Spies and Other Gods by James Wolff

Published by Atlantic Crime on April 14, 2026

Spies and Other Gods is already dated. An Iranian living in Paris tells his friend that tourism in Iran “is definitely increasing.” Not so much now.

This is a different kind of spy novel. The protagonist, Aphra McQueen, isn’t the kind of spy typically showcased in espionage fiction. She is a professor specializing in medieval history. For reasons not immediately shared with the reader, she takes a job as a researcher for Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, the entity charged with oversight of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).

The committee recently installed a complaint system that allows whistleblowers to report concerns about MI6. Aphra is tasked with investigating the first confidential complaint.

Sir William Rentoul is the Head of the Service. He has no use for oversight. His goal is to identify the whistleblower while obstructing Aphra’s investigation. To that end, he assigns Susan, a building escort who keeps visitors from straying into secure areas, to safeguard the files that Susan wants to review.

The file begins with a police report from 2017 that concerns the murder of an exiled Iranian journalist living in the Netherlands. His mutilated body is eventually linked to other murdered Iranians in various cities across Europe, raising the fear that an Iranian assassin has been targeting people living outside the country who are regarded as enemies of the state. The whisteblower’s complaint alleged gross negligence in MI6’s response to the assassinations.

Susan gives Aphra time to read only a few pages before spiriting her off to interviews with staff members who were involved in the botched mission. Rentoul doesn’t expect Susan to get far because “the organisation Sir William runs has decades upon decades of experience in frustrating outsiders intent on getting to the bottom of things.”

Susan learns that MI6 tracked travelers from Iran to the cities in which the assassinations occurred to search for a common pattern. Investigators identified a professor of chemistry at Tehran University (code name CASPIAN) as the potential assassin. The Service identified CASPIAN’s nephew, a 41-year-old MBA student in Paris named Ali, as a potential source of information about CASPIAN.

To avoid a diplomatic kerfuffle with France, MI6 wanted to make its pitch to Ali in the UK. To that end, undercover agents contacted a British-Syrian dentist named Zak who lived with Ali for a time during his childhood. Using a pretext, an agent persuaded Zak to put him in touch with Ali. The agent struck up a long-distance relationship with Ali, ostensibly to gather information about his MBA program, then thanked him by inviting him to attend a soccer game in Manchester, where the recruitment was made. Ali now serves as a paid source of information, not just about his uncle but about the Iranian regime. He is regarded as an intelligence source of high value.

Aphra’s investigation is cut short when Susan plants a file on her, causing Aphra’s immediate dismissal and the threat of an arrest. Aphra has a goal of her own, however, so she continues the investigation by contacting Zak and (on the pretense of being an MI6 operative) persuades Zak to travel with her to Paris so she can meet Ali.

The story follows the twists and turns of Aphra’s investigation and MI6’s attempt to thwart her. At some point, Sir William travels to France to gather information about Aphra and Zak, much to the displeasure of his underlings, who understand the diplomatic difficulty of spying in France without alerting the French authorities. Sir William appears to be in the early stages of dementia, so it isn’t surprising that he botches the job.

James Wolff follows the tradition of John LeCarre’s later novels by painting a picture of British spies (the ones in charge, at any rate) as inept bureaucrats. The story builds suspense as Aphra and Zak execute dangerous plans to find the assassin while Sir William makes bumbling efforts to obstruct them.

Spies and Other Gods isn’t a fast-moving action novel, but Wolff keeps the story moving and spices it with occasional action scenes. The plot dishes out rewarding surprises, both in Aphra’s motivation and in the assassin’s identity.

The story is told by a third-person narrator who seems to be something like the spirit of MI6, or perhaps of the building in which MI6 is housed. “When individuals come together, particularly under the umbrella of an organisation with a distinctive purpose and history, something new comes into being . . . This might be called an organisation’s spirit, or soul, or ethos, or character, or simply its identity.” Perhaps the narrator is a god (“Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, or whatever the line is, that’s where you’ll find me,” he says near the story’s end). Whatever the narrator might be, Wolff’s narrative approach adds another layer of interest to the story.

