SpyMasters

Simon Conway talks to SpyMasters about The British Agent, Afghanistan, conspiracy, Chuff, bomb disposal, US politics...

THE BRITISH AGENT: A SPY ALONE. AN ENEMY WITHIN.

A veteran American spymaster weaving an elaborate web.

A politician who makes a high-stakes promise he can’t keep.

A clutch of sophisticated air defence missiles stolen in Ukraine.

A terrorist cell with plans to commit an outrage in the US capital.

And, at the centre of it all, a British agent, operating alone and undercover, on a desperate, globe-trotting mission to prevent catastrophe.

She cannot fail . . .

Recommends: EJ SWIFT When There Are Wolves Again

Mention Michael Idov Collaborators, James Wolff Spies and Other Gods.

Paul Burke is Editor of Aspects of Crime. His first book Spies on Screen will be published later this year.
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Charles Cumming talks to Paul Burke about his new novel Icarus 17, latest in the Box 88 series, The Day of the Jackal, A Spy by Nature, Thomas Kell, Geopolitics in the novel, post-Cold War spy fiction dip, touring Eastern Europe before The Wall fell, Plane and not meeting Jason Statham.

Icarus 17: As director of covert intelligence agency Box 88, Lachlan Kite is at the apex of his espionage career. But when Martha Raine – a woman he hasn’t seen in twenty years – begs for his help, Kite finds himself back in the game, racing to avert disaster. Kite must find Martha’s son, Max, who vanished in Athens with his girlfriend, Yasmine. But the couple aren’t just missing, they’re running for their lives. Two rival agencies are hunting them, both with orders to kill on sight. Max and Yasmine are carrying a dizzying secret, one which could pull apart the foundations of the Middle East for a generation. If Kite fails to save them, the costs – both personal and professional – will be catastrophic.



Charles Cumming is a British writer of spy fiction. Educated at Eton and the University of Edinburgh where he graduatednwith 1st Class Honours in English Literature. The Observer has described him as "the best of the new generation of British spy writers who are taking over where John le Carré and Len Deighton left off". In 1995, Charles Cumming was approached for recruitment by the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). A Spy By Nature, a novel partly based on his experiences with MI6, was published in 2001. The novel's hero, Alec Milius, is a flawed loner in his early 20s who is recruited by MI6 to sell doctored research data on oil exploration in the Caspian Sea to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 2001, Charles Cumming moved to Madrid. His second novel, The Hidden Man, came out in 2003. The Spanish Game, 2006, Typhoon, 2008, The Trinity Six, 2011.
A Foreign Country, 2012, was named the first Scottish Crime Book of the Year at the inaugural Bloody Scotland Festival in Stirling in September 2012. It also won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller of 2012. A Colder War, 2014. A Divided Spy, 2016. The Man Between (published in
the US as 'The Moroccan Girl') was published in 2018. In 2020 Cumming released BOX 88, followed by JUDAS 62 (2021), KENNEDY 35 (2023) and ICARUS 17 (2026). Charles Cumming was also the screenwriter of the Gerard Butler action movie 'Plane' and was part of the writing team responsible for the first season of the hit TV series 'The Day of the Jackal.

Recommended: Bruce Chatwin, Martin Amis, John Cheever, Philip
Roth, Henry Porter, David McCloskey. Ian Fleming and Frame 37 both by
Nicholas Shakespeare, The Peacock and the Sparrow IS Berry, The Bureau, The Agency.

Paul Burke is the editor of Aspects of Crime and the presenter
of Spymasters. His first book Spies on Screen will be published this year.





Icarus
17: Lachlan
Kite should have left fieldwork behind by now.

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Johan Wennström talks to Paul Burke about The Stay Behinds: Sweden's Cold War Guardians.

The Stay Behinds: Packed with first-hand accounts and previously classified government documents, this book reveals the secrets of Sweden's resistance network, created to deter a potential Soviet occupation.Following World War II, Sweden faced the looming threat of the Soviet Union and its drive to spread communism. This led to the formation of a resistance movement involving Sweden's intelligence service, the employers' association and the labour movement. The stay-behind network was fully legalised in 1955 and continued its clandestine work until the mid-1990s, with the mission of keeping communism – and the Soviets – out of Sweden.Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with key figures, author Johan Wennström peels back the layers of secrecy surrounding the stay-behinds. This book looks at the men who created the network, the work the operatives carried out, the cell-like structure they relied on, and how the US and UK intelligence communities cooperated with the Swedish stay-behinds. This is the first in-depth study of a secret organization that helped shape modern Sweden. It also highlights lessons for today's NATO and makes the case for a defence policy grounded in national interest.

