Alger Hiss, the Soviet spy at the center of my novel, Gods of Deception, hardly fits the mold of his contemporaries, such infamous Cold War agents as Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, Donald Maclean, and John Cairncross (the Cambridge Five), who were all plagued by fears of exposure, alcoholism, and some would say self-hate…
I believe a more apt title for this novel would have been—”Cold War Reboot“. This is due to the fact that the narrative and style applied by the author make the reader feel like they could be back in the 1960s. In fact, one of the characters drives a classic car that still has an…
Before I go any further, a confession: This was the first Elmore Leonard novel I’ve ever read. Of course, I knew about Leonard’s work—I’m not a complete philistine. I knew he was the master of fast, authentic dialogue. Crime fiction’s valedictorian of voice. And I’d seen the famous films made from his books, including Get…
The Cold War had grown hot. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev considered the young U.S. president John F. Kennedy to be weak and fearful of war. Consequently, the Eastern Bloc constructed an 87-mile wall of concrete and barbed wire that divided Berlin, Germany, into eastern and western sections in 1961. The Soviets believed that Kennedy and…
Charmian “Charlie” Ross is an insecure, hard-partying actress, so there should be plenty of people in Hollywood who could handle the part. Yet, there are reasons why this John le Carré character has been such a tricky role to cast. The author himself has stated he based Ross on his half-sister, actress Charlotte Cornwell, whom…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! John le Carré's first George Smiley in 27 years and the 45th In Death novel from J. D. Robb highlight an incredible…
It has been nearly 30 years since George Smiley’s last appearance in The Secret Pilgrim. Here’s a refresher of the master spy’s collected adventures. Call for the Dead (1961) Samuel Fennan—a civil servant who had been anonymously accused of being a communist—committed suicide following a routine security check conducted by Smiley. Smiley’s boss, Maston,…
If you’ve made your name writing about Cold War espionage, what do you do when the Cold War ends? If you’re John le Carré, you take a vacation, and then you turn your attention to all the other bad subterranean business in the world. The Night Manager was le Carré’s first post-Soviet novel, showing that…
