Bruce Merry

An useful book for a espionage thriller writer interested in the place of his genre in literature. Note that it's not a 'how to' book about writing thrillers, or a history of the espionage novel, but a book of literary criticism, that draws out themes, parallels and archetypes of the spy thriller genre in a somewhat academic manner.

Written a while ago now, but the copious examples and quoted passages are mostly classics from the 'golden age' of the spy novel and still recognisable. Authors mentioned heavily include Ian Fleming, John Le Carre and Len Deighton as well as a host of minor classics. Frederick Forsyth seems to be held in high esteem by the author as an exemplar of his theses about how a spy thriller should be structured.

Overall - interesting background reading for a spy thriller writer.… (meer)