Friday, December 16, 2022

Dana Cameron on SO MANY SPIES

HALLIE EPHRON: The ebullient and talented Dana Cameron was one of the first mystery authors I met when we were both newbies, publishing our first books awhile back, and taking over adjacent terms as president of the New England chapter of Sisters in Crime. Her debut featured Emma Fielding, a kick-ass archaeologist. It's been turned into a mystery series on the Hallmark Movie Mystery channel.

Now she's venturing into new territory with EXIT INTERVIEW, a spy thriller. It plays to all of Dana's strengths. Meg Gardiner said “EXIT INTERVIEW takes off like an express train and never slows down. Grab this book, buckle up and hold on for a terrific ride."


Today we're happy to welcome Dana to Jungle Red, where we're wondering what is it about spies that inspires her?

DANA CAMERON: A long time ago (the 1980s), in a faraway land (Boston University’s Archaeology Department), someone had posted a flier from the spring job recruitment fair in the students lounge. It said (and I’m paraphrasing here):


“Do you like travel? Are you interested in languages and meeting new people? Do you have a mind for analysis?”
It was a recruitment flier for the CIA.

That same someone scribbled in the margins of the flier: “If archaeology doesn’t work out...they have a pension plan!” Broke-student humor.

Suddenly, a lifetime obsession started to make sense to me: I’ve always loved spy fiction and I realized then that the idea of observing clues and the way people behave ties in with my first career, in archaeology.

When I was a kid, I devoured Harriet the Spy and Snow Treasure (a fictional account about moving gold out of Norway under the eyes of the occupying Nazis) was one of my favorite books. Later, there would be Milady DeWinter, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Jason Bourne, and even Robert Heinlein’s Friday. On TV, there were reruns of “Get Smart” (forget Max—Agent 99 was smart and gorgeous!), “Mission: Impossible,” and “The Avengers.”

I mean, Mrs. Peel? No one is cooler.

My first Bond was Roger Moore, but my favorite is Daniel Craig (if only Timothy Dalton’s movies had been better written—he’d have tied, IMHO). The gadgets, the adventure, the clothes—I was hooked.

But even after these pop culture responses to the Cold War, my fascination kept up, and reading about covert operatives in history, I learned how very unglamorous, and how very dangerous it was to act under the noses of the enemy.

During some recent domestic archaeology (clearing out long-neglected corners of the house), I uncovered a copy of a paper I wrote for a high school history class, on the Special Operations, Executive in World War II. The group was informally called “The Baker Street Irregulars” (which ties in with another part of my life now, Sherlockian studies), and were Churchill’s “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” –a new sort of intelligence branch.

As you can see, I had something to learn about editing (the comment is “Interesting paper, choppy in some places A-”), but later, my grade was raised to an “A” when the paper took an honorable mention in a state high school history contest. But I digress.

I would take advantage of attending Malice Domestic to visit the International Spy Museum and loot the bookshop there. I completely swooned when I found out that Valerie Plame would be writing an essay for Shattering Glass (which featured one of my “a.k.a. Jayne” stories). Thrillers are some of my favorite reads to this day.

The ingenuity, the courage, and the fast-thinking keep me fascinated with covert operatives to this day. Perhaps it was inevitable that I would eventually write an espionage thriller, and in the course of researching my latest book, Exit Interview, I had a chance to reconnect with my once and future interest.

So Reds and Readers: Do you share my fascination? What are some of your favorite tales about spies, in fiction or fact?


Dana Cameron writes across many genres, but especially crime and speculative fiction (including the Fangborn novels). Her work, inspired by her career in archaeology, has won multiple Anthony, Agatha, and Macavity Awards, and has been nominated for the Edgar Award. Several of Dana's Emma Fielding archaeology mysteries appear on the Hallmark Movie & Mystery Channel. When she isn’t traveling, she's weaving, spinning, or yelling at the TV about historical inaccuracies. Exit Interview (an a.k.a. Jayne Novel) is available now.

61 comments:

  1. I haven't read too many spy stories, but they can be fun. Enjoyed a few shows and movies, although I never did really get into Bond.

    I have to give a shout out to one of my favorite spies - Mrs. Pollifax. Such a great series.

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    1. Mark, mine too! When I need a pick-me-up, I reach for Mrs. Pollifax.

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    2. Mrs. Pollifax is so much fun--and smart!

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  2. Congratulations on your new series, Dana . . . I’m looking forward to reading “Exit Interview.” Maybe you could tell us a bit about it?

