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Oct 5, 20171 min read
536. Mick Herron - The List
A pre 'Slough House' novella. Begins as a slightly old fashioned Le Carre type spy thriller and gradually introduces some 'Slough House'...
Oct 4, 20171 min read
535. Mick Herron - Spook Street
This is a brilliant book; he seems to be really maturing into his Slough house characters, whose subtle and often very funny interactions...
Sep 28, 20171 min read
533. Mick Herron - Spook Street
This guy is brilliant! Re reading almost immediately, so see 535! Get this on Amazon
Sep 1, 20171 min read
518. Mick Herron - Real Tigers
Went for another Mick Herron, despite the above. These books do improve all the time. I didn’t fully understand the plot here – which of...
Aug 24, 20171 min read
516. Mick Herron - Dead Lions
The 2nd of the Jackson Lamb/Slough House espionage thrillers. This one began much more in spy thriller mode, but that was a deception...
Aug 17, 20171 min read
514. Graham Greene - The Third Man
During a sleepless night on 15 August, I began re-reading Patrick Gale’s Rough Music on my kindle as a bit of emergency late night...
Aug 14, 20171 min read
513. Georgina Harding - The Spy Game
Symptomatic of being short of reading ideas, buying another by the same author immediately after finishing the first (see David Mark, 491...
Mar 7, 20171 min read
471. Adam Sisman - John Lee Carré (The Biography)
A late Xmas present from B. Very good (and long) book; Le Carré’s adult life mirrors much of my (actual) life, so much of the terrain...
Jan 28, 20171 min read
463. Mick Herron - Slow Horses
I have never heard of the author and can’t make my mind up about the book. The ‘Slow Horses’ are rejects from MI5 (or equivalent) who...
Dec 5, 20161 min read
450. Charles Cumming - A Spy By Nature
I seem to have finished the very good Tom Kell trilogy. This is the first in a (somebody else) series and it is not a promising start. A...
Nov 30, 20161 min read
449. John Le Carré - Call For The Dead
I think this may be his first novel (see 447); I have read it before but always enjoy it. The plot is as described above, although with...
Nov 27, 20161 min read
448. Charles Cumming - A Divided Spy
The 3rd in the Thomas Kell series. This was brilliant; he is a great writer this guy and I am surprised that none of these books has been...
Nov 24, 20161 min read
447. John Le Carré - The Secret Pilgrim
I was looking for a different Le Carré book, but this one was referred to in 446, so I thought I would give it a go (I must have read it...
Nov 20, 20161 min read
446. Charles Cumming - A Colder War
The 2nd in the Thomas Kell series. This was weird because I had read the book before, and spent a lot of the time reading it puzzling...
Nov 17, 20161 min read
445. Charles Cumming - A Foreign Country
The first of a series of novels featuring Thomas Kell, a disillusioned and cynical ex MI5 officer, who has been suspended in disgrace...
Nov 13, 20161 min read
444. Charles Cumming - The Hidden Man
The third of the three I bought with the birthday tokens and by far the best. The key point is that this is a good novel, with the spy...
Nov 7, 20161 min read
442. Stella Rimington - Close Call
Went to Windsor on Saturday and used my birthday tokens on some spy thrillers recommended on an Andrew Marr BBC program, perhaps because...
Feb 27, 20161 min read
380. John Le Carré - The Night Manager
Bought this, slightly conned by Waterstones’ promotion, as it is being serialised on the TV. Don’t think I have read a Le Carré since...
Nov 9, 20151 min read
353. Lawrence Durrell - Mountolive
Meant to read a Zola next, but got a bit hooked by no.352. This is much more of a stand- alone novel, centering mainly on Mountolive, a...
May 25, 20151 min read
305. Lionel Davidson - Kolymsky Heights
Despite the endorsement by Philip Pullman (who I thought may have written the first chapters), this was complete rubbish. Not much more...