A big thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. I loved the last three books he had written in the Kate Henderson series so was very excited to be invited to read Tom Bradby's latest book. This book was primarily set during the 1953 Iranian coup. It was interesting to learn about this. Yes, I know this is fiction, but if a novel gets you interested enough to look up information on your own it has done its job.

Of all the mysteries Bernard Samson has encountered, the greatest is his wife Fiona. Dedicated agent of the Service and a woman of secrets, she will risk everything to play the long game. As the truth about the decision that shattered their marriage is gradually revealed, the web of deception that has snared Bernard for ten years begins to unravel. Forgotten the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Visit BookSleuth

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The emerging story of the forces behind the coup, including both British and Americans as well as senior figures in the Iranian police and army.

From the latest Scandinavian serial killer to Golden Age detective stories, we love our crime novels! Has Sean been taken because of the story he wrote, or because of a story he has planned? Or could his abduction be related to Harry’s own intelligence activities? Harry has history in Iran, and enemies. Harry’s travel to Iran 1953 may have been unofficial but his presence is noticed by both friends and enemies. The spy thriller is often a runaway train of an adventure where agents need to think on their feet and improvise. This is at odds with the world of espionage where the less charismatic and forgettable players are, the best suited to engage in double dealing and subterfuge, they would be.Riveting...with style and energy, evocative scene-setting and strong characterisation' Financial Times

Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR – even if it puts the whole world at risk. Now, Harry has secretly flown to Tehran to find his son, a novice journalist for the Manchester Guardian, who has been kidnapped. There, he pursues first one lead to his son, then another, encountering lies at every turn. Meanwhile, he finds that MI6 is attempting to frame him as a scapegoat for missions that went wrong during and after World War II. Today, with our eyes clouded by decades of history of the Islamic Republic, we may find it difficult to imagine the dynamics of Iranian society in the 1940s and 50s. The stakes couldn’t have been higher. “Without the discovery of an inexhaustible supply of oil in Iran, the British Empire would never have won two world wars.” But the British effectively stole that oil, leaving the large and growing Iranian public hungry and desperate. And the resulting rise of a populist regime under Mohammad Mosaddegh was only one of the threats to the West. The Soviet Union was actively seeking to seize power in Tehran as well. For once, the Eisenhower Administration’s crusade against Communism around the world may have acted against a genuine threat there . . . or at least one that could be more easily rationalized than all the others that followed in Guatemala, the Congo, and Chile. I am a big fan of smart espionage, which also makes me a big fan of Tom Bradby. His latest stand-alone outing, “Yesterday's Spy”, provides plenty of action while exposing the moral ambiguities of what we do for king and country.In Yesterday’s Spy we have the prospect of a Soviet mole in London but the real interest is based in Iran and the behind the scenes string pulling to maintain British and American interests while thwarting the expansion of communism and the threat of nations being drawn under a Soviet influence. Harry’s son Sean is a journalist. Sean blames Harry for his mother’s suicide. Harry’s wife suffered from bouts of severe depression and, rather than being there when she cycled into a dark phase, Harry was off saving the world. Harry returned from an assignment and found Sean holding his mother’s body after cutting her from the rope she used to hang herself. Harry understandably blames himself but wishes he could do more for Sean, who wants nothing that Harry tries to give him. This I enjoyed but was very different to the trilogy, the historical information is amazing and anyone with an interest in Iranian local and world politics in the 1950’s will find it a must A sunken U-Boat has lain undisturbed on the Atlantic ocean floor since the Second World War – until now. Inside its rusting hull, among the corpses of top-rank Nazis, lie secrets people will kill to obtain.

Yesterday’s Spy opens in a bierkeller in Gottingen, Germany in 1933. Young Cambridge student Amanda James gets on the wrong side of a drunken and bellicose Nazi gang toasting the glories of new Reich. If not for the intervention of fellow Brit Harry Tower things could get very nasty for Amanda. Curiously, the whole time the conflict is happening Harry has the feeling a man is watching him, assessing his actions. In the coming years, Harry marries Amanda, they have a son, Sean, and Harry begins working for SIS.Tom Bradby's cold war thriller features a British spy called Harry Tower, who dashes to Iran in search of his son Sean, a journalist who has gone missing. The tale is set mostly in 1953 at the time of an Iranian coup d'état, in which the British and American governments were attempting to overthrow the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammed Mosaddegh (who was left leaning) in favour of the Shah. [They were of course successful and the Shah ruled as absolute monarch with American support until 1979 when he was deposed in the Islamic revolution]. Twenty years later. Harry is now a fading star in the SIS firmament. He is called to Downing Street because of his expertise in Iran. Harry has served in Tehran and his son, Sean, is still there. Churchill is about to approve British involvement in Operation Ajax, a plan in conjunction with the Americans to oust Iran’s legitimate and popular nationalist prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. My thanks to Random House U.K. Transworld Publishers for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Yesterday’s Spy’ by Tom Bradby. This is the tenth novel by Bradby, a British political journalist and correspondent.