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Soul Hunters
In the lethal game between East and West, a beautiful woman has a passionate, deadly encounter with a Russian agent and a professional assassin moves toward his target on the streets of London
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
George Markstein
28 books5 followersGeorge Markstein (29 August 1929 – 15 January 1987) was a German-born British journalist and subsequent writer of thrillers and teleplays.
Markstein was a military correspondence with the U.S. Forces in Europe after World War II, and become hooked on the study of espionage. He turned from documentary writing for television to drama, created the controversial The Prisoner series, and was the script editor (and co-writer of "Arrival," the first episode) of the series briefly appearing in its title sequence.
Markstein also wrote for or story-edited other television series, specialising in espionage stories, such as Danger Man, Callan, and Armchair Theatre, and jointly ran a successful literary agency for screenwriters.
He was co-winner of the British Writers Guild Award for the Best Original Screenplay for the feature film Robbery in 1967, and was Executive Story Editor for Thames Television during the 1970s.
Following a long illness, Markstein died of kidney failure in 1987.
Markstein was a military correspondence with the U.S. Forces in Europe after World War II, and become hooked on the study of espionage. He turned from documentary writing for television to drama, created the controversial The Prisoner series, and was the script editor (and co-writer of "Arrival," the first episode) of the series briefly appearing in its title sequence.
Markstein also wrote for or story-edited other television series, specialising in espionage stories, such as Danger Man, Callan, and Armchair Theatre, and jointly ran a successful literary agency for screenwriters.
He was co-winner of the British Writers Guild Award for the Best Original Screenplay for the feature film Robbery in 1967, and was Executive Story Editor for Thames Television during the 1970s.
Following a long illness, Markstein died of kidney failure in 1987.
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
August 19, 2026
★ ★★★½
This is one of those books where I genuinely cannot understand how it has been allowed to disappear this thoroughly! I remain descombubulated at how little information there is about it
What makes it so compelling is the sheer scale of it, i mean my goodness! We move between a Soviet theatre company in London, actors planning their defection, Soviet diplomats, British officials, American military personnel, propaganda networks, intelligence operations, and the ever-present threat of the Cold War turning into something worse! It constantly shifts perspectives and locations, yet somehow all these separate lives feel like pieces of the same enormous political machine! Oh my god especially by the end, everything tangled beautifully.
Pluuuuus you could feel that markstein knew what he was writing about, There was something unusually authoritative about it idk it didn't feel like an author sitting down and deciding to write a cool Cold War thriller it felt like a man who had spent years close to the military and political world he was describing letting us in on how it all works, and the result is a dense, paranoid, political, and (albeit at times) genuinely thrilling.
My biggest criticism is that the world building was more conceptual than visual, so i occasionally became confused about where exactly we were, who was talking to whom and what everyone looked like! particularly with the constant movement between countries and institutions. The prose wasn't particularly interested in lingering over rooms, landscapes, faces, or physical details, which is okay i suppose if you're used to it, it seemed that the author was far more interested in relaying how things operate, what people know, what they believe, what they may be hiding and even what they're about to do. (the latter was a HUGE point throughout the story, the author definitely did an amazing job there) it didn't feel like a novel written purely to entertain but more like an overzealous man with lots and lots to tell you.
This was an incredibly overlooked Cold War thriller. yes messy in places, occasionally difficult to follow, but fascinating, ambitious, and with the unmistakable feeling that its author understood the world he was writing about far too well. I feel very lucky to have found a copy. Yay!
This is one of those books where I genuinely cannot understand how it has been allowed to disappear this thoroughly! I remain descombubulated at how little information there is about it
What makes it so compelling is the sheer scale of it, i mean my goodness! We move between a Soviet theatre company in London, actors planning their defection, Soviet diplomats, British officials, American military personnel, propaganda networks, intelligence operations, and the ever-present threat of the Cold War turning into something worse! It constantly shifts perspectives and locations, yet somehow all these separate lives feel like pieces of the same enormous political machine! Oh my god especially by the end, everything tangled beautifully.
Pluuuuus you could feel that markstein knew what he was writing about, There was something unusually authoritative about it idk it didn't feel like an author sitting down and deciding to write a cool Cold War thriller it felt like a man who had spent years close to the military and political world he was describing letting us in on how it all works, and the result is a dense, paranoid, political, and (albeit at times) genuinely thrilling.
My biggest criticism is that the world building was more conceptual than visual, so i occasionally became confused about where exactly we were, who was talking to whom and what everyone looked like! particularly with the constant movement between countries and institutions. The prose wasn't particularly interested in lingering over rooms, landscapes, faces, or physical details, which is okay i suppose if you're used to it, it seemed that the author was far more interested in relaying how things operate, what people know, what they believe, what they may be hiding and even what they're about to do. (the latter was a HUGE point throughout the story, the author definitely did an amazing job there) it didn't feel like a novel written purely to entertain but more like an overzealous man with lots and lots to tell you.
This was an incredibly overlooked Cold War thriller. yes messy in places, occasionally difficult to follow, but fascinating, ambitious, and with the unmistakable feeling that its author understood the world he was writing about far too well. I feel very lucky to have found a copy. Yay!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review