The dark side of 1930s Europe, a mysterious brothel in present-day Belgravia — plus a topical Syrian-set story from a ‘Spiral’ screenwriter
A posthumous and seamless completion of a volcano thriller that the ‘Jurassic Park’ writer left unfinished after his death in 2008
Adam LeBor selects his best mid-year reads
A modern makeover for Fleming’s spy and a reissue of a classic actioner — but little relief after the gulag
The UN takes on terrorists, fascism spreads its web — and the mysterious Elly Conway is finally unmasked
Alexis Soloski’s impressive debut thriller explores identity through the blurring of acting and real life
From ex-CIA David McCloskey to Tess Gerritsen, spooks and subterfuge, espionage and danger from Moscow to Beirut
Action-packed stories from Russia to Nigeria — plus a new Nurse Ratched and the latest from former astronaut Chris Hadfield
Adam LeBor selects his must-read titles
From the Rwandan genocide to death at the Bank of England, sinister stories of spies, politics and exile
‘Silence of the Lambs’ meets ‘Sex in the City’ and an extradition flight is pursued across the globe by a Reaper drone
Vividly drawn characters blaze trails across small-town Arkansas and Nazi-occupied Oslo
A gripping selection includes cold war conspiracies and a dark turn for Scottish politics
An action-packed selection includes cheering portrayals of women who have agency — and muscles
From Trump to Biden to a Kent bus stop, the inability to treat top secret material correctly is on the rise
These fast-paced page-turners take in alternate history, a bullet in the head and terrors in Tokyo
Undercover agents deliver a 2022 James Bond reboot and shadowy threats from Alaska to Berlin
Cold war era novels inspired by the long, deadly reach of Moscow’s secret service
Fast-paced tales of intrigue from Leningrad to Lisbon. Plus echoes of George Smiley — and an illustrated edition of le Carré himself
Matthew Teller’s history disputes simplistic division of the Old City into four areas — and laments present-day tensions
From spies, secrets and a Stasi ‘Romeo’ in cold war Berlin to a dangerous haul of diamonds in Basel
Hans Rosenfeldt, the creator of TV show ‘The Bridge’, delivers a dark, engrossing read in ‘Cry Wolf’