Spy Stories

Ted Mundy, the son of a British soldier, first met Sasha, the refugee son of an East German pastor, when they were students in Berlin. Their paths crossed as espionage operatives in the Cold War era, and they finally meet again in today's world of terrorism. X rated, contains offensive language and graphic violence.

Undertaker Francis Hancock enters the world of Romany gypsies in a tale of murder, magic and Nazi spies set in Epping Forest during the Blitz.

Nat, a veteran of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, thinks his years as an agent runner are over. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, MI6 have other plans. Nat is put in charge of The Haven, a defunct substation of London General with a rag-tag band of spies. His weekly badminton session with the young, introspective, Brexit-hating Ed, offers respite from the new job. But it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Nat down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all.

From a secretive soldier on the eve of the Normandy landings to a golf-playing gun fanatic in a suburb of modern Britain, everybody has something to hide in this brilliant collection of original spy fiction that brings together the distinctive voices of the genre for the very first time. 

With an introduction from Otto Penzler, these thrilling tales of intrigue and deception, heroism and betrayal, courage and cowardice will push your adrenaline to dangerous new levels. With contributions from: Charles McCarry, Lee Child, James Grady, Joseph Finder, John Lawton, John Weisman, Stephen Hunter, Gayle Lynds, David Morrell, Andrew Klavan, Robert Wilson, Dan Fesperman, Stella Rimington and Olen Steinhauer.

Dr Mo O'Brien is an intelligence agent at the top secret government agency known as 'the Laundry'.

But the Laundry is recovering from a devastating attack and when average citizens all over the country start to develop supernatural powers, the police are called in to help. Mo is appointed as official police liaison, but in between dealing with police bureaucracy, superpowered members of the public and disgruntled politicians, Mo discovers to her horror that she can no longer rely on her marriage, nor on the weapon that has been at her side for eight years of undercover work, the possessed violin known as 'Lecter'.

If this wasn't bad enough, a mysterious figure known as Dr Freudstein is committing heists and sending increasingly threatening messages to the police. Who is Freudstein and what is he planning?

Book 6 in the Laundry Files series.

When a televangelist with connections to 10 Downing Street seems able to work miracles, the Laundry takes an interest. But an agency that answers to the Prime Minister can't spy on him themselves, and Bob Howard’s shadowy superiors come up with a compromise - they hire 'freelancers', with Bob in charge.

British citizens who discover the occult are either forcibly recruited by the Laundry or disposed of, and Bob's never heard of freelancers before. Officially they don't exist. Anyone who's big and bad enough to remain independent is going to be hard to handle, and Bob's not too sure that the one-week 'people management' course he was sent on in Milton Keynes is going to be enough…

Book 4 in the Laundry File series.

Kola Peninsula, 1987. When research zoologist Dr Amelia Blackburn ventures north to investigate the ravages of the Chernobyl reactor meltdown, she stumbles on the evidence of another sinister disaster on the Norway-Russia border. Mother Russia will stop at nothing to prevent this information from being revealed, putting Amelia and her team in grave danger.

Major Tom Fox thought he'd put his intelligence career behind him, but wrapped in a custody battle for his young son, Charlie, a request from his high-ranking father-in-law forces his hand. When the reluctant spy reaches Russia, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary mission.

As Fox and Amelia fight for their lives - and their country - in Russia, Charlie is lead into dangers of his own in England.

Book 3 in the Tom Fox series.

One Russian magnate's dream of restoring a nation to greatness has set in motion a chain of events which will take the world to the brink of chaos. Only Frances Coffey, the CIA's most legendary spymaster, can prevent it. But to do so, she needs someone special. 

Enter Argylle. His life came to a crashing halt as a teenager. Since when he has been treading water, building barriers between himself and the world.

Coffey knows all about Argylle's dark past. His crash course in espionage will take him from the jungles of Thailand to the boulevards of Monaco, from the monasteries of Mount Athos to a forgotten cavern buried deep in the mountains. It is a deathly rollercoaster ride that will either make him - or break him...

For MI5 officer Liz Carlyle, the nagging complications of her private life are quickly forgotten at Monday's counter-terrorism meeting. An invisible may have entered mainland Britain.

An 'invisible' is a terrorist who is an ethnic native of the target country, who can cross its borders unchecked and move about unnoticed - the ultimate nightmare. By the time they're identified, it may be too late.

The intelligence operation that follows will test Liz to the limit. Who or what is the target? Where and who is the invisible? With each passing hour the danger increases.

But as Liz desperately sifts through the incoming intelligence, she finally realises a truth that could prove deadly: her ability to get inside her enemy's head is the only hope of averting disaster...

