Showing titles in Spies & Politics

It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West's spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy. But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found.

Evan Smoak doesn’t have many friends. Goes with the territory for a former off-the-books government assassin. He certainly can’t afford to fall out with the best of them. But Tommy Stojack, a gifted quartermaster whom Evan trusts and relies on, has crossed a line. And when Evan tries to confront him, instead of robust conversation, he comes under attack. Now it’s war. Tommy’s got other things on his mind, though. He promised a dying comrade that he’d be there for the man’s son, and now the boy’s got himself into a world of trouble.

When Dwayne and Alice Odom are killed, the police report states clearly that it was a drug overdose. So why is their daughter, who was there when they died, claiming that’s not the truth? Betsy Odom doesn’t trust the police but when she finds herself in the FBI’s custody after her parents’ deaths, she knows she has to be careful. Her uncle wants to adopt her and as he is a very rich and powerful man, she wants to let him. His criminal connections, however, mean the authorities aren’t so sure.

A winter sunrise over the great plains of Russia is no cause for celebration. The temperature barely rises above zero, and the guards at Penal Colony IK22 are determined to take their misery out on the prisoners—chief among them, one Zoya Zakharova. Once a master spy for Russian foreign intelligence, then the partner and lover of the Gray Man, she has information the Kremlin wants, and they don't care what they have to do to get it.

Post-university life doesn’t suit Phyl. Time passes slowly living back home with her parents, working a zero-hour contract serving Japanese food to holidaymakers at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. As for her budding plans of becoming a writer, those are going nowhere. That is, until family friend Chris comes to stay. He’s been on the path to uncover a sinister think-tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, that’s been scheming to push the British government in a more extreme direction. One that’s finally poised to put their plans into action.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s new elite schools. Her daughters are exactly like her: beautiful, ambitious and perfect. A good thing, since the recent mandate that’s swept the country is all about perfection. Now everyone must undergo routine tests for their quotient, Q, and any children who don’t measure up are placed into new government schools. Instead, teachers can focus on the gifted.

The complete, unabridged audiobook of A Feast for Crows. HBO’s hit series A Game of Thrones is based on George R. R. Martin’s internationally best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A Feast for Crows is the fourth volume in the series. The Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne. The war in the Seven Kingdoms has burned itself out, but in its bitter aftermath new conflicts spark to life.

Do you need my help? It was always the first question he asked. They called him when they had nowhere else to turn. Raised and trained as part of a top-secret programme, he was sent to the worst places in the world to do things his government denied any knowledge of. Then he broke with the programme and disappeared. But now someone's on his tail. Someone who knows he was once known simply as Orphan X.

A lorry crashes on a dark, wet road. In the wake of the tragedy, a dying man receives another chance at life - but does he really deserve it? And if he lives, will those around him wish he hadn't? When critically ill Jacob Wilson has a heart transplant, his behaviour becomes very strange. His worried parents and girlfriend try their best to understand his sudden mood swings, but as things worsen, they begin to live in terror of what they might find in their son's bedroom next - and as Jacob's personality morphs, so, too, do the lives of those around him....

The complete collection of acclaimed BBC Radio dramas based on John le Carré's best-selling novels, starring Simon Russell Beale as George Smiley. With a star cast including Kenneth Cranham, Eleanor Bron, Brian Cox, Ian MacDiarmid, Anna Chancellor, Hugh Bonneville and Lindsay Duncan, these enthralling dramatisations perfectly capture the atmosphere of le Carré's taut, thrilling spy novels.

James Bond is targeted for elimination by SMERSH, and the malevolent Colonel Rosa Klebb has set a trap in Istanbul. The bait is the Spektor decoding machine, which is to be delivered by the irresistible Tatiana Romanova. The assassin is Red Grant, a psychopath who has defected from the West. Bond and Tatiana become pawns in a game of cross and double-cross that reaches its deadly finale on the Orient Express.

When 007 goes to Harlem it’s not just for the jazz. This is the kingdom of Mr Big, master of crime, voodoo baron and partner in SMERSH’s grim company of death. Those who Mr Big cannot possess, he crushes – like his beautiful prisoner, Solitaire, and her would-be saviours James Bond and Agency man, Felix Leiter. All three are marked out as victims in a trail of terror, treachery and torture that leads from New York’s underworld to the shark-infested island in the sun that Mr Big calls his own.

The Moonraker project has a millionaire backer, the war hero Sir Hugo Drax - a man who, it seems, cheats at cards. With a ballistic rocket at stake, Sir Hugo’s exposure could threaten Britain’s latest defence system, so James Bond is asked to investigate. Moving from London’s most exclusive gambling club to a missile silo on the Channel coast, 007 and his Special Branch assistant, Gala Brand, discover there’s more to Drax than meets the eye.

A game of canasta turns out crooked and a golden girl ends up dead. It seems that Auric Goldfinger is a bad loser when it comes to cards. He’s also the world’s most ruthless and successful gold smuggler. As James Bond follows his trail, he discovers that Goldfinger’s real game is the heist of fifteen billion dollars of US government bullion. The final hand is played at Fort Knox, in a spectacular display of deception and intrigue.

The last of John Buchan’s thrillers and the final appearance of Richard Hannay now in retirement reverie deep in the comfortable Cotswolds.However, he and Sandy [Lord Clanroyden] are roused to action once more to help the son of a recently deceased treasure hunter, called Haraldsen. The heir is receiving threats from Lancelot Troth, a man who believes himself ill treated financially by Haraldsen’s father and seeks revenge and reparation.

James Bond seems unable to function after the death of his wife. Determined to restore 007 to the effective agent he used to be, M sends him on a mission to Japan, to the mysterious ‘Castle of Death’ and into the lair of an old and terrifying enemy. For Bond and Blofeld, this will be their final encounter. Only one of them can survive.

Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leader of the terrorist organisation SPECTRE, has hijacked an American plane loaded with atomic weapons. Unless his demands are met he will destroy one of the world’s major cities. With only one week to locate the missing bombs, Bond goes to the Bahamas where he encounters Blofeld’s right-hand man, Emilio Largo and his mistress Domino. With time running out, Bond learns that sharks are not the only killers in the Caribbean Sea.

London rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one. Cover your arse. Regent's Park's First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he's facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote and now has his sights set on Number 10; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble.

To his many thousands of fans, ex-SAS officer Ben Hope stands tall as a warrior, a protector of the innocent, a defender of those in need, relentless in his pursuit of those who exploit others or prey on the weak. But Ben is also a man all too aware of his own flaws and weaknesses – a man who knows to become unstoppable, he needs the right team to put together in a crisis. With his network of mavericks, experts and daredevils, he’s always ready to risk life and liberty for the right cause, wherever in the world that call might take him.

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history.