David Brierley- Dead Man Telling Tales @SafeHouseBooks #DeadManTellingTales #DavidBrierley #spyfiction #bookreview #booktwitter #bookcommunity #SharonBTB

Hi everyone! Today, I have my thoughts on Dead Man Telling Tales by David Brierley. Thanks to Safe House Books for sending me the gifted book. Here is my honest review of this exceptional spy thriller.

The master of cold war espionage fiction returns with a tale of intrigue and suspense set in post-Soviet Latvia.

When wine-merchant Matt Clough learns that the father he never knew has died, he sets out to discover the truth of his father’s past. What he finds is a secret that will mean great riches, or sudden death.

England, 2001. Matt Clough is an ordinary English wine-merchant, approaching middle age with no family and no great ambition. An orphan. An ex-spy.

Latvia, 2001. Krisjanis Kulbergs is far from ordinary. Ex-spy. Double agent. Master of the triple-cross. Guilty of just about every crime or sin the twentieth century had to offer. He is the unknown father of English wine-merchant Matt Clough. He is also dead.

When Clough learns of the death of a father he never knew, he travels to Latvia to uncover the secrets of his father’s life and his own inheritance. The Cold War has been over for a decade, but some men still keep secrets so great that old spies from both sides of the divide will go to any lengths to get hold of them.

Including murder

A spy thriller from David Brierley is, as I now know, an event to remember! I haven’t heard of him previously, so I went in with an open mind and no expectations.

We meet Matt Clough, an English wine merchant, and also an ex- Spy. He discovers that his father, who was unknown to him, is dead in Latvia. So he travels there and begins to unravel his fathers life…and his secrets, that may just be more than he could have anticipated.

It’s an absolute cracker of a book. The story is so skilfully woven together. I couldn’t put this book down from the very start. The research must have been immense. The authenticity of the story just placed me there, in Latvia with Matt.

Everything about this book was so well done. The characters felt real. They were so detailed. Not knowing whose side certain people were on created such tension. I was attempting to guess throughout.

For me, this was a pageturner. It had everything I needed to tick all the notes for a spy thriller. I mean, war crimes with old spies and everyone double crossing everyone else. I was in my element! If you love a spy thriller with so much depth, tension, and characters you believe in, just pick this up! You won’t regret it!

Author Bio

David Brierley was born in Durban. He moved to Canada, then England and back to South Africa all by the age of thirteen. Travel and curiosity about different countries is deep in his nature. After Oxford University, he taught at a lycée in France followed by work in London
advertising agencies. Once his career as a novelist was established he moved to France. As well as writing, he was a prison visitor. Together with his wife Jill he created a garden that won first prize in a regional competition. Now back in England, they live near Bristol in a small market town whose name – Chipping Sodbury – always raises a smile.

Also by David Brierley

Novels
Cold War
Blood Group O
Big Bear, Little Bear
Shooting Star
Czechmate
Skorpion’s Death
Snowline
One Lives, One Dies
On Leaving a Prague Window
The Horizontal Woman
The Cloak-and-Dagger Girl
Death & Co

Short Stories
To El and Back

Safe House Books is an independent British publisher of spy fiction which is reviving quality espionage for a new audience.