Kiss My Assassin, Dave Sinclair

I've only ever met one spy (... that I know of), and he wasn't anything like Charles Bishop. Never took on a powerful arms-dealing organisation (as far as I know), never got stabbed, shot at, beaten up, taken prisoner, made friends with a Russian spy, or slept with the enemy either (as far as I know). Now I'm wondering all the things I should have asked, and never did. Reading, after all, is educational and if you take nothing away from the Charles Bishop series by Dave Sinclair, it could be a list of things to bring up in conversation the next time you meet a spy.

Needless to say, tongue in cheek, great fun, slightly crazy espionage thriller with a hefty sense of humour featuring a crash bang fight to the death, a fabulously bad baddie, and one of the oddest pairings of good spys against the evil you're going to come across. I do like Dave Sinclair's out and out fun thrillers. I particularly like the "guide to Espionage" series featuring Eva Destruction (okay so now you've got a good idea of the style of pun....) and this one is turning out to be just as much fun. There is a helpful note to readers that does point out that the events in the Charles Bishop novels occur before those in the Eva Destruction series (which came out before the Charles Bishop ones...). Charles Bishop and Eva Destruction come across as perfect examples of those nicely sarcastic, nicely unstoppable and every so nicely naughty types - although Eva's more of an accidental spy, whilst Bishop seems to be slightly more from the "career" side of the equation.

Either way, all these novels are good fun. Think James Bond, with shades of Austin Powers; or The Saint, with shades of Mr Bean. And maybe a bit of Inspector Clouseau's Cato. Or something. I don't know. They're fun. Read them.