    Favorite spy tales? John le Carré’s “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” . . . Jack Higgins’s “The Eagle Has Landed” . . . Terry Hayes’s “I Am Pilgrim” . . . Vince Flynn’s “American Assassin” . . . .

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    1. Thank you, Joan! In a nutshell: They messed with the wrong women! A few more details:

      Reporter Amy Lindstrom has just witnessed the suspicious death of a powerful arms dealer. Jayne Rogers, the covert operative assigned to work with the dead man, has been accused by her boss of the murder--and of picking off her former colleagues one by one. Only Nicole Bradley believes Jayne is being framed; her technical skills are as stealthy and lethal as Jayne's abilities with her weapons. All three must work together to keep a horrifying cache of weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

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  3. Congratulations on your new release, Dana. As for spies, I love Steed and Mrs. Peel.

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    1. Thanks so much, Dru, and thank you for the opportunity to tell about a (hair-raising) day in Amy Lindstrom's life! What I especially loved about Steed and Mrs. Peel, is the wide array of skills in which they were both versed. Chess champion? Check. Publish an important paper on physics? Check. Cook an omelette aux fines herbes? No problem!

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  4. Your book is on my coffee table waiting for me to finish the current one! I love your tie-in between archeology and spying. Spying on others in public is what writers are good at, after all.

    I haven't read much spy fiction, although le Carré comes to mind, and of course the spy TV shows of my (our) youth that you mentioned. And Bond isn't for me.

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    1. Edith, I hope you'll enjoy the book (especially as I know fictional gunplay is not usually your cup of tea)! One of the reasons I decided to write about Jayne was from a blog I wrote for the Femmes Fatales way back in 2007, in which I discussed the fact that the women in most of the Bond movies or Bourne movies, never seemed to be as...capable as the men, even when they were trained officers.

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  5. DANA: Congratulations on your spy thriller!
    I read a lot of spy thrillers written by UK authors: Ted Allbeury, Len Deighton, Anthony Price (my fave), John le Carré but my reading tastes have changed.

    The only spy series I currently read is Mick Herron's SLOW HORSES. I am loving the first two seasons on Apple+ TV. They have been faithfully adapted to the first two books.

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    1. Oh, I'm with you, Grace--"Slow Horses" is wonderful! I just started the second season after tearing through the first, and I'll have to check out the books. Thank you for stopping by!

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  6. I think I've watched more than read spy thrillers, and I enjoy the excitement when it's mixed with interesting characters. I certainly loved Mrs. Peel and Agent 99 on the TV of my youth. As an adult, I 'met' Mrs. Polifax, whom Mark mentions in his comment and whom I enjoyed reading about in my early days of discovering the broader mystery genre. I saw the film about Valerie Plame and then read at least one book about (by?) her. The opening scene of the film, Fair Game, in which her life seems so normal -- on the outside only -- has stayed with me as the (a?) defining feature of a spy's life: deceit, even with those close to you.

    Dana: Congrats on your new release. I'm off to find it.

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    1. FAIR GAME is fascinating, as is Valerie Plame herself, Amanda. I've read a number of non-fiction books written by folks who had worked in intelligence, and it's not for the faint of heart, for sure. I hope you enjoy my fictional take on the life!

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  7. I only learned about this guy when the Swedish metal band Sabaton wrote "Inmate 4859" about him, but Witold Pilecki was a true badass. He's the Polish "spy" who volunteered to go undercover in Auschwitz during a time when no one knew what was going on there. After hearing the spectacular song, I looked up the details about Pilecki online and man, what an eye-opening read that was. That's a real-life spy story I like.

    As for fictional, there are so many I'm at a loss for where to begin. But I know I love William Christie's duology featuring Russian spy Alexsi Smirnoff. And the Mitch Rapp book series. And you can't forget Jack Bauer in "24". And the list goes ever on...

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    1. Jay, I love when I learn something new from a song or some other medium I was enjoying for another reason entirely! I need to read about Pilecki--I can't imagine that kind of bravery. Thanks for visiting with JR!

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  8. DANA: Welcome to Jungle Reds! It was wonderful meeting you at Bouchercon in Toronto and I enjoyed our conversations about Emma Fielding and the Hallmark mystery movies. I remember you telling me that the actor who played the villain is a nice person in real life. And Emma Fielding is a great name!

    Roger Moore was my first Bond too. I remember seeing his movie when I was about five years old.

    I watched many spy movies. Trying to recall if I read a book about a spy recently. In mystery fiction, there is Maggie Hope from Susan Elia MacNeal's novels. I remember several characters who were spies in Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs. There are different kinds of spies. I remember Rhys Bowen's first Lady Georgie was titled THE ROYAL SPY.

