Mysterious Book Report No. 322 – Fan Favorite

By |2018-08-06T18:35:11+00:00August 6th, 2018|Mysterious Book Report|

False Flag by John Altman Blackstone Publishing, $26.99, 320 pages, ISBN 978-1-5047-9772-6 In the world of espionage, The business of spies is lies, which makes it impossible at times, to distinguish between friend and foe . . . because all covert operations are designed to advance the interests and objectives of the spying country.  Put it another way and the axiom becomes: TRUST NO ONE.  They all lie all

Mysterious Book Report No. 289 – A Divided Spy

By |2017-05-29T06:45:38+00:00May 29th, 2017|Mysterious Book Report|

A Divided Spy by Charles Cumming St. Martin’s Press, $26.99, 356 pages, ISBN 978-1-250-02104-5 For some arcane reason . . . known only to themselves and the cosmos . . . the Brits are the masters of the spy novel universe. One only has to think of the names Ian Fleming and John LeCarré, or their iconic fictional spies, James Bond and George Smiley to know what we mean.

Mysterious Book Report No. 278 – Fidelity

By |2017-05-05T09:51:49+00:00May 5th, 2017|Mysterious Book Report|

Fidelity by Jan Fedarcyk Simon & Schuster, $25.00, 306 pages, ISBN 978-1-4767-3386-9 With some seven and-a-half million residents spread out over a couple thousand city blocks, the Manhattan Office of the FBI is one of the largest, busiest and most important of all postings within the agency. The activity there is ceaseless, and the agents are all at the top of their game. They’re the best of the best

Mysterious Book Report No. 242 – Jack Of Spies

By |2016-11-29T07:13:09+00:00November 29th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Jack of Spies by David Downing SOHO Press Inc., $27.95, 338 pages, ISBN 978-1-61695-268-6 Those of us who follow the news and current events can’t help but feel at times that the world is ‘going to hell in a handbasket,’ to quote an old refrain . . . but those of us who study history know it’s all happened before, and the world’s still here, and still full of

Mysterious Book Report No. 220 – Palace Of Treason

By |2016-10-12T06:58:55+00:00October 12th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Palace of Treason by Jason Matthews Scribner/Simon & Shuster, $26.99, 468 pages, ISBN 978-1-4767-9374-0 Is there any doubt amongst well-informed people, that the tectonic plates of government spheres of influence are being shifted these days in ways we couldn’t even imagine as little as twenty-five years ago? Would you have thought for example, back in 1990 when the Soviet Union was collapsing and the U.S. led coalition was busy

Mysterious Book Report No. 208 – The Swimmer

By |2016-08-30T07:24:38+00:00August 30th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Swimmer by Joakim Zander Harper Collins, $27.99, 417 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-233724-5 International thrillers—good old spy yarns—have long been favorites of many readers around the world. Personally, I never tire of them. It seems however, that all the great espionage writers have passed . . . novelists like John Gardner, Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Steig Larsson, Graham Green and Eric Ambler have all left us and perennial

Mysterious Book No. 196 – The Empire of Night

By |2016-08-10T07:25:49+00:00August 10th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Empire of Night by Robert Olen Butler Mysterious Press, $26.00, 401 pages, ISBN 978-0-8021-2323-7 One hundred years ago, all of Europe was in the midst of what was then called the Great War, or World War I as we now know it. It was the first fully mechanized war and the battlefield casualties were so great that they’re almost incomprehensible by today’s standards, due to the invention of

Mysterious Book Report No. 193 – The Heist

By |2016-08-08T06:37:21+00:00August 8th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

The Heist by Daniel Silva Harper Collins, $27.99, 467 pages, ISBN 978-0-06-232005-6 One of the greatest tragedies in the world today—and God knows there’s no shortage of them to choose from—is the huge and ever-expanding loss of the world’s art heritage due to theft . . . crimes that are often underwritten by some of the globe’s wealthiest citizens and performed by teams of well organized professional criminals. The

Mysterious Book Report No. 184 – Night Heron

By |2016-07-25T07:47:58+00:00July 25th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Night Heron by Adam Brookes Little Brown and Co., $26.00, 387 pages, ISBN 978-0-7515-5248-5 The next war between the superpowers will most likely take place in cyberspace, because that’s where all the world’s command and control systems are located . . . and it’s highly probable that in the twenty-first century . . . the coming cyberwars will be fought by multinational corporations rather than governments. Why? The answer

Mysterious Book Report No. 177 – Midnight in Europe

By |2016-07-17T09:30:44+00:00July 17th, 2016|Mysterious Book Report|

Midnight in Europe by Alan Furst Random House/Penguin, $27.00, 251 pages, ISBN 978-1-4000-6949-1 If you’re a fan of noir fiction, tales of WWII exploits or spy thrillers, you’ll love this week’s MBR . . . an espionage novel set in Paris in 1938, on the eve of World War II, just as the Spanish Civil War is coming to an end. Generalissimo Franco’s Nationalist forces, together with their Nazi

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