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Showing posts from July, 2010

ONCE A SPY - Review

Small confession. If you throw the word 'spy' into the title of your novel, I am probably gonna read it. I have two sources for my obsession, neither of them are James Bond. Now, I love James, but I have never mistaken what 007 does for anything remotely resembling real tradecraft. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY is about the zenith of fictional spy reality. If you have not seen the 6 hour miniseries from the early 80's do yourself a favor and hole up on some rainy Saturday and let Alec Guiness as George Smiley teach you life lessons about spying for Queen and Country. The other source for me is THE SANDBAGGERS. A wonderful ITV show that played in the UK from 1978 to 1980. Both of these are hyper-realistic... or what I imagine to be hyper-realistic... depictions of the work a day world of the counter-intelligence officer. So that is the short story to why Keith Thomson's ONCE A SPY ended up on my plate. The hook for ONCE A SPY is Alzheimer's. Drummond Clark is the leg

Books Received - June 2010

It is the good fortune of The Hungry Detective to now and again receive books from publishers or their associated marketing agencies. These books were received in the month of June 2010 CRASHERS - Dana Haynes - Minotaur Books THE CHILL OF THE NIGHT - James Hayman - Minotaur Books THE BONE FIRE - Christine Barber - Minotaur Books THE DROWNING RIVER - Christobel Kent STILL MISSING - Chevy Stevens - St. Martin's Press THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY - Gianrico Carofiglio - Minotaur Books THE TILTING HOUSE - Tom Llewellyn - Tricycle Press