Spies and Other Gods

Former British intelligence officer Wolff follows his excellent Discipline Files trilogy with a quirky and captivating espionage thriller. The action kicks off with the British intelligence service receiving an anonymous complaint regarding a covert operation to identify the assassin who murdered 10 people across Europe. Aphra McQueen, a researcher with Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, is tasked with digging into the matter. She has barely begun her investigation when she’s falsely accused of stealing a top-secret file, and the inquest is closed. Aphra has an undisclosed personal connection to the investigation, however, so she reaches out to Zak, a British Syrian dentist, after saving his contact information from the case file. Zak is a distant acquaintance of the suspected assassin, an Iranian chemistry professor from Tehran. Aphra convinces Zak that she’s a spymaster responding to his request to join the service, which sets all the players on a dangerous collision course. Sly asides and metacommentary from a cynical narrator who’s identified only as the “spirit of spying” complement the verisimilitude Wolff brings to the proceedings. Fans of Mick Herron’s Slough House series will appreciate this. (Apr.)

Correction: A previous version of this review misidentified the Iranian chemistry professor character.