But the clock is ticking - and anyone could be at risk.

Book 1 in the Liz Carlyle series.

Bob Howard is a low-level techie working for a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob's under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe - but then he went and got Noticed.

Now, Bob is up to his neck in spycraft, parallel universes, dimension-hopping terrorists, monstrous elder gods and the end of the world. Only one thing is certain: it will take more than a full system reboot to sort this mess out...

Book 1 in the Laundry Files series.

A key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, one-time First Desk of MI5's Regent's Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent's Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5's radar.

Over at Slough House, the home for demoted and embittered spies, the slow horses are doing what they do best: adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation.

In a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing is the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they'll need to get their own act together before the final curtain.  Book 8 of series.

The Kalashnikov AK47. A symbol of freedom fighters and terrorists across the globe. Undercover officer Andy Knight has infiltrated an extremist group intent on bringing the rifle to Britain - something MI5 have been struggling for years to prevent. He befriends Zeinab, a young Muslim student, who is at the centre of the plot - and though Andy knows that the golden rule of undercover work is not to get emotionally attached to the target, sometimes rules are impossible to follow...

Bernard Samson is put back into the field, after 5 years of being desk-bound, to help a high-ranking ‘mole’ come over the Berlin Wall.  Book 1 of series.

Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR - even if it puts the whole world at risk. The fourth and final novel featuring the cynical, insolent narrator of The IPCRESS File sees him sent from his shabby Soho office to bone-freezing Helsinki in order to penetrate Midwinter's vast anti-Communist network - and stop a deadly virus from wiping out the planet.  Book 4 of series.

Berlin, 1933. Aspiring actress Clara Vine arrives in Berlin to find work. Through a chance meeting, she is drawn into a circle of Nazi wives, led by Magda Goebbels. British Intelligence officer Leo Quinn sees Clara as the perfect recruit to spy on her new elite friends. But then Magda reveals to Clara a dramatic secret and entrusts her with an extraordinary mission. Book 1 of series.

November, 1940. I.A. Serebin, a writer from Odessa and former decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, is on his way to Istanbul following a cryptic letter from a former lover.

Ostensibly there on official business for the International Russian Union, an emigre organisation based in Paris, he is drawn into a clandestine world of international spies and political players. With war in Europe drawing nearer, Serebin is recruited by the British secret services - his mission to stop the export of Romanian oil to Germany.

In a race against time, Serebin's journey will take him from the glittering salons of Paris to the back alleys of Bucharest and the Black Sea ports, in a covert operation to staunch the flow of oil, the precious 'blood of victory'.

1989: The Cold War will soon be over, but for BOX 88, a top secret spying agency, the espionage game is heating up. Lachlan Kite is sent to France to gather intelligence on the Lockerbie bombing. What he uncovers is terrifying…2020: Kite has been taken captive and brutally tortured. He now has a choice: reveal the truth about what happened in France thirty years earlier – or watch his family die.

Former double agent, dr Rudi Rosenharte, is summoned to Trieste by a former lover - a woman he last saw dead in her bath. Rudi is reluctant to make contact, but is forced to by the Stasi who imprison his family.

Following a gruelling operation in Paris, Liz Carlyle’s bosses post her to MI5’s counter-espionage desk, but they haven’t counted on the fallout from Putin’s incursions into the Ukraine. Liz needs to track down a Russian spy who has entered the UK before he completes his fatal mission.

After a routine security check by George Smiley civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the death he begins his own investigation meeting Fennan's widow to find out what led him to such desperation. On the very day Smiley is ordered off the enquiry he receives an urgent letter from the dead man. Do the East Germans - and their agents - know more about this man's death than the Circus previously imagined? 

The face of war is changing. The other side doesn't play by the rules much anymore. There's thinking, in some circles, that we need to play by a different set of rules too. Fresh from Afghanistan, James Bond has been recruited to a new agency. Conceived in the post-9/11 world, it operates independent of Five, Six and the MoD, with its very existence deniable. Its aim: to protect the Realm, by any means necessary. The Night Action alert calls Bond from dinner with a beautiful woman. GCHQ has decrypted an electronic whisper about an attack scheduled for later in the week: casualties estimated in the thousands, British interests adversely affected. And 007 has been given carte blanche to do whatever it takes to fulfil his mission.

At the casino in Deauville, Bond's game is baccarat, for stakes that run into millions of francs. But away from the discreet salons, it's 007 versus one of Russia's most powerful and ruthless agents.

