MY SIX BEST BOOKS

MICK, 56, is author of the award-winning Jackson Lamb spy series. He is shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of theYear for Joe Country (John Murray, £8.99).

GORKY PARK

Martin Cruz Smith

(Simon & Schuster, £8.99)

This is my high-water mark for a modern thriller. It’s tense, atmospheric and cleverly written. It completely changed the game as far as thrillers are concerned.

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY

John le Carré

(Penguin Classics, £8.99)

I could have picked any of his books from this period but this really is the classic spy thriller.

It’s about finding the mole and it’s beautifully written and plotted.The TV adaptation was amazing.

FINGERSMITH

Sarah Waters

(Virago, £8.99)

I have never read a book with a better twist.This is crime fiction but also a wonderful pastiche of the Victorian novel.

HAMMER TO FALL

John Lawton

(Grove Press, £16.99)

He has a terrific way of dipping into actual history and constructing his plots from what might have been.

This is his latest espionage thriller but they’re all good.

A TREACHERY OF SPIES

Manda Scott

(Corgi, £8.99)

A wonderful novel that starts in the dying days of the Second World War and comes up to the present day with a murder that has its roots in the French Resistance.

Beautifully plotted and deeply involving.

MAGPIE LANE

Lucy Atkins

(Quercus, £16.99)

An unsettling psychological thriller set in Oxford. It’s also a love story and a book about family and belonging.