Yesterday's Spy: The fast-paced new suspense thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Secret Service

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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. The characterisations were adequate for a spy novel. Since the main feature of the book is based on catching and stopping the villain from carrying out his villainy, detailed characterisation was unnecessary and mercifully not provided. 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. The later quartet of books doesn't have quite the charm of the earlier ones however. I think this is mostly due to them not having the banter between working-class 'Harry' and his former upper-class boss Dawlish. Yesterday's Spy has the otherwise nameless spy operating under his old World War II Resistance name of 'Monsieur Charles.' He is sent by his current boss, ex-Marine Col. Schlegel in 'The Department,' to resume acquaintance with Steve Champion, a former ally in a French underground resistance network during World War II. Champion now makes his living from arms dealing, and is suspected of selling to terrorists and governments in the Middle East. The concern is that his latest scheme involves nuclear weapons. 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.

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.

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Sean Tower is a reporter for The Guardian. He stayed in Iran, rather than returning to university in England, partly as a rebellion against his distant father. His mother Amanda has recently died, widening the rift between father and son. Neither understands the other. However, Tehran is becoming a dangerous place. It is primarily set in the early 1950s and focuses upon Harry Tower, recently retired British Secret Service agent. In this Cold War era he is considered by his former colleagues as ‘yesterday’s spy’. During his years as a spy, neither his wife nor son were aware of what Tom did for a living. His cover was working for the Board of Trade. 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. Nothing good ever comes from a midnight phone call. 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 expose about government corruption. 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.

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 SpybraryPalmer's fall from grace, expulsion from the Service, and rough landing on Skid Row are orchestrated to induce Champion to hire him and bring him into his business operations headquartered in France, where he lives as an expatriate. Palmer renews relations with a number of their WWII comrades, some of whom suspect Champion is guilty of helping arrange terrorist operations against Israel. Before long, an attempt on Champion's life kills his driver, wounds Champion, and nearly kills Palmer. Nothing good ever comes from a midnight phone call. 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. Without spoiling the ending, Champion is indeed up to something but it is largely smoke and mirrors, an operation that today would fall into the realm of psychological warfare rather than anything that would produce actual physical harm, despite what looks like attempted theft of weapons of mass destruction. At the end of the day, an elaborate ruse has a high price tag. I like slow and plodding spy stories if they're well-written, if they've got some craft and motivation and suspense.