The Oxford Gambit
Bored and broke, Marlow quits retirement to search for a mole within MI6
It's springtime in Scotland, and an aging spy is tending to his bees. Smoke rises from his bellows as he looks in on the colony for the first time since winter. When his wife goes to check on him, the bellows are still smoking but her husband has disappeared. He may be dead, he may be kidnapped—or he may have gone over to the other side.
To locate the missing beekeeper, the secret service turns to Peter Marlow, a veteran agent who is finding retirement no substitute for life in the field. He soon discovers a byzantine Russian conspiracy, of which the vanished spy is either the architect or the victim, operating deep within British intelligence. In the shadows of this secretive government agency, there are more pressing dangers than the sting of a frightened honeybee.
The Oxford Gambit is the third book in the Peter Marlow Mystery series, which also includes The Sixth Directorate and The Valley of the Fox.
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Joseph Hone
Joseph Hone was a British author of spy novels. Born in London, he was sent to Dublin in 1939, and spent most of the next two decades living in Ireland. His first novel, The Private Sector (1971), introduced the globetrotting spy Peter Marlow - the character for whom Hone would become best known. Set during the Six Day War, The Private Sector was well received by critics, who have compared it to the work of Eric Ambler, Len Deighton, and John Le Carré.
Hone published three more titles in the series The Sixth Directorate (1975), The Flowers of the Forest (1980), and The Valley of the Fox (1982) before moving on to other work.
In addition to his espionage fiction, Hone also found success in travel writing.
The Peter Marlow Mysteries
The Peter Marlow Mysteries consists of four books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
