is a pretty good WW2 thriller, set in Italy. It reminded me a bit of Sebastian Faulks’ Charlotte Grey. I didn’t like the title, as...
Oct 28, 20211 min read
912. Graham Greene - The Human Factor
One of my favourite of his books, despite my copy having been in the bath some years ago. Thematically, very John le Carré – set possibly...
Sep 1, 20211 min read
890. Reginald Hill - Recalled To Life
This is a rollicking good yarn; set initially in the 1960’s around the time of the Profumo scandal involving a murder set in Yorkshire...
Jun 18, 20211 min read
870. Ian Rankin - Westwind
This is rather overblown by the publishers ‘the iconic number one bestseller’, ‘the classic lost thriller’. In point of fact, as Rankin...
Jun 5, 20211 min read
864. Kate Quinn - The Rose Code
I enjoyed this, although it is a bit of a ‘girlie’ book. The three central characters are all female, and the men were largely ciphers in...
Feb 17, 20211 min read
848. John Le Carré - Our Game
Published in 1995, so 25 years old. Made me wonder about the author’s sexuality. There are three main characters, Tim Cranmer the...
Dec 26, 20201 min read
838. Mara Timon - City Of Spies
I enjoyed this, despite being irritated at times. Quite a big canvass for a debut novel. Set mainly in Lisbon in the middle of the 2nd...
Dec 20, 20201 min read
836. John Le Carré - Agent Running In The Field
Probably his last published book, as he died last week. Le Carré is a writer (like Graham Greene) whose prose an English middle class...
Nov 22, 20201 min read
828. William Boyd - Any Human Heart
Needed a book with a with nice linear narrative after some of the longeurs of the previous few. This was wonderful. A fictionalised diary...
Apr 20, 20201 min read
768. Reginald Hill - Recalled To Life
Completely different in tone from 767, which I enjoyed more. This is a quasi historical detective novel, the historical bit of the plot a...