“You never know who to trust, even if they’re old”

Overview: A Treachery of Spies is an espionage thriller to rival the very best, a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse, played in the shadows, which will keep you guessing every step of the way.

An absolutely intoxicating read, dealing with WWII spies, double agents and traitors in a modern murder mystery- with a brilliant female detective at the lead.

Manda Scott, in 'Treachery of Spies', mixes several genres: crime fiction/thriller, historical fiction and espionage and does so in a way that makes the story completely seamless.

It took some time for me to get into the plot but I couldn't put it down and found it a fascinating insight to a time in history that may soon be forgotten; cleverly bought up to date with a current day crime. Superb writing by a new author to me and I will certainly be reading more.

The plot was very complicated, which was fine, but needed better characterization to support it. It got to the stage where some of the names felt more like ciphers in a complex puzzle that one was trying to de-code.

*I had not read the first Picaut novel and did not realise this was part of a series. This book can easily be read as a stand-alone - I had no trouble following it.