Books for 2012

Here's a quick look at some of the books I'll be reading in the early part of 2012.

On 29 January the new science fiction novel by Alastair Reynolds, Blue Remembered Earth,  comes out. Reynolds is probably my joint favourite science fiction author right now along with Stephen Baxter. It's been a couple of years since his last novel so I'll looking forward to the new one, Blue Remembered Earth.

On 16 February From the Deep of the Dark, Stephen Hunt's sixth Jackelian steampunk adventure appears. This one seems to involve a submarine adventure which bodes well as my favourite of the previous books, The Kingdon Beyond the Waves, involved a similar odyssey.

On 13 March An American Spy, Olen Steinhauer's third thriller in the Milo Weaver series comes out. Steinhauer quickly became a facourite author and I'm looking forward to this one.

On 29 March the new spy novel by Charles Cumming, A Foreign Affair, comes out. I quite enjoyed his last novel, The Trinity Six, so I hope this ones is as good. Harper are also reprinting two of his first three paperbacks on the same day so I'll be glad for a chance to get them as well.

As previously mentioned in another post The Thief, the fourth collabaration between Clive Cussler and Justin Scott, The Thief, comes out on 1 March.

Finally on 26 April The Wind Through the Keyhole, the eighth book in Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series comes out. Well, it's not actually the eighth book as it's set between the present books four and five. I bcame a big fan of the original books back in 2003 and it will be a pleasure to return to mid-world and met up with Roland and his ka-tet again.

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming

I've just finished my first novel by Charles Cumming, titled The Trinity Six. This is the fifth novel by this author and it belongs very much in the spy genre. This makes a nice change from the usual Di Vinci Clones and serial killer epics that are presently filling up the shelves of the bookshops I visit.

The book is set in the present day with Sam Gaddis, an English academic and expert on Russia, finding himself in financial trouble. He needs to write a best-seller instead of his usual dry tomes. He comes across the theory that there was a sixth doube agent called Eddie Crane who was spying for the Russians during the Cold War. Apparently Crane's death was faked in 1992 and he has been living under another identity ever since. Gaddis starts the detective work.

Eventually he encounters a contemporary of Crane who starts revealing some details to Gaddis. Meanwhile otyher people who know of Crane's faked death are being eliminated, apparently be the Russians. It would appear that Crane has knowledge of a secret with implications to the relationship between the UK and Russia.

This was an entertaining novel and was quite well written. While not action packed it did feature a increasingly paranoid Gaddis traveling around Europe trying to get to the bottom of things while avoiding the Russian assassins and potential MI6 interference.

In time I will be checking out the author's other four novels.