First published 1993. Coronet paperback, 1994, pp 383, c.130,000 words. Gavin Lyall wrote a series of successful thrillers from the 1940s through to the 1990s. Initially they were in the in the Alistair McLean and Hammond Innes mould of ordinary people sucked in to some extraordinary situation. A number were set in the world of […]
Spy’s Honour — Gavin Lyall Read More »
First published 1977. Fontana, paperback, 1988, pp 338, c.110,000 words. Unusually for Innes this book has no sea voyages, with only one very brief scene involving a raft on a lake. It is a book set in the heart of East Africa – big game country. While the main characters are white, the winds of
Big Footprints, The — Hammond Innes Read More »
First published 2006. Bloomsbury, paperback, 2012, pp325, c.115,000 words. I remember enjoying this when I first read it some ten years ago. Boyd is a writer who I greatly admire and has ranged widely across the genres of contemporary fiction. This is his spy thriller, the spy element mainly taking place between 1939 and 1941
Restless — William Boyd Read More »
First published 1996. Pan, paperback, 1997, pp 437, c.120,000 words. Innes was around 83 when this, his last book, was published – the last of thirty books of fiction and three of non-fiction. It contains much that is familiar from his earlier thrillers, with taut writing, high adventure and exotic settings, as well as some
Delta Connection — Hammond Innes Read More »
First Published 1961. Pan, paperback, 1971, pp 237, c.90,000 words. This was Lyall’s first novel, and it was an immediate success. It allowed him to give up journalism and become a full-time writer. It is a classic thriller of the period, described in the blurb on the back as being ‘up to date’ but now
Wrong Side of the Sky, The — Gavin Lyall Read More »
First published, 1960. Pan, paperback, 1971, pp. 285, c.85,000 words. What a charming book this is. How unusual to find a story that has real narrative drive but where no one is truly bad; actually they are all decent people. The hero of this tale is a small man in the sense that he has
Trustee from the Toolroom — Nevil Shute Read More »
First published 1972. Harper Collins, paperback, 2020, pp 312, c.85,000 words. This is another ‘almost Bagley’. Along with Juggernaut and Night of Error, he didn’t publish this and it was only found in his document archive, held at the Boston University in the USA in 2017, by Philip Eastwood, a Bagley devotee. Along with a
Domino Island — Desmond Bagley Read More »
First published 1947. Fontana, paperback, 1988, pp 272, c.90,000 words. This story was originally written as a radio serial and later re-written into book form. It retains some of the distinctly episodic structure of the original which makes for a slightly uneven read. The plot starting point is full of promise and originality: Towards the
Maddon’s Rock — Hammond Innes Read More »
First published 2019. Penguin, paperback, 2020, pp 366, c.90,000 words. This is classic Le Carré and one of his best. We are back in the world of MI6 and something smells bad. Our hero – for once not a public-school boy – is a former runner of agents in eastern Europe and is being shuffled
Agent Running in the Field — John Le Carre Read More »
First published 1985. Fontana, paperback, 1986, pp 320, c.105,000 words. This is a classic Desmond Bagley thriller. It was nearly completed in 1970, immediately after Running Blind, however Bagley seems to have felt that he had written himself into a corner and couldn’t immediately find a suitable ending. He put the manuscript aside with the
Juggernaut — Desmond Bagley Read More »