    And I am adding that spy novel about Norway to my reading list. I read Harriet the Spy for my children's novels class at Uni.

    If they ever get the captions added to the Avengers with Emma Peel and Patrick Macnee, then it would be great to watch that too. My father loved Mission Impossible. Wasn't the Wonder Woman a spy?

    Diana

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    1. Of course! The Maisie Dobbs books and Susan Elia MacNeal's stories. Give me a kickass woman spy any day.

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    2. Yes, yes to Mrs. Polifax, Maisie Dobbs, Lady Georgie, Maggie Hope, Mrs. Peel, Agent 99, and the intrepid, red-lipsticked Agent Peggy Carter, and all the other women spies.

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    3. Rhys's book: HER ROYAL SPYNESS - such a clever title and didn't it launch the series?

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    4. Hi Diana! I'm pretty sure we could fill up several more blog posts with all the wonderful espionage fiction out there, and you have a great list. It was so cool to visit Oslo this year and visit a museum about the Resistance movement there, and see events mentioned in SNOW TREASURE. I don't recall specifically the details of the early incarnations of Wonder Woman/Diana Prince, but I think you are right--these days, she's sometimes portrayed as an official political representative of Themyscira. BTW, my favorite representation of her was in "The Hiketeia," by Greg Rucka, who also wrote the terrific espionage graphic novels "Queen and Country."

      And thanks! I still remember thinking that I chose Emma's name from glancing at my bookshelf, and seeing EMMA next to TOM JONES, by Henry Fielding. Another character in the books pointed out to me (and her) that her name is a good one for an archaeologist!

      Hey Karen--ooh, Agent Carter is a favorite of mine, a founder of the SSR!

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    5. Hallie, "face palm" Oops! I am so bad at remembering titles. Yes, I meant HER ROYAL SPYNESS. LOL.

      Karen in Ohio, all great names!

      Dana, thanks for sharing the stories about the Norway Resistance Museum and how you got the name Emma Fielding.

      Diana

      Diana

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  9. Daniel Silva writes a spy series about an Israeli agent whose tragic past tells the steep price one can pay for being a spy. Chilling. They are real page turners.
    I am very interested in Exit Interview. It's on my TBR.

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    1. How I forgot to include Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series in my own reply is beyond me. I've been reading that series from the beginning and it is always superb.

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    2. So many of these titles are new to me - taking notes!

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    3. Judy and Jay, the Silva books are terrific! And I should mention Alan Furst's novels, set in WWII; Ken Follett's EYE OF THE NEEDLE, and Frederick Forsyth. I hope you enjoy EXIT INTERVIEW, Judy.

      LOL, Hallie, your reading list is growing longer by the minute...

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  10. Welcome Dana, and congratulations I will add your book to my Christmas list. Casting back in time I recall reading Ian Fleming under the covers in boarding school way back in the ‘50’s. I think his books were banned at school. Then to Len Deighton and the wonderful movie, the Ipcress File with Michael Caine. Had an on again off again relationship with Le Carre but love Gabriel Allon. Plus so many really good films. - Celia

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    1. Hi Celia, and thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy EI. I remember an essay by Lee Child (how can we not mention Jack Reacher, who may not be a spy but certainly goes undercover?) in which he mentioned reading DR. NO on the bus home from school, where he had been reading about Theseus, and he realized that the same structures in Plutarch appeared in Fleming's novels. I've always loved that.

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  11. Hey, Dana! Good to see you here on JRW, and to know you have an exciting new read. Merry Christmas to us!

    In the 1960s and 70s, two of my uncles, once they'd left there respective service--Army and Navy--became CIA analysts. Both were as unlikely to be spies as you can imagine: schlubby, bespectacled, and jovial, and that has always intrigued me. Who knows if they actually performed any derring do feats of espionage--they never spoke of what they did, but ever since I'm fascinated by that idea of a "spy" being able to melt into the background. The TV show The Americans starred Matthew Rhys and his real-life partner Keri Russell, both impossibly glamorous. It seems to me that an effective spy would be someone who is unmemorable, so that part was not believable to me. Either blandly anonymous, or so "out there" that you'd never suspect. I visited my aunts when I was a kid, and they lived in quiet neighborhoods in modest homes, homes they stayed in for decades until they both, along with another aunt and uncle, all eventually moved to the same area of Florida.

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    1. Wasn't George Smiley described as short, overweight, balding, and middle aged?

