King Zero by Charlie Higson, Hardback, £22
The identity of the next big screen James Bond might be a closely guarded secret… but who cares when there are books as thrilling as this one keeping the literary franchise alive. With King Zero, Charlie Higson has written one of the finest 007 continuation stories yet, a super-charged action adventure that is both bang up to date while remaining true to the Bond universe. The death of a former double-oh agent during a remote operation when a robot surgeon is hacked with brutal consequences sends Bond on a jet-setting adventure to the Saudi desert and the Maldives.
Everything points to a massive conspiracy to destroy technology, but can Bond work out what is going on in time? An explosive showdown in an archetypal English village in the heart of the Congo will leave readers shaken and stirred. As good as Ian Fleming and then some. 9/10.
Adam And Eve by Jeffrey Archer, Hardback, £22
More than half a century after Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less was published, the master storyteller is bowing out at the age of 85 with his final novel. And it’s a cracker. Critics might have sneered at his writing over the years but no one constructs a thriller like Archer, with twisty plots, red herrings and delicious coincidences. On those grounds, Adam And Eve does not disappoint. Sharing the premise of two children with dramatically different social prospects born on the same day – in this case, November 11, 1918, the final day of the First World War – Adam And Eve has been described as a bookend to 1979’s best-selling Kane And Abel.
Like much of Archer’s output, themes of family, power, money, social position and birthright take centre stage with startling drama. A fine page turner to bow out on. 8/10
London Station by David McClosky, Hardback, £20
McClosky’s hard-drinking, candy-snacking, shotgun-toting CIA station chief Artemis Proctor is easily the greatest creation in spy fiction since Mick Herron’s Slow Horses introduced Jackson Lamb and London Station is another tour-de-force. Sent to London on a punishment detail by a new (unnamed) US administration, Proctor must navigate the increasingly dysfunctional relationship between age-old allies. George Smiley, she ain’t. With the ‘special relationship’ on its knees, the spies are spying on one another with disastrous consequences.
With his gift for clairvoyance, the former CIA analyst turned bestselling author has caught the zeitgeist of strained trans-Atlantic relations perfectly with a plot as tense and thrilling as a Cold War spy swap and some truly exceptional writing. Like Herron, McCloskey never loses his lightness of touch despite a rising bodycount and some gruesome deaths. Grips like a boa constrictor! 9/10
The Saffron Thief by T L Mogford, Hardback, £18.99
With his eye for a great historical yarn, Mogford takes readers back in time to the 17th century when England was at the centre of the world saffron trade. It’s 1666 in the wake of the Great Fire of London and Fabian Smith has lost his father to the flames and his fortune to his reckless brother’s poor judgement. With saffron selling for an eye-watering £4 a pound, he hatches a plot to steal a fortune and save his family.
Set between London and Saffron Walden, Essex, home to the English trade in the priceless spice, within a wealth of historical detail, this is a thrilling heist novel by any other name. The pace never lets up in this gripping historical novel that will spice up your bedtime reading no end. Kicks off a new series with more to follow. 8/10