Wolff is a former British intelligence officer. British intelligence has produced some of the smartest spy novelists. Spies and Other Gods is my first encounter with a Wolff novel. I look forward to reading more.

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The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu

Published by Tor Books on April 7, 2026

The Subtle Art of Folding Space may or may not take place in our universe (John Chu acknowledges that this is an open question). It is set on our Earth or one very much like it that exists somewhere in the multiverse. As Chu explains it, the multiverse is like a Russian nesting egg. Each universe has a skunkworks. Each skunkworks generates a new universe, layered over (or beneath?) the universe in which the skunkworks resides. That new universe has a skunkworks that generates another universe, and so on and on and on.

Each universe has its own skunkworks-generated principles of physics. In the novel's universe, quantum mechanics was only installed about a hundred years ago, which is a cute way of explaining why it physicists only recently discovered it.

Ellie is one of many maintainers who are charged with making sure the skunkworks function properly. Three types of maintainer are responsible for the skunkworks. “Architects design the configuration of gates and pipes that generate the next universe in.” Builders install and repair the gates and pipes. Verifiers make sure the architects and builders haven’t made a mistake. Ellie is a builder. She reroutes pipes, patches leaks, does whatever is required to make sure the universe is adhering to the rules that define it.

I grew a bit confused about whether maintainers repair the skunkworks in the universe in which they reside, or whether they repair the skunkworks in the universe that created their own. It seems they sometimes do both, or work in conjunction with maintainers from other universes. That this went over my head is probably more my fault than Chu’s.

Ellie learned her skills from the Chief Builder, her mother Vera. Vera’s brother had a son named Daniel who came to live with her as an infant. Although he is Ellie’s cousin, Ellie thinks of him as a brother. Daniel is a verifier, having also learned his skills from Vera. He tests the integrity of skunkworks modifications by materializing food items and tasting them. The foods he samples all sound delicious.

A rivalry has long existed between Ellie and her sister Chris, manifesting in Chris’ frequent attempts to kill Ellie. Chris explains these attempts as training exercises so that Ellie will be prepared to defend herself from the isolationists that lurk in the skunkworks. More recently, the rivalry extends to care for Vera, who is in poor health. Chris complains that Ellie doesn’t help her care for Vera, but the truth is that Chris prevents Ellie from doing so, perhaps so she can claim credit as the more dutiful daughter.

The plot begins with Ellie’s discovery of a glitch in the physics of her universe. With Daniel’s help, Ellie finds a seemingly new installation in the skunkworks that appears to be keeping her mother alive while, at the same time, making subtle changes in the operation of physics. This creates a moral dilemma. Should she repair the glitch and restore the proper operation of physics — something she believes her mother would want her to do — even if the repair will end her mother’s life?

That dilemma is resolved before the novel’s midway point, perhaps depriving the novel of drama for which the dilemma could have been milked. The rest of the story focuses on the reason the physics-changing installation was added to the skunkworks. Ellie’s attempt to research that question, assisted by Daniel and the Chief Architect, leads her to a new understanding of the isolationists and of Chris’ plan to change everything.

The Subtle Art of Folding Space is a clever, low-key story. Many science fiction novels engage in universe building, but this one shows us the literal process of building a universe. Kudos to Chu for coming up with that high concept.

Ellie and Daniel are engaging characters who may or may not be human — or perhaps they are variants of human from a universe that isn’t quite ours. Daniel and the Chief Architect seem to have powers (some shared by Chris) that make them resemble wizards. Ordinary humans, I assume, can’t transport themselves to the skunkworks.

