Archive for: spies

The Friends of James Bond

By Max Allan Collins

Editor’s Note: COMPLEX 90 was an unfinished Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane that was recently completed by noted author Max Allan Collins, whom Spillane asked to finish the book before is death in 2006. In the just-released book, Hammer travels to Russia on a fact-finding mission and gets entangled in an espionage incident with the KGB. Since the novel was originally inspired by the ‘60s spy craze, Collins decided to reflect on the influence of James Bond for us.

The recent publication of COMPLEX 90 got me reflecting on that special time in the ‘60s when James Bond first exploded onto the American scene.  This is in part because I’m the lucky writer who completed Mickey Spillane’s unfinished 1964 manuscript of his “lost Mike Hammer Cold War thriller”; but also because I was in high school when Bond and the Beatles led the British Invasion, and have warm, vivid memories of the spy craze. +Continue Reading

‘The Americans’ Brings Back the Cold War

During the Cold War, was the USA packed with Soviet agents who lived as regular American families, spying on their neighbors and radioing the intel to Kremlin analysts? For anyone too young to remember the era, does that sound remotely possible? +Continue Reading

What Would Archer Do?

Not sure why we’ve never posted about Archer before but it’s definitely one of those things that end up watching four episodes in a row in the middle of the night and wonder why you haven’t programmed your DVR to catch every episode.

The world’s most self-involved secret agent has some holiday tips. Make sure you follow his lead and catch the new season on FX starting in January. +Continue Reading

Andy McNab: No Tears For the Dead

Andy McNab (not his real name) is the most decorated soldier in the British Army since the Second World War and the author of the Nick Stone thriller series. He’s also a total badass according to this great interview over at HMForces​.co​.uk.