Now, Harry has secretly flown to Tehran to find his son, a novice journalist for the Manchester Guardian, who has been kidnapped. There, he pursues first one lead to his son, then another, encountering lies at every turn. Meanwhile, he finds that MI6 is attempting to frame him as a scapegoat for missions that went wrong during and after World War II. I am grateful to the author and Grove Atlantic for granting me access to an ARC in return for an honest review. As a fan of Mr. Bradby's earlier Kate Henderson series, I was disappointed by this story. I knew little about the 50s politics in the Middle East, particularly Iran, so the plot was new to me. It made for a good potential story of the cold war in a different venue. That potential was not realized, with much more of a focus on James Bond-esque action with little character development. I was used to Mr. Bradby's use of moral ambivalence in his previous novels, but this story did not build on its premise. In Yesterday’s Spy we have the prospect of a Soviet mole in London but the real interest is based in Iran and the behind the scenes string pulling to maintain British and American interests while thwarting the expansion of communism and the threat of nations being drawn under a Soviet influence.

It’s all very confusing . . . until it isn’t. And you’re unlikely to expect how Bradby resolves it all. It is 1953. Harry Tower has been a talented British SIS officer for many years. So talented that he’s trusted by Winston Churchill. Long-suffering spy Bernard Samson has, against all the odds, enticed a Soviet agent to defect to London – but this proves to be the start of something even bigger. For he learns that there is treachery within his own Service, and no one is free from suspicion. To discover who really controls the game of spies, he must attempt a desperate gamble.

World-weary agent Bernard Samson is losing control of his personal and professional life. Sent to Mexico to aid the defection of a KGB agent to the West, he has a chance to prove his worth. Instead he is torn between conflicting loyalties, and lost in a maze of double-dealing and duplicity. When Bernard Samson is woken in the middle of the night and discovers an injured man on his doorstep, he knows it will only bring trouble. It is the start of a dangerous journey to Zurich, rural Poland and the heart of a mystery that has tormented both him and his wife Fiona since they left East Berlin. Set mostly in Iran, August 1953 - a period of political unrest where a transfer of power sees the Prime Minister replaced by an army general, Yesterday's Spy follows SIS operative, Harry Tower, one-time Maths student at Cambridge University, as he searches for his son, Sean, an investigative journalist who it appears has uncovered the financial details of a company based in Tehran, pointing to a number of shareholders making ‘a killing’ – before disappearing. The narrative also contains chapters set during the 1930s-40s that provide more details of Harry’s earlier life and career. Still, he might be considered a has-been by some but in 1953 he is still able to breeze into 10 Downing Street and is on friendly terms with the PM, Sir Winston Churchill.

Bernard Samson is a spy on the run. But in the murky streets of Berlin, he knows where to hide. Wanted for an act of treachery he has not committed, he must not only escape the grasp of London Central, but get to the bottom of a tangled conspiracy that is about to change everything.Embattled agent Bernard Samson is used to being passed over for promotion as his younger, more ambitious colleagues – including his own wife Fiona – rise up the ranks of MI6. When a valued agent in East Berlin warns the British of a mole at the heart of the Service, Samson must return to the field and the city he loves to uncover the traitor’s identity