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Find out moreHeart-racing high-octane and a happy place for many of us, let us help you find your next fuel-injected foray into the fields of battle, espionage, danger, heroism and even history rewritten. You’ll be over the waves, under the radar, up mountains, outside the law, beyond help, dicing with danger, battling monsters, rescuing the stricken, flying through flack, laying mines, playing political parlour-games, conning Congress, kidnapping commandos clashing with conquistadors and crossing swords with Crusaders … and all from the safety of your favourite chair.
Corkscrewing through Italy, there is a tangled web of intrigue to unravel in this stimulating spy novel. We start during the summer of 1977 and the murder of relatives of the Director General of Defence Intelligence. The second in the Dylan Series highlights a mystery under the cloak of espionage thriller. I advise that you begin with Awakening of Spies, as I don’t feel that this is a series you can step into the middle of due to the intricacies of setting. Knowing the central characters meant I could focus on the rest of the plot (again though, no wandering off as you need to concentrate). The writing feels as though you are reading a memoir, with Thomas Dylan’s memories spilling forth onto the page. Brian Landers ensured that I was in the 1970’s and I really felt the history and spirit of the time. Families of Spies, delving as it does into the not too distant past, is an interesting and convincing read.
Hold on to your breath as this bang up-to-date riveting thriller dives head first into a murky sinister world and doesn’t come up for air. London journalist Lydia is sent a video clip of a possible murder taking place on a train. Dealer in information Michael has links to the male being attacked, but both the victim and witness have disappeared. What a fascinating pair of main characters Rod Reynolds has created. They and the storyline feel so entirely real, I wouldn’t have been surprised to read an update of this story in the papers. Power and cold hard money act as motivating factors, with information the hook that connects Lydia and Michael. The tension rises with each chapter and while an electrifying ride, there is a sharp thoughtful edge that penetrates the pages. I thoroughly enjoyed Blood Red City, astute and dynamic, the ending arrives with a punch. Chosen as a Liz Robinson Pick of the Month as I really want to fly the flag for this book.
A fascinating, bold and beautiful historical novel, chosen as a Liz Robinson Pick of the Month. Beginning in 1943 after liberated Italy has declared war on Nazi Germany, Contessa Sofia de’Corsi begins to help the resistance. The timeline of Italy during World War Two at the beginning of the book, helps set and centre the scene. If you have read Dinah Jefferies previous novels then you will discover a change in direction. You still have the historical aspect and thoughtful relationship tale, however we move continents to Europe, specifically Tuscany in Italy. The normally vibrant descriptive detailing of the sights, smells and sounds of countries within Asia reshapes to take in the daring Italian resistance. I could picture the walled village, countryside, and Florence, with the action scenes moving in vivid colour across the page. If you follow Dinah on social media then you will see some fabulous photos of some the trips she took and locations that inspired her. The Tuscan Contessa is another compelling, eloquent read from Dinah Jefferies that I can recommend.
Shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards 'Popular Fiction of the Year' 2012. With characteristically meticulous research Cornwell’s new historical blockbuster weaves a complex story, epic in scope, that has as its climax the battle of Poitiers, the second but less well known decisive battle in the Hundred Years War. English archer Thomas of Hookton is ordered to find the mythical, and lost, sword of St Peter said to grant victory to whoever possesses it. The quest however, leads to a confrontation that sparks a must bigger conflict. Medieval history brought to life by a master storyteller.
Shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards 'Popular Fiction of the Year' 2012. With characteristically meticulous research Cornwell’s new historical blockbuster weaves a complex story, epic in scope, that has as its climax the battle of Poitiers, the second but less well known decisive battle in the Hundred Years War. English archer Thomas of Hookton is ordered to find the mythical, and lost, sword of St Peter said to grant victory to whoever possesses it. The quest however, leads to a confrontation that sparks a must bigger conflict. Medieval history brought to life by a master storyteller.
One of our Great Reads You May Have Missed in 2012. If you love fast-paced, topical thrillers that you simply can't put down, then Andrew Gross and especially 15 Seconds is a great place to go. Pulled over by a traffic cop who is then shot by someone else leaves surgeon Henry Steadman framed for murder and on the run trying to prove his innocence. It's thrilling stuff. May 2012 Book of the Month.
One very much for the holiday club reader mixing sex, sun and drugs into a wacky thriller, Ibiza based. It is the third from him and they are great fun. The Big Issue summed it up brilliantly, “a contemporary trash classicâ€.
March 2013 Guest Editor Charles Cumming on A Coffin for Dimitrios... I read a lot of Eric Ambler when I was writing The Trinity Six. Ambler specialized in stories about ordinary men who find themselves caught up in extraordinary circumstances. In A Coffin for Dimitrios, a successful thriller writer becomes fascinated by a notorious criminal, believed to have been murdered in Istanbul. Highly recommended.
In his splendid previous spy thriller A Foreign Country, Cumming introduced once-disgraced and now covertly back in the fold operative Thomas Kell and MI6’s first female head Amelia Levene. In his new book, they both appear again. Following the mysterious death of Turkey’s Head of Station the remaining evidence points Tom to a traitor inside Western Intelligence. Kell’s task of unravelling the conspiracy is not made any easier by disturbing news emerging from Levene’s own past. Tom Kell is more Smiley than James Bond and his adventures ring terribly true and easily sow many seeds of doubt about the undercurrent of world affairs in a disturbing perspective in this much up to date thriller. Cumming knows his stuff. ~ Maxim Jakubowski Sarah Broadhurst's view... A cracking story with all the ingredients of a Le Carré Smiley novel and then some! It is the second work to feature Thomas Kell, a disgraced spy introduced to us in A Foreign Country. It is up-to-date in dealing with the Irish question and although not quite so with Ukraine, it does give a good background to the present situation in a great adventure of cover-up, duplicity, betrayal and double agents. All very tense, complex and satisfying, it is a very fine spy novel indeed. Click here to view the new editions of The Hidden Man and Typhoon by the same author.
