HISTORICAL SPY FICTION: NEW 2026 ESPIONAGE NOVELS BY WILLIAM BOYD, ANTHONY BYRT and WILLIAM COOK
2026 has already produced some very good spy novels, including James Wolff’s Spies And Other Gods, David Goodman’s Solitary Agents and the very recent Icarus 17 by Charles Cumming. And the good news is that more are on the way. Alan Park’s Deception has just been released, and Mark Ezra’s A Nest Of Wasps and Tess Gerritsen’s The Shadow Friends are both not far away. Simon Conway’s much anticipated The British Agent is due out in the United Kingdom in late August and the latest release from spy maestro David McCloskey, London Station, is out in October.
In addition to the above, there are also three very promising looking historical spy novels due out over the next few months, which I have highlighted below.
Leading the trio is William Boyd’s Cold Sunset, (Viking, 3 September 2026). The first two books in William Boyd’s series about the reluctant spy Gabriel Dax have been a real reading highlight over the past two years, and Cold Sunset is just as good.
Set in 1964, Cold Sunset once more follows travel writer and occasional spy Gabriel Dax as he tries to keep one step ahead of the treachery around him.
The publishers have provided the following information:
“COLD WAR MOSCOW IS A PLACE SMOLDERING WITH SECRETS
Gabriel Dax is on route to Russia, tasked with delivering a mysterious drawing to celebrated defector, Kit Caldwell. But Caldwell, really a British asset, is convinced that the KGB suspects him of treachery and he wants to get out – now.
When Gabriel is ordered by his enigmatic handler Faith Green to help, he is pulled into a web of shifting loyalties and dangerous escape plans. As tensions rise and trust fractures, he is forced to confront the fine line between devotion and deception. But which will he choose?”
I have been fortunate enough to read an advanced copy of Cold Sunset, and it is a terrific novel. The pacing is a little brisker this time around, and the story is full of twists and turns, vivid descriptions, a good sense of time and place, and plenty of reflection. One of my favourite books of the year, so far.
I will be doing a review closer to the release date, but it is certainly one to put on your future ‘to read’ list.
I also like the mildly faux James Bond style cover.
Coming in late July is an interesting debut novel by New Zealand author Anthony Byrt. Set in Trieste in May 1945, Dying Days, (Affirm, 28 July 2026), follows a British MI6 agent and a New Zealand intelligence officer as they traverse the early manoeuvrings of the forthcoming Cold War.
The publisher has provided the following details:
“In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite.
May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito’s Yugoslav Army and Allied forces have come to a tense standoff in the city of Trieste. Every day, locals with fascist and Nazi ties are disappearing, arrested by Yugoslav soldiers. Meanwhile the Allies watch on, reluctant to become mired in yet another conflict.
But when rumours circulate that New Zealand soldiers are among the missing, the stakes begin to rise.
A British MI6 agent and a New Zealand intelligence officer must uncover the truth behind the rumours. But the schisms in the city are becoming harder to cross, and one wealthy family keeps getting in their way. In a mission where moral lines are hopelessly blurred and violence is a necessity, deciding whether they can trust their sources – or even one another – becomes a matter of life and death.”
This is the next book on my reading pile and I will be doing a review in the next few weeks.
Dying Days is released in Australia on 28 July 2026. It will also be released in the United Kingdom on the same day on Kindle.
Another slightly different sounding historical spy story is William Cook’s The Fifteenth Man, (Viper, October 2026.)
The publisher has provided the following information:
“Wannsee, 1942
Fifteen of the most powerful men in the Third Reich meet in secret. Their goal: the implementation of the Final Solution.
West Berlin, 1990
Anglo-German journalist Michael Braun makes a living tracking down old Nazis. But since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Fleet Street’s interest has waned, and he needs more than another concentration camp guard or petty bureaucrat to sell a story. Then Braun is offered an improbable assignment: during the storming of the East German Stasi headquarters, files were found that show a Nazi may have been hiding in Berlin for decades. And not just another low-ranking soldier but Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo. The only Nazi at the Wannsee Conference whose fate is unknown since he disappeared from Hitler’s bunker in 1945.
Desperate for money, Braun takes the job. But the man he’s hunting – Müller or not – knows how to stay hidden. And how to protect his secrets. Meanwhile there other forces, including intelligence services, watching from the sidelines.”
The Fifteenth Man is released in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2026.
So three good historical spy novels to check out over the next few months, and while you are at it, also have a look at Alan Park’s World War II thriller Deception.