The plot imagines a clash between selfless maintainers like Ellie who are dedicated to making the universe function for everyone’s benefit and maintainers who are furthering their own agenda, one that might require different principles of physics. While elements of science fiction are thus central to the story, this is fundamentally a novel about a dysfunctional family. Its dramatic tension derives from the clash between Ellie and Chris and Ellie’s belated discovery of the reason Chris has been so mean to her for so long. Ellie has always forgiven Chris because her mother wanted them to have a strong relationship, but Daniel believes Chris to be undeserving of the deference that Ellie accords her.

Science fiction fans who crave stories of humans overcoming alien invasions might not appreciate the smaller story that Chu tells. Science fiction fans who crave detailed explanations of the science that underlies the story may be disappointed by the gaps that Chu leaves. How was the first skunkworks created? Who chooses the maintainers? How do maintainers acquire the power to transport themselves into the skunkworks? How do architects make decisions about the physics that each skunkworks will install in the universe it creates? For sf fans who are content to read an entertaining novel about sibling rivalry in an unorthodox setting, The Subtle Art of Folding Space is a fun departure from the sf norm.

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Transcription by Ben Lerner

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on April 7, 2026

The unnamed narrator of Transcription has been engaged by a magazine to interview an author and filmmaker named Thomas. The narrator is 45. As a younger man, he came to admire Thomas while taking one of his classes. The narrator was also a college friend of Thomas’ son Max. Thomas is now 90 and the miraculous survivor of a COVID infection. The interview is something of a coup as Thomas has not given one in years. This one will be his last.

At his hotel in Providence, the narrator FaceTimes his daughter Eva before dropping his phone into a sink full of water. If he buys a new iPhone, he’ll be late to his appointment with Thomas. And he can’t call Thomas from the room phone to explain his tardiness because the number is stored in his dead phone. The role that smartphones play in modern life is a recurring theme.

The narrator realizes how dependent he is on his phone (or as the blurbs suggest, Ben Lerner is illustrating how devices control our lives) when he can’t summon an Uber. He opts to walk to Thomas’ building without the hell of an app. “I would typically start walking directions on the map— even though I knew the way.” He talks about experiencing a “withdrawal” from his phone that sparks a sharper awareness of his surroundings.

The narrator had been planning to record the interview but, lacking any other recording device, decides to have a preliminary chat with Thomas and to record the interview the following day after purchasing a new phone. Unfortunately for him, Thomas objects that all their words should be recorded. “Otherwise we repeat ourselves and it grows unnatural. We will sound like bad actors. Even the transcript will show that we have rehearsed.”

The narrator pretends to record the interview because he is too embarrassed to admit that he drowned his phone. That incident provides context for the rest of the novel. I take it from the blurbs that the story encourages readers to consider the relationship between words recorded on devices and those recorded in our memories, or between a transcript and a reconstruction. I was more engaged by Ben Lerner’s use of Thomas’ deceit as the foundation for an ethical inquiry: is it acceptable for the narrator, having deceived Thomas, to fail to disclose to his audience that some of the article he will write is based on his memory rather than a literal transcript of the interview?

The novel’s first part recounts the unrecorded conversation. It is the stuff of high-level intellect. Thomas discusses radio and the nature of sound as experienced in the womb, the Hezbollah bomb at the Rue de Rennes in 1986, childhood addictions to devices with screens (“I am a partisan of the new, but only when it admits distance”), memory and misremembered events, and a dozen other topics.

Perhaps the conversation is a bit pretentious, but that might be my insecure reaction to intellectual chitchat. Thomas says things like “All light is social” or “A problem with Freud is he thinks we dream only our own dreams” and my reaction is, Dude, what does that even mean?

In an interesting twist, Thomas mentions people (including Max and Max’s dead mother) he won’t talk about while he’s being recorded, not knowing that he is free to speak because the recording is an illusion. Is the absence of recording important because Thomas wants to preserve deniability of his unflattering opinions of family members?

