We are thrilled to bring you the third in our series of commentaries on spy novels read by the students of Fiction and Espionage at the University of Edinburgh. This week on the Spybrary Spy Book Podcast the students discuss The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming. The students, sorry ‘The Dead Drops‘ share their views...

Free Agent by Jeremy Duns on the Spybrary Spy Podcast We are thrilled to transmit the first in our series of commentaries on spy novels read by the students of Fiction and Espionage at the University of Edinburgh. Today's group tackle the first novel in the Paul Dark series called Free Agent and written by...

Ripley is Back! David Craggs joins Mike Ripley at the Harper Collins offices in London to find out more about the paperback version of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and why those of us who have the hardback should buy it. Who Is Mike Ripley?Best known for his award-winning ‘Angel’ series of comic thrillers, Ripley reviewed...

A review of The Company written by Robert Littell and reviewed by John Koenig for the Koenig Memorandum. Spy Book review – The Company by Robert Littell. The Company is pleasantly paced, detailed to an extreme, bringing places and people alive on the page in memorable fashion, yet never bogging down. Somehow Littell maintains a...

Spybrarian John Koenig is back from his expedition visiting almost every used book store from Michigan to Washington State. When he wasn't scaling ladders (why are the good spy books always on the top shelf?) or scouring dark nooks and crannies he penned several review of recent spy reads.  Here is his latest – The...

Berlin Game -Len Deighton – Spybrary Book Club Edition Spybrary listeners voted overwhelmingly for Berlin Game to be the first spy book to be discussed in our first ever book club Spybrary edition. Listen to an in-depth conversation on this spy classic with Spybrary host Shane Whaley, Deighton expert Rob Mallows and newcomer to Len...

  I am quite fond of the saying that “truth is stranger than fiction.” As those of us who read spy fact (and those fiction works which blur the boundaries between the two) know, it is often the case. The film The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro and released by Universal Pictures in...

On this episode of the Spybrary Spy Podcast, Shane Whaley hosts a round table discussion on the life and books of spy writer Frederick Forsyth. Author and spy, yes spy, Frederick Forsyth has been writing for over 50 years. The former Reuters man is best known for his debut novel ‘Day of the Jackal' as...

Transmission received from Spybrarian Matthew Kresal: Review of The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carre. One of the familiar tropes of the spy genre is an intelligence agency recruiting a civilian into an operation. In fact, one might even say it's become a cliche at this point. So perhaps it comes as something of...

The True Story of Oleg Penkovsky with Author Jeremy Duns   Thrilling, evocative and hugely controversial, Codename: Hero blows apart the myths surrounding one of the Cold War's greatest spy operations and potentially it's greatest spy Oleg Penkovsky   In the late 1950s the USSR appeared to be winning the arms race: their 1949 nuclear...