If you liked… From Russia With Love, by Ian Fleming
The fifth in the series, wherein we showcase an all-time classic crime novel, and suggest some titles from the Bookdagger publishers that hit the same spot. This month, it’s From Russia With Love, by Ian Fleming, first published in 1957.
From Russia With Love was the fifth James Bond novel, and is considered to be the best in the series. Bond does not himself feature until quite late in this novel – the opening chapters, one of Fleming’s most amazing fantasies, creates the nightmare world of SMERSH – the Russian counter-spy organisation, its horribly evil section head Rosa Klebb and her top assassin Grant. When the action shifts to Istanbul and Klebb’s plot to destroy the unsuspecting Bond one of the most brilliant chase sequences in fiction (unrivalled even by Buchan or Greene) unfolds.
One of the defining books of the Cold War (and one of President Kennedy’s favourite books) From Russia With Love is perhaps even more enjoyable to read now than when it first became a huge international bestseller.
The Achilles Heel, by Reg Gadney
The time is now. An enquiry agent, known as Angell, is hired by the glamorous wife of the century’s greatest philanthropist and financier, to terminate the investigation of her husband’s secret crimes of child abuse and murder. Simultaneously, Alan Rosslyn, a young undercover investigation officer in HM Customs and Excise is surprised to be asked by ‘C’ – the new head of the Secret Intelligence Service – to abort his pursuit of the manufacturers of the worst pornography ever seen. Rosslyn’s refusal to compromise hurls him into the hunt for Angell. The Achilles Heel is an odyssey of suspense and violence, a contest undertaken in the shadows of international intrigue. In ingenuity and brilliance and credibility it matches Reg Gadney’s other bestselling thrillers.
Kolymsky Heights, by Lionel Davidson
Kolymsky Heights. A Siberian permafrost hell lost in endless nights, the perfect setting for an underground Russian research station. It’s a place so secret it doesn’t officially exist; once there, the scientists are forbidden to leave. But one scientist is desperate to get a message to the outside world. So desperate, he sends a plea across the wildness to the West in order to summon the one man alive capable of achieving the impossible …
Fast-moving, exhilarating and starring a highly unusual hero, Kolymsky Heights is an unforgettable thriller with a spectacular denouement.
‘A breathless story of fear and courage.’ Daily Telegraph
Swan Song, by T. J. Binyon
1970s Moscow. Vanya Morozov is a teacher of English Literature. Not a party member, he views life and politics with a detached irony, and his main aim is to lead a quiet life. That is until his past starts to catch up with him.
Twelve years earlier he and three other students spent an intense summer in the country. Since then their paths diverged – Tanya became a passionate film director; Alik an ambitious careerist and rising star in the KGB; and Lyuba, dreamy and idealistic, caught up in a strange underground movement.
As a bureaucratic power struggle turns into something darker, the four are drawn together once again, as the Western Intelligence Agencies are alerted. As the action shifts from Moscow to Leningrad and finally to the snow-covered forests of the Volgoda regions, Vanya is forced to abandon his detachment and fight for his survival, and that of the girl he loves.
The Private Sector, by Joseph Hone
Eric Ambler, John Buchan, Erskine Childers, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, Len Deighton, Ian Fleming, Frederick Forsyth, Graham Greene, Geoffrey Household, John le Carre, Robert Ludlum and Joseph Hone. What do they have in common? They wrote spy thrillers and all have appeared in a recent survey of the fifty best books in that genre. Although he may be the least known, the inclusion of Joseph Hone was not eccentric. The particular title chosen was The Private Sector, the first of his Peter Marlow titles. The author and the title are fully deserving of this accolade.
‘Joe Hone is a marvelously compelling, acute and subtle writer of spy novels. The “Peter Marlow” sequence should be rediscovered and acclaimed as enduring classics of the genre.’ William Boyd
The time is May, 1967 in the weeks leading up to the Arab/Israeli six day war. The place is Cairo. The story is Peter Marlow’s, an Irish teacher and secret agent sent from London to find his friend and fellow spy, Henry Edwards who has vanished from Cairo. During the course of this fool’s errand, he also finds his former wife, Bridget, who is now deeply involved with Edwards both emotionally and professionally. Marlow moves easily in British and Egyptian intelligence branches, attaching his allegiance to neither until he becomes the unwitting victim of a failed plot to topple Nasser.
Credible and dramatic, this is a story of callous political and human intrigue and of a mission which can only succeed if none of the men return.
