John le Carre - Call for the Dead

John Le Carre has defined the modern British spy novel to such an extent that it's hard to remember that his iconic creation George Smiley began as a detective. That is, Call for the Dead and the follow-up novel A Murder of Quality are classic detective novels in structure and tone, with a cast of suspects and clever twists which Smiley investigates through interviews and intuition. The books work very well on these terms: but the complexity of Smiley's character and the atmosphere of a society pinned by a fading Empire shows what was to come.

The Spoilers - Desmond Bagley

A group of disparate individuals strike back against the drugs trade: feels dated now, both in its portrayal of narcotics and the Middle East, but remains well-written and cleverly constructed and there are still some relevant themes - notably the status of the Kurdish homelands and of the tension between an effective drugs policy and the demonisation of addicts by police, media and politicians.