The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even: Stories of Espionage and Revenge

McCall Smith (“No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” series) gives listeners a treat with this dual collection of lighthearted stories, half devoted to tales of espionage, and the other half to tales of revenge. Witty and warm, this well-written collection charms with subtle humor and riveting plots, all wrapped in the veneer of either spycraft or vengeance. The stories run the gamut, with a German spy dropped into World War II England dressed as a nun; an angry Scot who offers to spy for the Soviet Union when the local government proposes putting a road through his farm; a great tale about the Cambridge Five, a ring of spies who passed information to the Soviet Union during WWII and the Cold War, told from several points of view; a young man recruited into the present-day Vatican secret service; an Australian thespian and a mean-spirited producer; and a show-off getting his due on a remote Scottish isle, just to name a few.