NEW 2026 SPY FICTION: By JAMES WOLFF, PAUL WARNER and JASON M. HOUGH

Here are three very good, and very different, thrillers to get your spy reading off to a good start in 2026.

James Wolff’s Spies and Other Gods, (Baskerville, February 2026), flirts with the style of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses series, but is very much its own creation.

Sir William Rentoul, the Head of British Intelligence, is surprised and disquieted when the body that oversees the work of his agency, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, decides to impose a researcher on him to investigate an anonymous whistle blower complaint. The complaint relates to one of the Agency’s most sensitive cases involving an Iranian assassin and a trail of dead bodies across Europe, and there is potentially a lot to find out. Sir William’s staff quickly close ranks to stifle the investigation, but the lowly parliamentary researcher assigned to the case, Aphra McQueen, proves to be smarter and more tenacious than they were expecting. Soon the investigation spirals out of the control and the story heads in some very unexpected directions.

The opening chapters are possibly a little slow as Wolff sets the various strands of his plot in place, but they do have some nice touches of humour about them, and the pace soon picks up as the story moves abroad. The early sections also allow Wolff the opportunity to introduce his unusual narration perspective involving an omniscient, but not omnipotent, narrator who describes themself as being the spirit of the organisation. It takes a few pages to become used to it, but after awhile you do not notice it and it actually works quite well.

The story itself is beguiling and is well supported by some vivid descriptions and a cast of credible, interesting characters, especially the researcher Aphra McQueen. It also has the requisite spy fiction tropes of rivalry between agencies, and with Government, internal backstabbing, surprising twists, believable spying detail and a growing sense of unease. Also adding to the pleasure is the presence of Sir William, a once great spy master who is now slipping into possible dementia at time when his agency needs him the most. His actions are not always credible, but they do help to give the plot some urgency.

In all, I really enjoyed the freshness and political reflections of Spies and Other Gods, and was pleasantly surprised by the book’s various twists and turns. I also cheered at the end.

Spies and Other Gods was released in Australia and the United Kingdom in early February 2026. Release in the United States is not until 14 April 2026.

Paul Warner makes an entertaining entry into the world of fictional espionage with his first novel, A Spy In The Blood (Zaffre, 29 January 2026).

Mark Wolfe was once a top notch spy, but now he is considered to be out-of-touch, and has been put out to pasture. He is now stuck behind a desk in Vauxhall Cross in charge of recruiting the next wave of spooks. As far as his wife and children are concerned, Mark is a quiet, affable civil servant who has no idea how to use the TV remote. He is surprised when his daughter, Jody, decides to join MI6 and is annoyed that her recruitment was being kept secret from him. When Jody disappears during a mission, Wolfe is thrust into the terrifying new world of modern espionage.

After a nice opening scene that establishes Wolfe’s still functioning skills, A Spy In The Blood moves along at a good pace and quickly takes the reader from the plush offices and command centres of MI6 in London to the back alleys of Kabul at the peak of the Allies presence in Afghanistan. Wolfe’s search for his daughter through the treacherous corners of Kabul, generates a decent amount of suspense and the final hundred pages offer plenty of action. Some events strain credibility, but not to an outrageous degree, and it is interesting watching Wolfe as he tries to adjust to the new world of espionage.

The characters are solid, although we mainly see Jody through flashbacks, and Warner is good at contrasting the office suits with the hardcore on-the-ground agents. The spycraft, both modern and old school, is well handled and convincing, and the exotic locations are well described and vivid. Warner is also good at generating a sense of distrust and the requisite surprises that a spy plot needs.

An enjoyable first outing for Warner, and I look forward to the sequel, Funeral For A Spy, due out in 2027.

A Spy in the Blood is not released in Australia until the middle of the year, but is presently available in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The release date for Jason M. Hough’s Throw Away The Key, (Crooked Lane Books, 14 July 2026), is still some way off, but I thought I would put it on your radar, as it is a thoroughly entertaining thriller.

In some ways, Throw Away The Key traverses similar territory to the Warner book, with an ageing spy, with a daughter in the same business, going rogue to get the truth about an operation and uncover a mole.

Lars Bergman is a quiet man who enjoys his status as the CIA’s locksmith. Formerly part of the CIA’s infamous Surreptitious Entry Team, Lars is now responsible for every padlock, safe, and secure door across the CIA headquarters. He has never met a lock he couldn’t pick, except for one, which he tried and failed to open during a botched mission in Warsaw at the end of the Cold War. New technology, led by his daughter, is making him increasingly redundant, and Lars is cruising toward retirement. That all changes, however, when a senior CIA official dies and Lars is called upon to open the safe in her office. Inside the safe is a clue only Lars would notice, left by someone he had worked with in his heyday. As he investigates, Lars soon realizes that his failed Warsaw operation has come back to haunt him and perhaps give him another chance at picking the one lock that eluded him. What Lars doesn’t realise is that what the lock is protecting could have dire ramifications for the organisation he has spent his whole adult life safekeeping.

It is an intriguing set-up, and the rest of the plot flows very smoothly with Hough judiciously mixing the contemporary storyline with flashbacks to the Warsaw operation. There are good twists and turns, although some are predictable, and the book moves at a very good pace. Lars’ search for the truth takes him on an exciting journey outside of America and there are some well executed set-pieces, including a tense one in a Swiss bank. Lars and the other characters are nicely etched, especially the enigmatic Miss Thorne, who has an unique and interesting job.

Adding to the enjoyment is plenty of fascinating background on locks and lockpicking, including some amusing scenes at a lockpicking conference called Lockcon. There is also the usual convincing spycraft and skillful escapes, and interesting reflections on the changing nature of espionage.

In short, Throw Away The Key is a fast paced and very exciting spy thriller, with enough quirks to raise it above most of the crowd. Put it on your ‘books to watch out for’ list.

Throw Away The Key is released in the United States and the United Kingdom on 14 July 2026. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of the book for review.

So three quite different spy novels. If I had to pick a favourite, it would be Wolff’s Spies And Other Gods, mainly because of the quality of the writing and its originality, but for pure fun it is hard to go pass Throw Away The Key.