Best summer books of 2024: Thrillers

Moscow X by David McCloskey (Swift Press/WW Norton)

McCloskey’s follow-up to his acclaimed debut Damascus Station confirms his place in the first division of spy writers. The story roams from Moscow to Mexico and Washington, DC, as the CIA plans to bring down Putin’s money men. Steamy sex scenes, skilfully executed, add an extra layer to an enthralling read.

Beirut Station by Paul Vidich (No Exit Press/Pegasus)

Vidich writes with a serpentine elegance about the moral dilemmas of espionage in this smart tale set in Beirut in 2006. Israel and Hizbollah are at war. Analise, a Lebanese-American CIA officer, has to organise the killing of a high-level Hizbollah operative — but she is teaching English to his grandson.

Munich Wolf by Rory Clements (Zaffre)

Clements draws a vivid picture of Nazism’s birthplace in 1935, a city also full of Hitler-admiring British aristocrats. Sebastian Wolff, a murder squad detective, loathes the new regime. When a posh young Englishwoman is murdered, Wolff knows the Jewish man executed for the crime was innocent — and he keeps digging his way into danger.

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The Lifeline by Phyllis Bottome (Muswell Press)

Welcome reissue of a 1940s spy classic that stands the test of time. Bottome once taught the young Ian Fleming, and Bond may even have been inspired by Mark Chalmers, the hero of The Lifeline. Chalmers too is fluent in French and German, loves fine food and wine and beautiful women. All that plus plenty of action and intrigue.

The Red Hollow by Natalie Marlow (Baskerville)

Private detective William Garrett and his new lesbian partner Phyll Hall make an engaging double act in Marlow’s second thriller set in the Midlands in the 1930s. Red Hollow is a sanatorium whose patients are fleeing after a series of sinister disturbances. Marlow writes with a poet’s eye for language.

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