Things might be a little quiet on here, as I've not long started a new job and am getting used to the full-time office hours. Anyway, I'm briefly jumping in to share another book review. Today I'm looking at Deep Swimmers, the fourth story in Richard Robinson's Topaz Files series of spy thrillers. This post is part of a Reading Between the Lines blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams.
Blurb
Belfast, 1995. When an elderly couple fall to their deaths from the city’s notorious Ashton Tower, the incident is quickly ruled a suicide. For most, it’s a tragedy. For British Intelligence, it’s the beginning of something far more dangerous.
Jones and Jenny, now seasoned members of MI5’s Young Communicators Unit, find themselves pulled into an investigation that reaches back to the Second World War. The case sees Jones return home to Suffolk, where he must handle a homeless republican veteran still hiding from something.
What begins as a routine inquiry soon exposes buried loyalties, forgotten operations, and a web of deception that comes to an extraordinary conclusion.
As police investigators, MI5 officers, and retired spymasters circle the truth, a Mossad agent opens old wounds. Someone is determined to keep the past buried, no matter the cost.
Set against the tense backdrop of 1990s Northern Ireland, Deep Swimmers is a gripping espionage thriller about the deadly legacy of covert lives and the price of keeping secrets.
Some falls are accidents. But hiding from the truth is a deadly game.
Review
Once again, Richard Robinson provides a truly tense spy thriller with an excellent array of characters, many of whom I've previously talked about in my previous reviews of Topaz and The Mainstay.
Jones is given a leave of absence when he learns that his mother is in the hospital, but this ends up being a busman's holiday when spymaster Charles Curry - who had given him a lift - has a chance encounter with a homeless man who seems to recognise him by name. It makes you interested in knowing what happens next. Jones ends up meeting the same man - known only as Paddy - by chance, and is tasked with trying to learn more about him. During this time, he strikes up a rapport with him.
At the same time, Jenny and Duncan McNally investigate the death of the elderly couple back in Ireland, learning that they were agents known as "Deep Swimmers". Again, there's a real rabbit hole as you find out more with the characters.
There's also an underlying tension as Mossad agent Gabe Dresner appears on the scene. He's initially introduced shadowing Charles in Suffolk, who brilliantly gives him the slip, but later ends up kidnapping Paddy. It cranks up the tension as he persistently gives our protagonists the slip.
I don't want to say anything more because of spoilers, but there's a lot in Deep Swimmers that made me want to keep reading. You can find out for yourself by picking it up on Amazon, and I highly recommend it. It's a stark reminder that spying is a dirty business, no matter who it's for.
About the Author
Richard W. Robinson is an author and journalist and spent his early days freelancing or working in agency positions across the UK and Ireland. The Topaz Files is a series of spy fiction novels where we follow the missions of Jones and Richmond as they make their way through the early years of a career in espionage. The first, published in May 2023, is Topaz and this was followed by Wild Flowers a year later. The Mainstay and Deep Swimmers have since been published. The novels are works of fiction but reference historic events in 1994-1996, around the time of the peace talks in Northern Ireland.
Outside the literary world, Richard lives in East Anglia, England, with his wife and two daughters. He is the CEO of a charity focused on ending the abuse of older people. He's a very committed cratedigger (vinyl collector) and can occasionally be seen in the stands at Loftus Road and Windsor Park. Look out for the Topaz Files on social media and for the forthcoming releases of SEEN/UNSEEN (book five) and The Rock Ledger (book six). Robinson has also finished a Cold War spy story called German Bite which is expected to be published in late 2026.
Happy writing.
