#TopFiveBooks About…. Spies that I want to read!

Welcome back to Top Five Saturdays!
The hashtag/challenge created by Devouring Books, this is a fiendish challenge to recommend or promote 5 books on a set topic, which have either been read-and due a re-read- or are upcoming releases.

Here is the schedule-

2/1/20 — Dystopian Books

2/8/20 — Mental Illness

2/15/20 — Books about Mermaids

2/22/20 — Books about Spies

2/29/20 — Books inspired by Mythology

This week, the focus is on SPIES!

This was quite a challenging one for me as spy fiction is not the usual habitat that you will find a reader like me in. And I am not a fan of James Bond-sorry not sorry, it never floated my boat so these are mostly vintage reads !

So , thinking cap on, I got to plundering my real and virtual shelves and came up with the following-

‘N or M?’ by Agatha Christie

It is World War II, and while the RAF struggles to keep the Luftwaffe at bay, Britain faces an even more sinister threat from ‘the enemy within’ – Nazis posing as ordinary citizens.

With pressure mounting, the Intelligence service appoints two unlikely spies, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Their mission: to seek out a man and a woman from among the colourful guests at Sans Souci, a seaside hotel.

But this assignment is no stroll along the promenade. After all, N and M have just murdered Britain’s finest agent.

This was the first Tommy and Tuppence novel that I read and I absolutely loved the banter betweent he married couple which contrasts perfectly with the suspense of trying to find a spy in a English hotel by the sea! Here is my review in full-‘N Or M?’ Book Review

‘The Veiled Detective’ by David Stuart Davies

A young Sherlock Holmes arrives in London to begin his career as a private detective, catching the eye of the master criminal, Professor James Moriarty. Enter Dr. Watson, newly returned from Afghanistan, soon to make history as Holmes’ companion…

By turns both shocking and exciting, David Stuart Davies’ controversial take on the Holmes mythology is a modern classic in crime fiction that will defy all expectations.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s timeless creation returns in a new series of handsomely designed detective stories. From the earliest days of Holmes’ career to his astonishing encounters with Martian invaders, the Further Adventures series encapsulates the most varied and thrilling cases of the worlds’ greatest detective.

 

‘The 39 Steps’ by John Buchan

Adventurer Richard Hannay, just returned from South Africa, is thoroughly bored with London life-until he is accosted by a mysterious American, who warns him of an assassination plot that could completely destabalise the fragile political balance of Europe.

Initially sceptical, Hannay nonetheless harbours the man-but one dayreturns home to find him murdered… An obvious suspect, Hannay flees to his native Scotland, pursued by both the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy.

His life and the security of Britan are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: what are the ‘thirty nine steps?

I listened to this on the BBC Radio 4, it was agripping and engrossing listen in daily segments which really ramped up the tension-read, I belive by Robert Powell, who also starred in a movie adaptation of the book!

‘Rogue Male’ by Geoffrey Household

Rogue Male is one of the classic thrillers of the 20th century. An Englishman plans to assassinate the dictator of a European country.

But he is foiled at the last moment and falls into the hands of ruthless and inventive torturers. They devise for him an ingenious and diplomatic death but, for once, they bungle the job and he escapes.

But England provides no safety from his pursuers – and the Rogue Male must strip away all the trappings of status and civilization as the hunter becomes a hunted animal.

Another audio adaptation via the BBC, I first read this in a Reader’s Digets compilation, containing a disaster novel about a wildfire(cannot remember the title!), ‘Psycho’ and 3 others. But ‘Rogue Male’ stood out as a breathtaking cat and mouse tale which is an absolute classic!

‘My Life As A Spy’ by Katherine Verdery

As Katherine Verdery observes, “There’s nothing like reading your secret police file to make you wonder who you really are.” In 1973 Verdery began her doctoral fieldwork in the Transylvanian region of Romania, ruled at the time by communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

She returned several times over the next twenty-five years, during which time the secret police—the Securitate—compiled a massive surveillance file on her. Reading through its 2,781 pages, she learned that she was “actually” a spy, a CIA agent, a Hungarian agitator, and a friend of dissidents: in short, an enemy of Romania. In My Life as a Spy she analyzes her file alongside her original field notes and conversations with Securitate officers.

Verdery also talks with some of the informers who were close friends, learning the complex circumstances that led them to report on her, and considers how fieldwork and spying can be easily confused. Part memoir, part detective story, part anthropological analysis, My Life as a Spy offers a personal account of how government surveillance worked during the Cold War and how Verdery experienced living under it.

And…… a few extras!!

‘Professor Moriarty-The Hound Of The D’Urbervilles’ by Kim Newman

Imagine the twisted evil twins of Holmes and Watson and you have the dangerous duo of Prof. James Moriarty – wily, snake- like, fiercely intelligent, unpredictable – and Colonel Sebastian ‘Basher’ Moran – violent,politically incorrect, debauched. Together they run London crime, owning police and criminals alike. Unravelling mysteries — all for their own gain.

A spin-off from Titan’s highly successful Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series, The Hound of the D’Urbervilles sees acclaimed novelist Kim Newman (Anno Dracula) take on the fiendish Professor Moriarty.

I have checked this out as I wanted to include a Kim Newman book here-James Moriarty was a spy, hired by M15. I haven;t read this one yet but it’s on my hit list!

 

‘The Exphoria Code’ by Anthony Johnston

The long-awaited first mainstream novel from Antony Johnston, creator of Atomic Blonde!

The first book in a major new techno-thriller series featuring cyber-espionage specialist Brigitte Sharp, a brilliant but haunted young MI6 hacker.

“Very possibly the definitive espionage thriller of the early 21st century.”
— Alan Moore

Bridge has been deskbound and in therapy for three years after her first field mission in Syria went disastrously wrong. But now one of her best friends has been murdered, and Bridge believes his death is connected to strange posts appearing on the internet carrying encrypted hidden messages.

On decoding the messages she discovers evidence of a mole inside a top-secret Anglo-French military drone project. Her MI6 bosses force her back into the field, sending her undercover in France to find and expose the mole… who may also be her friend s killer.

But the truth behind the Exphoria code is far worse than she could have imagined…

I LOVED this book, my review is available on the blog, and Book 2 is imminent….

‘Code Name Lise’ by Larry Loftis

Odette Sansom decides to follow in her war hero father’s footsteps by becoming an SOE agent to aid Britain and her beloved homeland, France. Five failed attempts and one plane crash later, she finally lands in occupied France to begin her mission.

It is here that she meets her commanding officer Captain Peter Churchill. As they successfully complete mission after mission, Peter and Odette fall in love. All the while, they are being hunted by the cunning German secret police sergeant, Hugo Bleicher, who finally succeeds in capturing them.

They are sent to Paris’s Fresnes prison, and on to concentration camps in Germany, where they are starved, beaten, and tortured. But in the face of despair, they never give up hope, their love for each other, or the whereabouts of their colleagues.

This is portrait of true courage, patriotism and love amidst unimaginable horrors and degradation.

I am on the blogtour for this remarkable book, so be sure to check back later in the week for a full review.

‘Etiquette and Espionage’ by Gail Carriger

It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners–and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine’s, young ladies learn to finish…everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage–in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year’s education

The first in the Custard Protocol series, how could I leave out the fabulous Gail Carriger?

Hopefully there is something in  the above selection which will pique your interest, as usual, I don’t really have anyone to tag but will link thorughout the week to the other bloggers who have posted their spy pieces.

Happy Reading!