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Tom Bradby’s “Yesterday’s Spy” is a very well-written spy novel set in 1953 Iran. Part historical novel, part thriller, part mystery, and part espionage tale, it is also a novel of interesting characters playing “the great game” for very high stakes. Deception has a nasty habit of eating away at people. Lying about your job to your family and neighbors. Lying to your co- workers about the work that you are doing. Lying about the work to your government who is lying about the work they don't want to know what you are doing. Lying to yourself about the importance of what you do, though all everything that exists around you is built up on a very precarious pedestal, and can fall all away with just one truth. Tom Bradby in the historical thriller Yesterday's Son shows the price of deception on one man and his attempt to fix a legacy of wrongs for his only son's safety. This I enjoyed but was very different to the trilogy, the historical information is amazing and anyone with an interest in Iranian local and world politics in the 1950’s will find it a must I have enjoyed each of the Tom Bradby novels I have read so far and would certainly recommend this one. Not only is this a finely crafted spy novel, I also learned something about the 1953 coup in Iran. Names and countries may differ, but political duplicity seems to be one constant in international affairs.
Nothing good ever comes from a midnight phone call, especially from Downing Street. For washed-up spy Harry Tower, it is the worst news at the worst possible time. His son, Sean, has gone missing in troubled Iran after writing an exposé about government corruption. Or perhaps you might want to indulge your inner secret agent with Deighton’s Bernard Sampson novels? A trilogy of trilogies set in 1980s England featuring secret agent Sampson and his wife Fiona, this exceptional series cemented Deighton as one of the top spy novelists of his time. We meet our spy, Harry, as he finds out his son has gone missing in Tehran, but what was he really doing there…Harry makes it his mission to find out with adventures and personal introspective along the way ( re his past )Riveting...with style and energy, evocative scene-setting and strong characterisation' Financial Times When Bernard Samson is woken in the middle of the night and discovers an injured man on his doorstep, he knows it will only bring trouble. It is the start of a dangerous journey to Zurich, rural Poland and the heart of a mystery that has tormented both him and his wife Fiona since they left East Berlin. A big thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I loved the last three books he had written in the Kate Henderson series so was very excited to be invited to read Tom Bradby's latest book.
Deep in the South American jungle the MAMista Marxist revolutionaries are fighting a hopeless, protracted war against a dictator – while the CIA see an opportunity. Amid the turmoil, three very different people – a doctor, a young firebrand and an educated revolutionary – find themselves thrown together and trapped at the heart of a battle where the enemy is uncertain, and there can be no winners. Their relationship has never recovered since Harry's wife's suicide, for which Sean holds his father responsible. And Harry, with his career on the verge of disintegration, needs to find him and put things right. A fast-paced spy thriller located mostly in Iran. The story is set at the time of the coup in 1953. This is an exciting read with lots of adrenaline-filled action with plenty of twists and surprises. The characters are well-drawn and whilst not necessarily likeable, are very credible. It was fascinating to learn about the history of Iran. Sean vanished after his car was involved in an incident at a small village, there are signs of a struggle and a crash. With the help of Shahnaz, Sean’s girlfriend, the daughter of a general friendly to the Shah’s cause, Harry sets about navigating the local quagmire for the truth. Did Sean upset the city’s police chief, were his articles critical of the regime his downfall and where do the Russians figure in all this? Harry has his own secrets and all he has to go on is a cryptic note left on Sean’s desk. A sunken U-Boat has lain undisturbed on the Atlantic ocean floor since the Second World War – until now. Inside its rusting hull, among the corpses of top-rank Nazis, lie secrets people will kill to obtain.My thanks to Random House U.K. Transworld Publishers for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Yesterday’s Spy’ by Tom Bradby. This is the tenth novel by Bradby, a British political journalist and correspondent. Now, Harry has secretly flown to Tehran to find his son, a novice journalist for the Manchester Guardian, who has been kidnapped. There, he pursues first one lead to his son, then another, encountering lies at every turn. Meanwhile, he finds that MI6 is attempting to frame him as a scapegoat for missions that went wrong during and after World War II. The emerging story of the forces behind the coup, including both British and Americans as well as senior figures in the Iranian police and army. This is a love story because it’s about Harry and Amanda and Sean and Shahnaz. Amanda committed suicide and Bradby blends her story into the relationship between father and son very skilfully. Can Harry not only find Sean but reconcile with him about the family’s past? Both this and the spy story work. Thank you to the author, Grove Atlantic and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Long-suffering spy Bernard Samson has, against all the odds, enticed a Soviet agent to defect to London – but this proves to be the start of something even bigger. For he learns that there is treachery within his own Service, and no one is free from suspicion. To discover who really controls the game of spies, he must attempt a desperate gamble. Sinister rumors link clandestine Arab arms dealing with the man who led the old anti-Nazi Guernica network. It's time to re-open the master file on yesterday's spy…' Len Deighton's ‘Yesterdays Spy' is the subject of the latest Brush Pass Review on Spybrary Mr. Bradby’s treatment of Iranian settings and Iran’s society, politics, foreign affairs, and economy in 1953 is first-rate. He skillfully depicts life in Teheran where modern automobiles share the roads with donkeys and camels, spicy aromas drift on the wind from bazaars, and chic western styles of dress and grooming co-exist uneasily with traditional Muslim garb. With the Cold War drawing to a close in the East, Bernard Samson is still haunted by the events that have turned his life upside down over the last ten years. But when he takes a train from Moscow to Berlin, he stumbles across a clue that may lead him to the truth at last – even though, in finding the answers, he could lose everything.I am grateful to the author and Grove Atlantic for granting me access to an ARC in return for an honest review. As a fan of Mr. Bradby's earlier Kate Henderson series, I was disappointed by this story. I knew little about the 50s politics in the Middle East, particularly Iran, so the plot was new to me. It made for a good potential story of the cold war in a different venue. That potential was not realized, with much more of a focus on James Bond-esque action with little character development. I was used to Mr. Bradby's use of moral ambivalence in his previous novels, but this story did not build on its premise. Enjoyed this episode of Spybrary? Come and talk Spy books and movies with other spy fans in our private Spybrary listeners facebook group More Links and Resources on Yesterday's Spy and Len Deighton The spy thriller is often a runaway train of an adventure where agents need to think on their feet and improvise. This is at odds with the world of espionage where the less charismatic and forgettable players are, the best suited to engage in double dealing and subterfuge, they would be. Bradby’s modern trilogy, including Secret Service, was complex, with each new novel re-examining the events of the last but from new perspectives. This is a more straightforward narrative. Full credit to Bradby for exploring the less well-known milieu of Iran in the 1950s. It feels like this is an idea that fired his imagination and has an energy and drive that is easy to get caught up in. This is not le Carré but it has a literary tinge to it and is beautifully easy to read. Has Sean been taken because of the story he wrote, or because of a story he has planned? Or could his abduction be related to Harry’s own intelligence activities? Harry has history in Iran, and enemies. Harry’s travel to Iran 1953 may have been unofficial but his presence is noticed by both friends and enemies.
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