Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shadow Dancer | 1998 | Tom Bradby | Buy |
| 2 | The Sleep of the Dead | 2001 | Tom Bradby | Buy |
| 3 | The White Russian | 2002 | Tom Bradby | Buy |
| 4 | The Master of Rain | 2002 | Tom Bradby | Buy |
| 5 | The God of Chaos | 2005 | Tom Bradby | Buy |
| 6 | Blood Money | 2008 | Tom Bradby | Buy |
| 7 | Yesterday’s Spy | 2022 | Tom Bradby | Buy |
Tom Bradby’s standalone novels span over two decades and take readers to different corners of the world. His debut, Shadow Dancer (1998), is set during the Northern Ireland Troubles and follows an IRA operative who is pressured into becoming a British informant. It was adapted into a 2012 film starring Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough.
The books that followed continued to use real historical settings as backdrops for stories of espionage and political tension. The White Russian (2002) is set during the Russian Revolution, while The Master of Rain (2002) drops into the criminal underworld of 1920s Shanghai. The God of Chaos (2005) takes place in wartime Cairo, and Blood Money (2008) moves to post-WWII New York. After a long gap, Bradby returned to standalone fiction with Yesterday’s Spy (2022), set in 1950s southern France.
Each novel works on its own, with separate characters and time periods, though they share Bradby’s interest in how ordinary people get caught up in the machinery of politics and intelligence. His work as a journalist informs the atmosphere and detail in these books, giving them a specificity that goes beyond what most thrillers attempt.