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    2. Hi, Karen, and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you! I agree: the folks I've met who've worked in the intelligence community don't draw attention to themselves and didn't talk about their exploits--in detail, if at all. I had a distant family member who "worked in Washington" and when I asked him what he did, he simply said, "I work at the Pentagon." Nothing more. It wasn't until years later, learning more about his military history, that he probably had a whole lot he could have told me.

      And as for moving to the same part of Florida, I had a conversation with the amazing Tess Gerritsen the other night (she and Paul Tremblay and Bracken MacLeod and I were discussing the connections between thrillers and horror). She mentioned that the mid-Coast Maine town she lives in has a lot of folks who can only say "I worked for the government." She's going to write a thriller about about that!

      You can watch that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIVKs15VyrI&t=1s

      I think you're right, Hallie, about Smiley. I know all the TV and movie versions show him at least...world-weary and tired.

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  12. Dana your book sounds exciting. I look forward to reading it. If you haven't read Sonia Purnell's true story (A Woman of No Importance) about Virginia Hall, an American who was WWII's most successful and most decorated spy. She was hired by the British as the US wouldn't hire women spies. She how has a building named in her honor at the CIA. It is truly a fascinating story, a book I started and couldn't put down. If you like spy stories this is one that if it wasn't true - would be hard to believe actually happened. (BTW, favorite James Bonds - Sean Connery and Daniel Craig).

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    1. Hi Anonymous! Thanks for stopping by JR. I've read about Virginia Hall in my study of the Special Operations, Executive, but I haven't read that. It looks amazing! I hope you'll enjoy EXIT INTERVIEW!

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  13. Dana, laughing about 'yelling at the tv about historical inaccuracies'. I've been knitting in the evenings and watching archaeology 'documentaries.' I recommend "The Mystery of Angkor Wat" to watch with your friends. Every time the host says 'LIDAR', take a drink! And if he says it twice in one sentence, take two drinks! I couldn't watch "The Mayans" after the bloody reenactments began. But the cats don't seem to mind me muttering at the tv.

    I watched all the same tv shows--shoutout to Patrick McGoohan in "Secret Agent"--my first spy and tv crush. I'll be searching out 'Exit Interview.' The title alone suggests an interesting starting point for a spy thriller!

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    1. Hi, Flora! Yeah, between my husband yelling about high tech inaccuracies and me yelling about history, it gets to be quite the running commentary. Many of those archaeology "documentaries" are best consumed as fiction, lol.

      As for the title of my book, I got the idea when Mr. G (said husband) was leaving a big company and had to finish with an "exit interview." I immediately wondered what that would look like for a covert operative. :-)

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  14. Oh, this book is SO good! Absolutely non-stop action, and so many great twists, and incredible characters. LOVE. (ANd Dana, post the link to your YouTube so people can see our interview--and also your chat with Tess Gerritsen!)
    Spies I have loved ? (!) Of course James Bond--and right now the Slough House gang. But also the "ordinary person turned spies" --like in Susan Isaacs' Shining Through. Remember that? SO great.
    Oh, and I will never forget when I read Nelson DeMiIlle's The Charm School. Such a classic! ((And had to be the inspiration for The Americans, (which, I loved, I totally bought it.:-) And based on true!)) And oh, Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. . OH! and Eye of the Needle.
    I could go on.
    Congratulations, Dana! Another triumph!

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    1. Just realizing that one of the characters in The Thursday Murder Club is a spy, retired but still sharp and resourceful.

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    2. Thank you, thank you so much, Hank! I loved our conversation at the launch of EXIT INTERVIEW, which folks can find here:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEUVwEWd64w

      So much fun! The link to the discussion with Tess, Paul, and Bracken (on the connections between horror and thrillers) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIVKs15VyrI

      And, if anyone wants to check out the discussion I had with Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner about writing across genres, it's here:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XDY-v7j8bI

      JACKAL is so, so good. As a writer, I learned a lot about how to combine the painstaking work of a police detective with the time-pressure of an assassination threat.

      Thank you again for such a terrific conversation! mwahs

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  15. And The Prisoner. WHATEVER that was about. I didn't care. I loved it.

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    1. No clue what it was about, and yet...fascinating and iconic. :-)

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  16. Dana, I meant to mention above how impressed I am with your award-winning research paper on the British Special Operations Executive of WWII. Some of my very favorite spy stories concern that program and the spies of WWII. In James R. Benn's Billy Boyle WWII mystery series, Billy's British girlfriend, Diana is a spy and some of the books which involve her assignments are the most poignant. I am also a huge fan of Iona Whishaw's Lane Winslow mystery series. Lane is a retired WWII British spy sworn to secrecy about her wartime exploits. It definitely sets up some very interesting plots.
    Finally, I am going to look for your two series today because I think I've been missing something special!