The novel’s second section takes place after the narrator’s account of the interview has been published. This section is set in Spain. The narrator has just given a talk at a museum where Rosa, one of the curators, was “intensely devoted” to Thomas. The narrator creates an unintended scandal by telling a self-effacing story about ruining his phone and pretending to record part of the interview. Rosa insists that he “more or less confessed that you falsified a big part of what many of us thought of as his last, I don’t know, testament. A deepfake.” The narrator protests that all journalists edit and often reconstruct their interviews, but Rosa reminds him that he is not a journalist. In her view, the interview “was conducted under false pretenses. That’s what you revealed.”

In the last section, the narrator conducts another interview, this time with Max. Technology again enters the story as Max talks about his father’s hospitalization with COVID and their attempt to communicate in a failed Zoom call followed by a more successful voice call.

Max gives a lengthy account of his attempt to address his daughter Emmie’s eating disorder. He felt shame at the term “failure to thrive” and its implication that he was remiss in providing Emmie with adequate nutrition, but Emmie could not be persuaded to eat until, in desperation, they let her eat whatever she wanted. Even then, she only demonstrated a normal appetite when they let her eat without putting her screen down. The (perhaps frightening) importance that modern children attach to screens has been part of public discourse for several years, but Lerner’s clever illustration of the phenomenon is one of the smartest I’ve seen in fiction.

Some of the story may have passed over my head, but it is a testament to Lerner’s skill that I never lost interest in it, even as I tried to puzzle out its meaning. The fluidity of Lerner’s prose likely accounts for my engagement with a story in which nothing much happens. At times, disconnected events seem to flow together, representing (I assume) distortions of memory, or the ability of memory to transport us into a different time, or the ability of misremembered events to change the past as we understand it. Readers in search of a short novel with literary heft will find much to admire in Transcription, as will readers who take an interest in the malleable nature of memory and the role that screens play in modern life.

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Revenge Prey by John Sandford

Published by  ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons on April 7, 2026

Revenge Prey is the 36th entry in the Prey series. I’ve read most of them and have never been disappointed. While some are more gripping than others, I always enjoy them. John Sandford meets that standard in Revenge Prey. The action gets an early start and never lets up, but the plot avoids the eye-rolling heroic deeds that have come to characterize modern thrillers.

Leonard Summers, his wife Martha, and their son Bernard defected from Russia. Formerly known as the Sokolov family, they have been given new identities and a house in Minnesota. The CIA is using the U.S. Marshal’s office for witness protection, but Putin has ordered Leonard’s death so the witness protection agents need backup from someone who has experience with shootouts. Lucas Davenport is in one or two shootouts in every book, so he gets the assignment.

Davenport meets CIA Agent John Sherwood as the Sokolov family arrives at their new residence. As the Sokolovs investigate the house, a shooter tries to take out Leonard. Davenport springs into the novel’s first shootout as he engages a Russian hit squad.

More gun battles ensue as the Russians make additional attempts to assassinate Leonard. The Russians always seem to know where Leonard will be, so Davenport and Sherwood suspect that a leak needs to be plugged in one of their agencies. The nifty resolution of the leaker’s identity adds a surprising twist to the story.

This is very much a Lucas Davenport story, with only the briefest cameos by his friend Virgil Flowers and daughter Letty (they each star in their own thriller series). Davenport is partnered with Shelly White, a fellow U.S. Marshal, but she doesn’t contribute as much banter as Sandford’s better supporting characters.

Sherwood is a better supporting character. He’s snarky, smart, competent, horny, and capable of ruthless action. He vibes well with Davenport. Sherwood is in touch with Letty near the novel's end, so I suspect Sandford will bring him back, perhaps in a Letty Davenport novel.

The Russians also benefit from strong characterization. The government guards Leonard more carefully after the first assassination attempt, so the two assassins have accepted the risk of being outgunned as they continue their efforts to kill him. The third Russian is a sleeper agent providing logistical support. He enjoys the benefits of American life and isn’t looking forward to being recalled to Moscow if the mission doesn’t end well. Each character is convincing. Sandford even makes it possible to feel a measure of sympathy for the Russians, if it’s possible to work up such feelings for assassins.