Forthcoming Audio The Stay Behinds Spotify.com

Johan Wennström: is a research fellow at the Swedish Defence University and an occasional contributor to UnHerd. He is one of Sweden's most prominent commentators on alliance politics and European security.

Paul Burke is the presenter of Spymasters. His first book Spies on Screen will be published later this year.

Produced by Junkyarddog
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Former FBI Director JAMES COMEY talks to Paul Burke about his novel RED VERDICT, The FBI, being a socially adept introvert, Russian operations in America, the inspiration for Nora and Benny and The Kansas City Massacre.

RED VERDICT THE MURDER OF THE YEAR. THE TRIAL OF THE CENTURY.An influential defense company executive sits down for dinner at an exclusive restaurant in Manhattan. It's the last meal he will ever eat.The food was spiked with Novichok in a hit that suggests Russian involvement. It sends a chilling message to the FBI – but what, exactly? And why kill this man now?Deputy US Attorney Nora Carleton launches a criminal investigation into the most dangerous individuals she has ever faced, putting herself and her family in the crosshairs of forces determined to keep their secrets buried.If she can't land a guilty verdict, she risks losing more than her life – the security of the entire country will be compromised.

James Comey served as the seventh Director of the FBI, from 2013 until May 9, 2017, when he was fired by Donald Trump. A Yonkers, New York native, Jim Comey attended the College of William and Mary and the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, Comey returned to New York and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. There, he took on numerous crimes, most notably organized crime in the case of the United States v. John Gambino, et al. Afterwards, Comey became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he handled the high-profile case that followed the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. military’s Khobar Towers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Comey returned to New York after 9/11 to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. At the end of 2003, he was tapped to be the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and moved to the Washington, D.C. area.

Comey left DOJ in 2005 to serve as General Counsel and Senior Vice President at defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Five years later, he joined Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut-based investment fund, as its General Counsel. In early 2013, Comey became a Lecturer in Law, a Senior Research Scholar, and Hertog Fellow in National Security Law at Columbia Law School. After he was fired as FBI Director, Comey held the King Lecture Chair in Public Policy at Howard University for 2017-18 and served as a Distinguished Lecturer in Public Policy at William and Mary for 2018-2019. In September 2020, his first book, "A Higher Loyalty," was made into a Showtime limited series, "The Comey Rule."

Recommended Ann Patchett The Patron Saint of Liars

Paul Burke is the presenter of Spymasters. His first book Spies on Screen will be published later this year.
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Andrew Rosenheim talks about his contemporary spy thriller The Interpreter's Secret, AI in publishing, kindle, literary games on the page, cat and mouse chases.

The Interpreter's Secret: in Stockholm for a G20 summit, the interpreter Thomas Weaver is summoned by the White House Chief of Staff to an off-the-record meeting with a Russian general. Expecting routine diplomacy, what Weaver gets instead is a chilling glimpse into a secret arrangement between Washington and the Kremlin. Warned never to divulge what has been said, Weaver discovers he has accidentally recorded the meeting – the only evidence that it took place. Now under threat, he escapes to the safety of a friend’s house in the English countryside, and then on to London. Yet even there he senses danger. Unsure where to turn, Weaver finds unexpected help from the enigmatic Lily Churchill, whose own loyalties are a mystery. As the two begin to grasp the significance of what Weaver has heard, he and Lily are forced to go underground to hide from their unknown pursuers, who seem determined to silence Weaver for good. The Interpreter’s Secret is a sophisticated literary thriller about corruption, conspiracy, and the lethal confusions of language.

Mentions: Alan Parks Gunner, James Dickey, John le Carré, JAMES WOLFF SPIES AND OTHER GODS

Paul Burke is the editor of Aspects of Crime. His first book Spies on Screen will be published later this year.
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