Jeff Noon

The journalist as sleuth

Thrillers from John Simpson and David Mamet feature newspapermen as sleuths. Also reviewed are Ian Rankin and Keigo Higashino

issue 19 January 2019

Despite being well-travelled as the BBC’s world affairs editor, John Simpson doesn’t roam far from home in his spy thriller, Moscow, Midnight (John Murray, £20). Life and art intermingle, in both subject matter and character. The hero is named Jon Swift, a veteran journalist bristling under new media regimes. When government minister Patrick Macready is found dead — presumably from a solo sex game gone wrong — Swift takes it upon himself to clear up a few loose ends.

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