Charles McCarry meets the kind of Goldilocks/middlebrow standard I look for in spy novels: not too complex, not too simple, not too jingoistic, not too cynical. Juuuuust right. This is the third I’ve read of his Paul Christopher series and like the last two, the plot gripped me. It’s a deep plot but not so convoluted that it loses the reader. Every scene has a purpose; there are few red herrings. It hurtles its way towards its sad, surprising end, tying in perfectly with the […]
Velvet…if you please (don’t murder me).
You know how there are just too many strong female secret agents to choose from, in the same vein as James Bond or Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne, or raspy Liam Neeson, or raspy Jason Staham or whoever Tom Cruise is in the Mission Impossible movies? Except, like, not. What I’m saying is, women are hurting for representation in this genre, and the Velvet series is here to fill that gap and make you very very happy. And make a lot of dudes really really […]
Lady Bond Hunts Spy Ghosts and Discovers Cthulu May be Real
Make James Bond a married woman and more complex character, allow for a very real afterlife which connects in some ways to the living realm, add an extra double cross and you’ve got Summerland. The premise is super interesting: in the late 1930s there are 2 branches of British spies, one based in the world of the living and one based in the world of the dead, called Summerland. There is massive political intrigue and likely catastrophic conflict brewing between the followers of the Presence […]
Traitors, Talents, and Spies
After finishing the disappointing Half a War I was scanning my shelves and the spine of this book, emblazoned with the flag of Great Britain, jumped out at me. At the Table of Wolves by Kay Kenyon. The cover has a WWII militaristic look, with the tagline “Traitors, Talents, Spies: Let the games begin”. It had been the speculative fiction pick of the month last year at my favorite bookstore. I knew nothing about it but the store’s recommendation was enough for me. Kay Kenyon has reimagined a post […]