A Treachery of Spies

Thanks Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and netgalley for this ARC.

Manda Scott always amazing me with how seamless she weaves the past and present in her novels. This novel will blow you away. It's one of those books you don't want to end but can't stop reading. The characters all come alive, the suspense is just right, and misery, pain, and joy are felt by the reader.

This book is a rival for some of the great Le Carré novels.

Meticulously researched and suspenseful, this book brings together three of my favourite book categories: spy thriller, police crime procedural and historical fiction. The writing is superb and it's a tightly-plotted and complex novel. I loved the characters - particularly Police Inspector Picaut, who gets stuff done and at the same time, is flawed enough to be a real human.

The novel passes smoothly from the 1940s to present-day and moves between France and Great Britain, with the majority of the novel set in France. The historical detail is such that the reader feels like they are there in the 1940s - it's so visceral. I particularly enjoyed those chapters and in many ways, preferred the past in the book and was keen to get back there - the plotting was particularly tight in these sections and it's so apparent that Scott has built her book around research on the French Resistance.

I had not read the first Picaut novel and did not realise this was part of a series. This book can easily be read as a stand-alone - I had no trouble following it.

This writing is so good that I was disappointed to have finished the book. More please!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and Manda Scott for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m afraid that I’m very cynical about celebrity endorsements, so when Mick Herron (much as I love his books) says “The most exciting, involving thriller I've read in an age, and I can't recommend it highly enough” and Simon Mayo adds “'The most exquisite story of heroism, deception, love and treachery you’ll find this year”, I remain very sceptical especially since I have never read any books by Manda Scott before.

So how wrong can I be. They are both absolutely right and this is one of the best novels I have read this year. Ms Scott has successfully combined historical fiction, espionage and a modern police procedural into a single glorious whole with a host of vibrant characters, a compelling plot and many sections of genuine excitement and tension.

The novel is written in the 3rd person present tense which I appreciate seems to annoy some people, but for me it works very well adding immediacy as well as immersing the reader in the story.

Novels in this genre rarely win prizes but I do hope that it receives the recognition it deserves and at least makes the Booker Long List because it thoroughly deserves to do so. If I had a minor quibble, I felt that the ending was slightly contrived but in no way did that distract from my enjoyment of this excellent piece of fiction.

Many thanks to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Manda Scott and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.