^
Sometimes people just want to specifically zoom in on a sub-sub-genre that particularly interests them without having to go through the rest.
Bargain @ $1.99 for today only (Nov 12th) according to the newsletter from Open Road Media (couponable @ Kobo, should be available in all the standard US stores, apparently geo-restricted to US-only, etc.):
The Private Sector by Irish writer Joseph Hone (
Wikipedia), a vintage espionage mystery/thriller originally published in 1971, 1st in his Peter Marlow series starring a British schoolteacher turned spy, this installment set during Israel's Six Day War in 1967.
To find an old friend, a past-his-prime spy steps into a war zone
When Henry Edwards recruited him to work as an intelligence officer, Peter Marlow was young enough that espionage seemed romantic. They were in Cairo during the Suez Crisis, two young spies haunting dinner parties and back alleys in search of morsels of information that were never as important as they seemed. A decade later, espionage has lost its sheen, and Henry confesses to Peter that he’s considering resignation. A few days later, he’s gone.
Is Henry dead, or is he planning to defect? Either way, the service wants him buried. Peter is sent to Cairo in search of his old friend. But as war looms over Israel and the Arab states, and President Nasser’s life comes under threat, Peter’s task becomes more challenging than he would like. Espionage is a young man’s game, and more than ever before, he feels close to the grave.