From Radio 4's James Naughtie, a sophisticated thriller about loyalty, survival and family rivalry deep in the Cold War, drawing on decades of experience as a political insider in Westminster and Washington. It is a sweltering July in the mid-1970s, and for Will Flemyng, foreign office minister, the temperature is rising with each passing hour. A mysterious death has exposed secret passions in government, bringing on a political crisis that will draw him back into a familiar world of danger and deceit. For Flemyng has a past. He was trained as a spy for a life behind enemy lines and now he’s compelled to go back. In the course of one long weekend he must question all his loyalties – to his friends, his rivals and to his own two brothers. Only then can he expose the truth in London and Washington. When he has walked through the fire.

Paris in 1968 - seething with revolutionaries and spies - sees Will Flemyng's world turned upside down, after a mysterious encounter on the metro and a chance revelation from a rival operative. In a city alive with talk of revolution, Will finds himself in the thick of the action, a young spy whose first adventures behind the Iron Curtain have already given him a secret glamour. But now he gets news that threatens the closest and most complicated relationship in his life, with his younger brother. In the unforgettable weeks of a crisis that claims blood and tests his deepest loyalties, Flemyng lives and loves the tumult of a city in which his private fears teach him the secrets that lie beneath the raucous politics of the streets. This is the making of the man whose journey leads to The Madness of July - Will Flemyng, trapped with his friends and enemies in The Paris Spring.

From one of our most treasured BBC broadcasters, The Spy Across the Water is the third instalment in James Naughtie's brilliant spy series, woven around three brothers bound together through espionage. We live with our history, but it can kill us. Faces from the past appear from nowhere at a family funeral, and Will Flemyng, spy-turned-ambassador, is drawn into twin mysteries that threaten everything he holds dear. From Washington, he's pitched back into the Troubles in Northern Ireland and an explosive secret hidden deep in the most dangerous but fulfilling friendship he has known. And while he confronts shadowy adversaries in American streets, and looks for solace at home in the Scottish Highlands, he discovers that his government's most precious Cold War agent is in mortal danger and needs his help to survive. In an electric story of courage and betrayal, Flemyng learns the truth that his life has left him a man with many friends, but still alone. 'A thoughtful and detailed novel of statecraft and spycraft, recommended for fans of le Carré' Ian Rankin Praise for James 'As convincing as any of John le Carré's' Independent 'Beautifully written, deftly plotted, skilfully paced, imaginatively conceived' Robert Littell 'An involved and beautifully plotted spy story' Allan Massie 'Hugely gripping and atmospheric' Mail on Sunday 'Complex and psychologically detailed' Charles Cumming 'A tour de force' Kate Mosse