David WolstencroftReseñas

This is a spy thriller book set in London.
Two men Charlie and George are both spies they are stationed in a photo developing booth in Oxford circus tube station. They find out they are both spies and that they have been tasked to kill each other. MI5 have made a bit of a balls up. They eventually after trying to kill each other team up, they cant really trust their bosses and escape over to France, then Canada. They have one alley called Neil who works for the service too, Charlie was at school with him. They head to Canada because George has money hidden there and its a big wilderness.
Meanwhile back in London the Spy Bosses know Neil helped them escape and they are onto him.
All is looking good for Charlie and George but George tries to shoot Charlie with a boobytrapped gun that Charlie tampered with. Charlie escapes with the money.
Neil also survives but is quite seriously injured. Charlie sends him a postcard.

very confusing, strange and not very satisfying

David Wollstencroft is best known for having created the successful BBC television series, Spooks. It is perhaps less well known that he had also previously been Alexander Armstrong’s original comedy act partner.

Before creating Spooks, he wrote two espionage novels, the first of which was Good News, Bad News. I am a huge fan of spy novels, and I think it is fair toi say that, whatever he might subsequently have achieved, this book is not a marvellous addition to the oeuvre.

To be fair, it does take a fresh perspective on the field, and features an amusing and engaging plotting device, although I feel I can’t say much more without straying into unwelcome potential spoiler territory. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the twist he uses is sufficient to sustain a novel of this length.

I can't absolutely remember if I watched episode 10, and thanks to the Guardian recaps I realise I haven't and I have no problem returning the series without having watched it. I find I don't care, and should have realised when I fell asleep during my first viewing of episode 3 that I should have given up then, but no I put myself through several more hours of this. Not my thing.

Louis XIV decides that he's going to create a sumptuous palace in Versailles and discovers that just because he decides to do it doesn't mean that it's going to be easy, while dealing with internal politics and external politics and sex, lots of sex. It features a lot of nasty people that I had no real empathy for or eventual interest in. This was a pity as this should be my sort of thing.

Funnily enough I finished this book just after I had watched the third and final episode of a legal thriller written by the same author, but whereas that was clever, well written and fast paced; this is boring, dull and tediously slow. I was lured into this book by the author's CV but to quote a hero "I Won't Get Fooled Again", nuff said!

A bout of insomnia meant this raid on the older TBR pile got finished a couple days early. I enjoyed this debut novel by the writer of the BBC series MI5 (Spooks in the UK). A twisty contemporary spy thriller shows this author's promise. Well-drawn characters, non-stop action, and deep insights into the world of spy-craft make this a most satisfying read.

This plays with a host of established spy story plots while communicating the mundanity of espionage without itself being hackneyed.

Quite an enjoyable, easy to read spy thriller. It took a while to get going, but once it did it made you want to keep reading. The plot was a bit vague, the characters somewhat two dimensional but overall fairly good. If you like spy novels you'll like this one, if you've never tried spy novels this might be a good one to start with.½

A great little thriller of two spies trying to escape death and the politics that brought them into that predicament. Beginning is a little slow, but the rest is fast-paced and entertaining½

Yes. This is a book written by one of the creators of Spooks. Yes. It is also a spy book, which I seem to have developed a strange liking for over the last few weeks. And yes. This one is added to the list of the enjoyed.

Contact Zero tells the story of four probationary M16 officers, out on their first assignment. Things go terribly wrong, and they end up disowned by their country and their service. All alone in different parts of the world, with lots of people trying to kill them. The only hope that have is a possibly mythical 'group' known as Contact Zero - run by spies, for the spies.

I'm not going to say anything more about the plot, because there are wonderful twists and turns the whole way through. The whole thing revolves around trust - the trust they have for each other, for the people they meet, and for their superiors back in England. There's some great moments of suspense in the book, but there's also a real strength to the characters - they're interesting and compelling and you want to know more about them.

This is Wolstencroft's second book and I'm now hunting madly for the first one. It's a nice inclusion in the spy genre (and Spooks writers will see possible crossovers), and one I thoroughly enjoyed.½

A brilliant debut novel. Wolstencroft takes the spy-thriller genre and re-creates it for a new generation. Suspense, action and even comedy are thrown in the mix in this book, if you've never read a spy-thriller novel before this is probably the best place to start.

Fiction