Nicky Marlow needs a job. He's engaged to be married and the employment market in Britain in 1937 is pretty slim. So when his fiancée points out the position with an English armaments manufacturer in Italy, he jumps at the chance. Soon after he arrives, however, he learns the sinister truth about his predecessor's departure and finds himself courted by two agents with dangerously different agendas. In the process, Marlow realizes that it's not so simple just to do the job he's paid for - not in fascist Italy, on the eve of a world war.

Bernard Samson returns to Berlin in the final novel in the classic spy trilogy, FAITH, HOPE and CHARITY. Bernard continues to chip away at the mystery of his sister-in-law Tessa Kosinski's death in Berlin on the crucial night when his wife Fiona was brought out of the East.

Fighting to uncover the truth, he must also confront the key relationships in his own life: Fiona is still far from stable now that she has returned to work, and their children remain in the clutches of his wealthy and manipulative father-in-law. Meanwhile, Werner Volkmann, Bernard's friend since childhood, is reluctant to get involved in Bernard's crusade.   Book 9 of series.

Previously published as Alias Emma. MOVE FAST. STAY DARK. These are the instructions sent to new operative Emma Makepeace. She's been assigned to track down a man wanted by the Russians and bring him into MI5.

It should be easy. But the Russians have eyes everywhere. Emma knows that if spotted she and her target will be killed. What follows is a perilous chase through London's night-time streets. But in a city full of cameras, where can you hide?

It is 1942 in Cairo and Rommel is advancing steadily. All the Allies' best efforts are being thwarted by a Nazi spy and Bert Cutler, a police inspector, is sent to find the traitor.

Liz Carlyle and her Counter Terrorism unit in MI5 have been charged with the task of watching the international under-the-counter arms trade and have become increasingly concerned that extremist Al-Qaeda jihadis are building their power base ready to launch an attack. As the pressure mounts, Liz and her team must intercept illegal weapons before they get into the wrong hands.

Slow horse River Cartwright is waiting to be passed fit for work. With time to kill, and with his grandfather - a legendary former spy - long dead, River investigates the secrets of the old man's library, and a mysteriously missing book.

Regent's Park's First Desk, Diana Taverner, doesn't appreciate threats. So when those involved in a covert operation during the height of the Troubles threaten to expose the ugly side of state security, Taverner turns blackmail into opportunity.

Over at Slough House, Catherine Standish just wants everyone to play nice. But as far as Jackson Lamb is concerned, the slow horses should all be at their desks.

Because when Taverner starts plotting mischief people get hurt, and Lamb has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions and fool around, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault…

Book 9 in the Slough House series.

When Agent Osbourne ends his latest mission floating in the sea off the coast of Brittany, he is thankful to be picked up by a German E-boat, but he soon makes a startling discovery that plunges him into a deadly game of espionage and intrigue.

Arriving in Istanbul to investigate a mysterious plane crash, Thomas Kell discovers that MI6 operations in the region have been fatally compromised. Kell’s search for the mole takes him from London, to Greece, and into Eastern Europe. He will do anything to see this operation through – including putting himself, and others, in the line of fire…

Gentleman spy Henry Gresham is called to the deathbed of his archenemy, Robert Cecil, and given the task of retrieving letters that could be used against the King. Little does he realise that he is being set up, as live bait, to draw out a madman determined to destroy James I.

James 'Max' Maxted is sent on a mission for legendary German spy Fritz Lemmer, the very man who claims responsibility for the murder of Max's father. As Max travels to Scotland's remote Orkney Islands to collect a mysterious grey file from a German captain, it is life and death for all concerned. Book 2 of series.

Farideh's husband is a corporal in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, entrapped by MI6 for interrogation, but he won't talk unless Farideh is brought out of Iran. The SAS say it's too dangerous, but the director of the operation doesn't want to lose his prize. He assembles a little team of three ex-soldiers and one student drop-out who knows the language and smuggles them into Tehran...

Procane, a top Washington official, is about to defect, but until they know exactly who he is they can do nothing to stop him. In London, Tweed and SIS sit and wait!

At MI5 they call Jonas Merrick 'the eternal flame', because he never goes out. Never goes undercover, or on surveillance, or kicking down doors. But in Jonas is a steely concentration, a ruthless ability to find the enemy who hides in plain sight like a submerged crocodile. When Cameron Jilkes, a young man from a broken background, trained as a Jihadi in the harshest theatre of war comes ashore near Dover, he plans to live unnoticed, before unleashing a terrifying strike. And this time, Jonas Merrick must go out - to hunt the crocodile himself.

For Eric DeHaan, captain of the Dutch tramp freighter Noordenam, life at sea has always been his great, but not his only, love affair. Recruited by Dutch navel intelligence while in the port of Tangier, DeHaan steers his ship, disguised as a neutral Spanish freighter, through a series of secret missions for British naval interests.