Stephen Leary's Blog, page 20

My First Novel Is Out

My first novel, "Murder at the Library Conference" is now available in ebook and print format.

Liberals versus conservatives in the library world.

Washington DC is the setting of the annual library conference and Ally Derringer is anticipating a magnificent event to cap off her year as president. Many new members have recently joined, although it is unclear why.

The festive atmosphere is interrupted as an unsolved murder threatens to wreck the conference. Strangely, few conventioneers seem sa...

All Starbucks Are Different

I noticed a review of a local Starbucks that claimed they are all the same. This opinion is common on the internet but nothing could be further from the truth. No two Starbucks are the same. All of them are different and usually in many ways. Even the same Starbucks can differ from day to day or from morning to night.

The Staff

Some baristas are pleasant to interact with, others not. I won’t order a special drink if I see someone I don’t trust back there at the syrups. I learn which baristas ar...

My New Short Story 'The Smartphone' Now Available

My new short story "The Smartphone" is now available on Amazon.

It's a story about an unusual smartphone that seems to show its new owner the activities of his estranged son. Is his son a terrorist? What does his wife think about all this? And are the FBI visiting again? Find out in "The Smartphone."

Who Killed the Spy Gareth Williams?

Gareth Williams was a British spy who worked for MI6. He was found dead in his London apartment on August 23, 2010. Williams’ body was discovered naked inside a locked North Face bag placed in his bathtub. Many news stories have speculated on how he died, and the exact cause is still hotly debated.

3 plausible explanations: Killed Himself AccidentallyKilled by a Personal FriendKilled by a Foreign Intelligence Agency

Theory 1: Killed Himself Accidentally

It has been proven that Williams could ha...

The Best Spy Nonfiction of 2012

Recent spy stories in the news:

The Gareth Williams Case

Revelations about British spy Gareth Williams, who died in 2010, keep dribbling out: His iPhone was wiped clean of data hours before his deathA secret meeting between MI6 and Scotland Yard hours after the discovery of Williams’ bodyHe was being followed in the weeks before his deathPolice still believe his death was linked to his personal lifeThe “Mediterranean couple” has been deemed irrelevant to the caseWilliams had once been found ti...

The Best Spy Fiction of 2012

Updated 5/7/12

Here is a selection of noteworthy spy novels published in 2012:

Caplan, Thomas M. The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen .
Ty Hunter is a former military intelligence officer who becomes Hollywood’s top leading man (bet there haven’t been many of those). The president recruits him to save the world from nuclear disaster. Reviews have been positive; Library Journal compares Caplan to Ian Fleming, wow! The WaPo highlights Bill Clinton’s intro, as you would expect from them. Required readi...

The Top 10 Spy News Stories of 2011

The Killing of Osama Bin Laden
The top spy news story of 2011 was the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden. Ten years of intelligence provided tantalizing clues that finally led to the city of Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden had apparently been living there for years, probably with the knowledge of some elements within Pakistan’s intelligence agency.

Several high-value terrorists had been waterboarded in the years after 9/11, resulting in the discovery of the name of a bin Laden courier. La...

CIA Contractor Raymond Davis Freed from Pakistani Jail

Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor charged with murder in Pakistan, has been freed, according to news reports.

Families of the two Pakistanis he killed were given "blood money," who then forgave Davis, and the case was dropped, as is permitted by Pakistani law.

Davis is en route on a special flight to London.

John Le Carre Donates Archive to Oxford

Legendary spy novelist John Le Carre has donated his personal archive to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

As a graduate of Oxford, it was unlikely Le Carre would place his papers anywhere else, although one British paper called it a "crushing blow to archive-hungry American universities.

The archive consists of over 85 boxes with multiple versions of some of his works. Several items will be included in the kickoff to World Book Day in 2 weeks.

The writings of Le Carre, 79, whose real n...

The Best Spy Fiction of 2011

Updated: 12/15/11

Do you agree with a book reviewer for the UK Spectator by the name of Lewis Jones that American spy novelists are "unreadable"?

The English fascination with spies is gloriously reflected in our literature, from Kim to A Question of Attribution, and while their Egyptian and Israeli counterparts remain untranslated, and the Americans unreadable, English spy novelists rule.

Here is a selection of noteworthy spy novels published in 2011:

Berquist, Drew. The Maverick Experiment. Auth...