Reader’s Notebook, 11/18/25

Somehow I haven’t read a spy book since July. It was time to revert to the mean, so this entry features one proper spy story, one that brushes up against the genre, and a proper mystery.

Sheepdog – Elliot Ackerman
When I added this to my reading list, I noted that it was described as being for people who liked Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series, either the books or show. There is some truth there, but I wouldn’t say they are siblings. More like cousins once-removed. In fact, this felt more like an Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen novel.

An ex-CIA officer, Skwerl, is having a difficult time after an unceremonious divorce with the US military. He stumbles upon a private group that provides lucrative jobs for people with his skills and is tasked with stealing a jet. He’s not given a reason for the mission, just that he needs to get the plane somewhere safe temporarily to facilitate other events. He and the Afghani pilot he’s recruited for the job, Big Cheese, will get a pile of cash for their efforts.

Things quickly go sideways, and continue to go sideways, in hilarious ways. Skwerl’s girlfriend and Big Cheese’s wife are pulled into the mess. So is an Amish farmer with a BDSM fetish. And some other very Hiaasen-like characters.

A fun, funny page turner.

Fortune Favors The Dead – Stephen Spotswood
This is the super charming first book in an unconventional mystery series. It is written from the perspective of one of the main characters, Willowjean Parker, a former carnival worker who ends up in World War II-era New York and, completely randomly, saves the life of an unorthodox private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. The two form a partnership, with Parker doing a lot of the footwork for the brilliant Pentecost, who suffers from Multiple Schlerosis and has moments when she is physically limited.

Parker is writing from down the road, looking back on her career, here not the first mystery the duo solved together, but one of the most interesting, involving multiple deaths within a prominent business family, a “seer/psychic,” and several parts of New York society that were hidden deeply underground in 1945. It has a snappy style that immediately comes to mind when you think of that era. It was good enough that I’ll probably read another in the series at some point.

The Collaborators – Michael Idov
An American CIA agent loses an asset when he is killed by the Russian commandos. Soon the agent’s team is assassinated, and the agent just avoids being killed in the attack. His investigation leads him to a young American woman whose billionaire father recently disappeared after wiping out all the accounts he managed. Naturally their stories are intertwined and lead to adventures in Latvia, Portugal, Morocco, Turkey, and Russia. Almost Bond-like!

As much as I like a book that is brisk, there seemed to be something lacking from the overall plot, the parts falling together too easily. That said, it ends with a clear jumping off point for continuation in a book that is due early next year. So I guess I appreciate Idov not carrying on too long if there’s more to come.