The plot moves quickly, in part because Revenge Prey is an action story. The plot is not much more than a vehicle for Davenport to get into gunfights. Sandford doesn’t complicate the story in a way that would slow its pace, but he fills the pages with interesting characters and offbeat dialog. If you like Sandford, you’ll probably like Revenge Prey.

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The Survivor by Andrew Reid

Published by Minotaur Books on March 24, 2026

The best thrillers tell stories of ordinary people who are thrust into extraordinary situations. I enjoy thrillers about tough guys who use their superheroic tough guy skills to outpunch and outgun bad guys, but they never have the impact of thrillers that require ordinary people to gain courage or make other changes that will help them defeat evil.

Ben Cross is not an ordinary person, but he’s not a tough guy. He might not even be one of the good guys. He initially seems to be a young man who is down on his luck. Ben appears to have been lured into a dangerous situation for reasons he doesn’t understand. Only as the story progresses does the reader learn that Ben is not necessarily the innocent victim he appears to be. To survive, Ben must come to terms with his past and find the courage to seize control of his life.

The novel’s premise is simple. Ben met a contact at a job fair who invited him to an interview for a boring but well-paid office position that would embroil him in a world of spreadsheets. Ben wanted a fresh start and was thrilled to be offered the job, but he was fired on his first day.

Ben walks to the subway, wondering whether he will lose the deposit on his new apartment. While Ben is riding on the train, someone texts him a photo of a man whose throat has been slit. Additional messages insist that Ben knows the sender and imply that the sender knows about Ben’s past.

Ben then receives a picture of another subway passenger. The accompanying message tells him that if he allows the man to leave the train, the man will die. Ben assumes he’s being pranked so he does nothing when the man departs at the next stop. The man takes only a few steps into the station before someone shoots him.

Further texts tell Ben not to get off the train, not to block the sender’s number, not to ignore the sender’s messages. Ben follows those instructions because he wants to learn what’s happening. He receives another picture with another instruction not to let the passenger leave the train. Ben finds the woman in the photo and tries to persuade her to listen, but she assumes he is dangerous and other passengers restrain him as she leaves. An explosion soon follows.

The novel’s other central character is Detective Kelly Hendricks. Kelly is a police detective who recently threw a police chief across a table after he put his hand on her butt. She was rewarded with a career-ending assignment as liaison to the Transit Authority. She describes the job as “following the mole people around on the subway.”

Kelly is on her way to the subway when she hears gunshots and sees people fleeing from the subway tunnels. The train is gone but the victim’s lifeless body is on the ground. When an explosion occurs at another station, Kelly makes her way there to discover that Homeland Security is leading the investigation. The agent in charge is rooting for a bigger explosion to impress upon the citizenry the threat of terrorism — particularly if he can take credit for capturing the bomber.

The train stops after the explosion. The rest of the story follows Kelly as she boards the train, tries to figure out Ben’s role in the crime, and jousts with Homeland Security about the proper role of law enforcement. In the process, she learns that Ben’s father is a serial killer and that Ben is carrying a dark secret about an event that occurred when he was eleven.

Is Ben a good guy or a bad guy? During most of the novel, I was undecided. Preserving that ambiguity for so long assures that the reader remains engaged with the plot.

Someone clearly wants to make trouble for Ben, but the identity of that person comes as a genuine surprise. While Ben’s dad suffers from obvious mental health problems, the story asks whether a victim's intense desire for revenge might itself be a form of mental illness.

The plot is implausible but no more so than is typical of a modern crime novel. The story’s rapid pace, avoidance of formulaic plotting, and reliance on ordinary people to carry the story makes it easy to recommend.

Andrew Reid’s prose is vivid. I’m inured to the violence in crime fiction but I found a horrific chapter difficult to read. Fortunately, I had that reaction only to one brief scene. Sensitive readers might want to give The Survivor a pass. For thriller fans who have the stomach for it, novel’s blend of psychological and actual horror makes this one of the more chilling crime stories I’ve encountered in recent memory.

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