Spybrary Spy Podcast

In this episode of the Spybrary Spy Podcast, Shane Whaley is joined by fellow Spybrarian and Head of Boston Station, Joe Modzelewski, to welcome bestselling espionage author Charles Cumming back to the show.

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Charles joins Spybrary to discuss his new Lachlan Kite thriller, ICARUS 17, released on 2 July in the UK and 7 July in the United States. Billed as a nail-biting new entry in the BOX 88 series, ICARUS 17 sees Kite pulled back into fieldwork when Martha Rain, a woman from his past, asks for his help in finding her missing son, Max.


Max and his girlfriend Yasmine have disappeared in Athens, but they are not simply missing. They are on the run, hunted by two rival agencies with orders to kill. The secret they are carrying could destabilise the Middle East for a generation, and if Kite fails to save them, the consequences will be catastrophic.

Alongside the new novel, Shane and Joe talk with Charles about his writing process, his approach to writing modern espionage fiction, and his experiences working in the writers' rooms of some of the spy television shows and films enjoyed by Spybrary listeners.

Nine years after nervously recording episode one, Shane Whaley celebrates a major Spybrary Spy Podcast milestone: episode 300.

In this reflective and forward-looking episode, Shane shares how Spybrary began, why the community has kept it going, and what comes next for the Spybrary spy podcast.
Full shownotes at www.spybrary.com/300

Brad Thor has sold over 25 million thriller books. Tim Shipman welcomes Brad Thor on Spybrary to discuss Choke Point, the 25th Scot Harvath thriller, and the evolution of Scott Harvath from post-9/11 counterterrorism operator. Thor explains how the new novel uses Thailand, China's ambitions, the Strait of Malacca, sabotage, bomb-making, and geopolitical manipulation as the backdrop for a fast-moving thriller.

The conversation also digs into Thor's writing process, his research network of intelligence, military, law enforcement, and diplomatic sources, and how he builds authentic detail even when he has not personally visited a location. Thor reflects on his early career as a travel show host, the honeymoon conversation that pushed him to write his first novel, his friendship with Vince Flynn, the collaborative thriller Cold Zero with Ward Larsen, and the Netflix film adaptation currently in development.



Key Topics and Themes

Brad Thor's 25th Scot Harvath thriller, Choke Point
China's Belt and Road Initiative and global infrastructure influence
Thailand, the Strait of Malacca, and the strategic value of a Thai canal
The evolution of Scot Harvath
Post-9/11 thriller fiction and the rise of the American action-spy hero
Real-world tradecraft, bomb-making research, and responsible thriller detail
Writing geopolitical thrillers that teach readers something without slowing the pace
Bangkok as an underused spy-fiction setting
Collaboration with Ward Larsen on Cold Zero
The Netflix adaptation of Cold Zero
British spy-fiction influences: Fleming, le Carré, Forsyth, MacLean, Deighton
Brad Thor Official Website
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Buy Choke Point
The Top 125 Spy Authors Ranked and Rated by Tim Shipman
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What happens when Britain fights the Cold War with typewriters, fake pamphlets, covert publishers, and even pretend hippies?

On this episode of Spybrary's Cold War Spy Files, Shane Whaley talks with historian Rory Cormac about his book Fakers: A Top Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Line.and the extraordinary true story of the Information Research Department — Britain's secret propaganda and forgery machine.
A fascinating dive into Cold War deception, disinformation, and 'state-sanctioned skullduggery.' The conversation opens the file on Britain's Cold War covert propaganda machine, especially the little-known Information Research Department — the IRD — a blandly named Foreign Office unit involved in unattributable propaganda, forgeries, fake groups, and intelligence laundering.


Professor Cormac explains how the IRD moved far beyond ordinary government messaging, creating forged pamphlets, fake political organisations, covert publishing operations, and disinformation campaigns designed to expose or disrupt Soviet influence worldwide. The episode is packed with strange-but-true stories, from British officials posing as hippies to disrupt a Soviet-backed youth festival in Bulgaria, to the painstaking forensic details of typewriters, staples, paper, and fonts used in Cold War forgery work.

 

The discussion also highlights the unusual people behind these operations: refugees, journalists, women, fixer-agents, propagandists, and oddball bureaucrats working in the shadows of British foreign policy. Rather than focusing on famous spies or prime ministers, Fakers reveals the human texture of covert influence work: the hustlers, handlers, writers, typists, and paper experts who helped wage Britain's secret propaganda war.

Buy Fakers by Rory Cormac
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Cold War Spy Files
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