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    1. Thank you, Judy! You can tell I still remember the sting of that comment about choppiness, even decades later, lol. I hope you'll enjoy my series--they're very different from each other (and from this new book), but always feature archaeology. I need to check out the Lane Winslow mysteries--they sound great!

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  17. Congratulations on your new series! I love reading spy series. The constant action and intellect really entertains me :)

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    1. Thank you, Damyanti! I had a lot of fun writing EXIT INTERVIEW, and the action is definitely something that was important to me. :-)

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  18. Love a good spy thriller. I'm delighted that you're launching a new series! It's going right on my TBR pile.

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  19. Dana, I need to read that book! I’ve always loved spy stories. Alas, I can’t remember the names of a lot of the books I read or movies I saw. My favorite spy movie is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. A friend recently told me about an elderly neighbor, an “ordinary housewife”, who turned out to have been a spy for the CIA the entire time she was raising her children! My friend found out when she went to the woman’s wake, and family members told her.

    DebRo

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    1. Wow, the things we learn about the folks around us! I hope you will enjoy EI--thanks for stopping by JR, Deb!

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  20. I love a good spy thriller, especially those with women in the center role. (Like many others here, I'm a big fan of Mrs. Polifax, probably because she was just so unexpected!) The Vicky Bliss books also come to mind - wasn't dashing John Smith involved in espionage as well as stealing valuables?

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    1. It's been a while since I've read any Vicky Bliss, Julia, but I think you're right! I thought that Claudia (the character played by Margo Martindale) was one of the great things about "The Americans"--she's portrayed as an older woman, dowdy, and kindly, but she's super sharp!

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    2. I adored the Vicky Bliss books, too, Julia, and yes, I think John Smythe was a spy as well as a jewel thief.

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  21. I so wanted to be Emma Peel - and I grew up watching I Spy and reading spy thrillers. A favorite genre. I'm looking forward to reading Exit Interview and keeping up with the latest!

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    1. Hey Kait! I think Diana Rigg was pretty wonderful in everything she was in, but wow, as EP? Superb. Have fun with EXIT INTERVIEW!

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  22. Congrats on the new book, Dana. I too loved SNOWBOUND and Emma Peel--that wardrobe! My husband's been to the Spy Museum and has a hat from there that says, "Deny Everything."

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  23. Thank you, Priscilla! The Spy Museum is so much fun--and I always spend too much money on books when I go there. We have a "Moscow Rules" magnet on our fridge, but now we need one of the "London Rules" they mention in "Slow Horses." ;-)

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  24. Hi Dana! Exit Interview is going straight on my TBR--merry Christmas to me, lol. My love of spy novels started with reading Ian Fleming under the covers (my parents would have been horrified) and then I moved on to Ludlum and Forsythe and many more. My latest faves are the Slough House books (Slow Horses on TV) by Mick Herron. We share a narrator so I can highly recommend the audio versions.

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    1. That was me! Blogger is driving me crazy today!

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    2. LOL, maybe it's because of all your secret identities, Deborah! I hope you have fun with EI. And! A new ep of Slow Horses tonight!

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  25. Dana, you amaze me with your multi-talented ability to write these different kinds of mysteries and thrillers. Really, something for everyone. I don't read much in the spy thriller stories, but when I do I enjoy it. I think I suffer from a case of my set-in-my-ways reading interferes with letting me pick up a spy thriller. I have started reading more WWII spy novels, or novels that feature spies. I'm reading one right now set in LA in 1940 where there's a big problem with Nazis (Susan Elia MacNeal's Mother Daughter Traitor Spy). Since I love historical mysteries, it's really only natural I gravitate toward historical spy thrillers. And, I like my spies to be women, so Exit Interview, with three awesome women, is definitely a book I want to check out. I so agree with those who loved Emma Peel. My husband was quite smitten with Mrs. Peel, too.

    Congratulations, Dana, on your new venture! And, I love that your A- got replaced with an A.

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    1. Thank you so much for your warm words, Kathy. I always have fun when I stretch myself as a writer. I hope you'll enjoy EXIT INTERVIEW. (And yeah, all these years later, I still have a "neener-neener" moment that the grade got changed.)

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  26. I do love a good spy story. Sean Connery was my first Bond. And watching Reilly, Ace of Spies was too cool! Adding to everyone's list is Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams and Basil's War by Stephen Hunter. I wish there were more Basil stories; he is a hoot!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by JR, Pat! I'll have to add OUR WOMAN to my list. :-)

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