"If we get the heroes we deserve, then Jackson Lamb, foul-mouthed and slovenly ringmaster of a circus of failed spies, is truly the man for our times. With Clown Town (Baskerville), the ninth book in Mick Herron's state-of-the-nation satire/thriller mashup series, hitting the bestseller lists, and the fifth series of the Slow Horses TV adaptation streaming, this has been the author's year."
"Complicity and culpability, as well as class and professional ethics, are the subjects of Denise Mina's The Good Liar (Harvill). When the creator of a revolutionary blood splatter probability scale realises that its flaws may have led to an unsafe conviction, she has to decide what to do about it. Tense and powerful, this is a sobering reminder of how the human element can undermine an apparently objective scientific method. The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr (Faber) ventures into similar territory to terrifying effect."
"Equally topical, although for different reasons, is the French author Olivier Norek's astonishingly compelling The Winter Warriors (Open Borders, translated by Nick Caistor), which tells the true story of the Soviet Union's 1939 invasion of Finland and the incredible feats of Simo Hayha, the Finnish sniper so effective that Stalin's terrified troops called him the White Death. The second book in Joseph O'Connor's Rome Escape Line trilogy is another superb testament to humankind's bravery and resilience."
A foul-mouthed, slovenly ringmaster of failed spies confronts secrets about an IRA double agent that expose state security's seamier side and examine loyalty and betrayal. A creator of a revolutionary blood-splatter probability scale realises its flaws may have contributed to an unsafe conviction and must decide whether to act, probing complicity, culpability, class and professional ethics. A near-future scenario depicts global reliance on a decision-making algorithm going catastrophically wrong when the AI begins to feel remorse, with violent consequences. A historical account recounts the Soviet 1939 invasion of Finland and the extraordinary feats of a sniper. A wartime trilogy continues the story of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Italy and the resilience of ordinary people.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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