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title. In his splendid previous spy thriller A Foreign Country, Cumming introduced once-disgraced and now covertly back in the fold operative Thomas Kell and MI6’s first female head Amelia Levene. In his new book, they both appear again. Following the mysterious death of Turkey’s Head of Station the remaining evidence points Tom to a traitor inside Western Intelligence. Kell’s task of unravelling the conspiracy is not made any easier by disturbing news emerging from Levene’s own past. Tom Kell is more Smiley than James Bond and his adventures ring terribly true and easily sow many seeds of doubt about the undercurrent of world affairs in a disturbing perspective in this much up to date thriller. Cumming knows his stuff. May 2014 eBook of the Month. Sarah Broadhurst's view... A cracking story with all the ingredients of a Le Carré Smiley novel and then some! It is the second work to feature Thomas Kell, a disgraced spy introduced to us in A Foreign Country. It is up-to-date in dealing with the Irish question and although not quite so with Ukraine, it does give a good background to the present situation in a great adventure of cover-up, duplicity, betrayal and double agents. All very tense, complex and satisfying, it is a very fine spy novel indeed. Click here to view the new editions of The Hidden Man and Typhoon by the same author.
Len Tyler has, until now, been best known for his humorous Ethelred and Elsie series, in which a mid-list crime writer and his intrepid agent solved perky crimes with aplomb. This, however, is another kettle of fish, the debut volume in an ambitious historical series, featuring John Grey, a young lawyer with few clients at the time of Oliver Cromwell and Charles Stuart. Painstaking research gives the proceedings a strong patina of credibility and the main character, a man with a mission to defend the truth in a period of plots and counterplots involving the wrath of John Thurloe, Cromwell's spy master and the corpse of a Royalist spy found in an Essex village, proves engaging and sympathetic. From the success of Hilary Mantel's novels, we know the fascination the period exerts on readers; Tyler might well have found a new criminal milieu. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
A Maxim Jakubowski selected title. A most welcome reissue of an important and until now forgotten Cold War spy classic that first appeared in 1966 (and was actually filmed with Laurence Harvey in the title role...). Featuring an enlightening introduction by Tom Stoppard, with whom the late Derek Marlowe shared a flat as he was writing the book, this is the fast-moving tale of Eberlin, a faceless civil servant who is also a double agent, and something of a fancy dresser to alleviate the apparent dullness of his life. The call comes to eliminate a ferocious Russian agent responsible for the assassination of many British agents. There is only one problem: the man he is assigned to eliminate is no other but himself! How Eberling navigates the treacherous mission is both a delight and gripping. Like John Le Carre on acid! ~ Maxim Jakubowski
A gripping storyteller . (Peter James). Former detective Lacey Flint quit the force for a safer, quieter life. Or that's what she thought. Now living alone on her houseboat, she is trying to get over the man she loves, undercover detective Mark Joesbury. But Mark is missing in action and impossible to forget. And danger won't leave Lacey alone. When she finds a body floating in the river near her home, wrapped in burial cloths, she can't resist asking questions. Who is this woman, and why was she hidden in the fast-flowing depths[unk] And who has been delivering unwanted gifts to Lacey? Someone is watching Lacey Flint closely. Someone who knows exactly what makes her tick...
John Le Carré redefined spy thrillers when he wrote The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in just three weeks in 1963. Since then he has grown into a true master, whose books strip open truths about how we live now alongside gripping stories. A Delicate Truth is indeed a very delicately plotted book with hints and insinuations of real events, from the death of David Kelly to recent ministerial scandals, laced into its fictionalised plot and the entire plot turns on a breathtaking trick that will have you wanting to burst into spontaneous applause it’s so brilliant.
May 2013 Book of the Month. A tightly woven tale of moral dilemma, bold action and unexpected love from the undisputed master of the spy novel. Le Carré, seemingly effortlessly, delivers a stunningly written, furiously paced yet subtly nuanced and absorbing read - it really is remarkably good. Mary Mount, Editorial Director at Viking/Penguin, on A Delicate Truth... 'A Delicate Truth is one of le Carré’s finest novels. It is unbelievably tense but is also full of wit and brilliantly realised characters. It is extraordinary how le Carré is able to write with such tremendous pace while, at the same time, going right to the heart of who we are. A Delicate Truth is one of his most British books in recent years. I was stunned by it. It is a thrill and a privilege to publish a novel as good as this.'
Let Bernard Cornwell sweep you back to Arthurian times, or into the heat of battle with Richard Sharpe. Sail the high seas with Patrick O'Brian. Raise your pulse-rate with Michael Crichton. Experience the adrenaline of combat with Andy McNab. Feel the clear and present danger of Tom Clancy's thrilling Jack Ryan stories... Live on the edge with Lee Child's itinerant hero Jack Reacher? Navigating your way through all the twists and turns of this roller-coaster genre can be an adventure in itself.
So, let us help you find your next fuel-injected foray into the fields of battle, espionage, danger,heroism and even history rewritten. From Dan Brown, Tom Clancy and Ken Follett to Wilbur Smith, David Gibbins and Stieg Larsson, you’ll be over the waves, under the radar, up mountains, outside the law, beyond help, dicing with danger, battling monsters, rescuing the stricken, flying through flack, laying mines, playing political parlour-games, conning Congress, kidnapping commandos clashing with conquistadors and crossing swords with Crusaders … and all from the safety of your favourite chair.