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Apr 2, 20151 min read
293. Charles Cumming - A Colder War
Marketed (a bit) as the new John Le Carré, I thought perhaps it was at first, but it is actually quite derivative (of Le Carré). The plot...
Nov 11, 20141 min read
260. Andrew Rosenheim - The Informant
Not sure what to make of this, or exactly what genre it aspires to. I guess spy thriller. I thought it would compare interestingly with...
Jun 26, 20141 min read
225. Graham Greene - Stamboul Train
Pretty good. A relatively early Greene, about a rail trip from London to Istanbul in the 1930’s. As the train progresses — Ostende,...
May 16, 20141 min read
208. Graham Greene - The Confidential Agent
Borrowed this from my father’s library, and was surprised to find I had read it before (in fact, we have a very ancient, dropped in the...
Nov 23, 20131 min read
165. William Boyd - Waiting For Sunrise
Wonderful! Boyd is fast becoming my favourite modern English novelist. I have read this before (don’t know whether an earlier reading is...
Mar 18, 20131 min read
87. Jennie Rooney - Red Joan
Best holiday read so far. About an English girl who goes to Cambridge pre-WW2 and falls in love with a Russian émigré communist. She is...
Feb 17, 20131 min read
79. Graham Greene - Our Man In Havana
Didn't enjoy this for reasons I find hard to understand. Some Green is fantastic; others of his do little for me. In theory, I should...
Jan 1, 20131 min read
69. John Buchan - The Thirty-Nine Steps
Inspired by the chase around Scotland in no.68 ( and struggling a bit with no.70) I Kindled this for nothing. Never read it or any other...
Dec 29, 20121 min read
68. Ken Follett - Eye Of The Needle
An Xmas present from our next-door neighbors, who are obviously fans (I have never read one before). Fast-paced WW2 thriller; the needle...
Nov 12, 20121 min read
55. Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö - The Man Who Went Up In Smoke
The 2nd book in the series. Wonderful descriptions of Budapest, when Beck sent over there and very much a spy story while he is there...
Oct 31, 20121 min read
52. William Boyd - Restless
This was brilliant. I had a weird and precise memory of having read the first chapter (only) before; maybe one of the publisher's bits of...
Oct 19, 20121 min read
50. William Boyd - Waiting For Sunrise
I loved this, although the ending defeated me slightly (can one be slightly defeated?). The characters were all so well delineated,...
Apr 19, 20121 min read
4. John Le Carré - A Small Town In Germany
Read this before, probably about 30 years ago! Set in Bonn in the late '60s, the central figure (although he never appears) is a man who...