Every time you check out a Longines ad, an alarm goes off at the Intellectual Dark Web Marketing Department

Reviews are nice, but the only times I am legitimately bowled over are when someone who ACTUALLY knows this stuff has this to say. (Click on John’s bio to see what I mean)

"To be a Brit was to be a bit of a spy, and to be a spy was to be a bit of a Brit." --Michael Idov @michaelidov.bsky.social Thanks to @spybrary.bsky.social for turning me on to this emerging talent. Le Carre tradecraft & betrayal meets Bourne-style action. Plus lots of spy & sci-fi Easter eggs!

Re: “anti-ICE” on shell casings: in 2022, Russian authorities eagerly shared photos of a Ukrainian “terrorist lair” that weirdly showed 3 copies of the game The Sims. It took minutes for the Internet to figure out that the FSB officer staging the scene must have been told to include some SIM cards

Links on a fucking chain. @michaelidov.bsky.social knows exactly how this goes down. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

"Glossy magazines were exempted for many years because the thinking went that...glossy-magazine culture is basically the urban élites talking to themselves, and we don’t really need to get into that space..." @michaelidov.bsky.social w/ the goods on media repression www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

Spoke to the great @ichotiner.bsky.social for @newyorker.com about the fate of comedy in authoritarian regimes, a topic that sadly pursues me my whole life www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

I can

Enjoyed this essay by @michaelidov.bsky.social. I, too, have often chuckled, scowled, & called my friends over bizarrely named East Europeans in fiction (spy and otherwise). Indeed, whenever you're trying to describe a culture not your own, a little consultation can go a long way.

Got a not-entirely-serious essay in @nytimes.com today, about the plague of weird foreign names in spy novels. Amazing illustration www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/o...

The @bloodyscotland.bsky.social programme launched on Thursday and tickets are now available for my panel with @michaelidov.bsky.social and DB John, chaired by Kim Sherwood - come along to hear us talk about spies in all compass directions. bloodyscotland.com/event/spies-...

What else would you expect a spy thriller writer to say when asked, “Are you a spy?” 😉⁠ ⁠ You can listen to my full conversation with @michaelidov.bsky.social as we talk all things espionage, his new book ‘The Collaborators’ and hear two Gen Xers get way too excited about cassette tapes. 🎙️📼

This VE Day post goes out to local public media affiliates, @npr.org @rferl.org.web.brid.gy @pbsnews.org @remhq.bsky.social (not forgetting superfan @michaelidov.bsky.social) and @swedenineu.bsky.social continuous-wave.beehiiv.com/p/the-lighth...

“I just want to honor the band.” @michaelidov.bsky.social

If you're done with Severance, have I got six hours of Polish geopolitical intrigue for you. (Also, subscribe, it's free!) open.substack.com/pub/michaeli...

Main lesson from The Pitt: “a pinprick and some burning” means you’re about to experience the most excruciating pain in your life

It was a hard piece to get right. I love the film and the actors, but hate how its success hands another win to Russia just as the US abandons any and all principled opposition to Putin. (PS for the conspiracy-minded: Oscar voting is over, so no effect on the outcome) www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/o...

My quick review of The Collaborators by @michaelidov.bsky.social Published by @simonaudio.bsky.social A fast paced, action packed thriller! #BookSky #bookreview #audiobook #espionagethriller www.theretiredlibrarian.com/2025/01/the-...

A great review (tempered by the least flattering photo imaginable). This is also how I learned that White Rabbit closed, ha. Cheers for the local-interest angle www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/01/12/s...

Loved this review for highlighting one of the book's main motifs (that of OSINT being largely superior to traditional spying)

If you’re in LA and follow me, come by the legendary Book Soup on Sunset tomorrow (Mon 11/25) at 7. I’ll be talking about The Collaborators and whatever else you feel like asking me about www.booksoup.com/event/michae...

The Collaborators is out — and, from the looks of it, really “everywhere books are sold” (just walked past it at the Newark airport). Can’t wait for you to meet Ari Falk and Maya Chou.

Read @michaelidov.bsky.social 's Dressed Up for a Riot & Peter Pomerantsev's Nothing is True and Everything Is Possible to see how smoothly Russian media/cultural elites accommodated Putin and his media oligarchs.

Can’t wait for this one

This is just delightful. @michaelidov.bsky.social went to Athens (Georgia, USA) to watch Michael Shannon perform REM's first album, with the band in attendance. www.gq.com/story/michae...

I’ll say one thing for the Zombie Frasier: it doesn’t immediately sprint down the “Frasier meets the woke world” route, a la Zombie Sex and the City

Is this going to be the one where I get to talk about the things I actually like to talk about, i.e. indie dad rock, Nokiawave spy thrillers, and menswear? Stay tuned, I guess