As winter starts heading in, I’m excited to curl up with a few new novels, including A Spy With Scruples by Gary Dickson. This historical fiction novel covers spies, romance and mystery, and honestly, what more could you want in a book? Read on to discover more about the novel, its author, and why I’m looking forward to reading A Spy With Scruples.
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A Spy With Scruples
by Gary Dickson
historical fiction | mystery | published March 2020
A historical spy novel with touches of romance + mystery.
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A Spy With Scruples Synopsis
The unintended consequences of acing a test…or when all else fails, try blackmail.
In July of 1964, after marrying in Paris, Desirée and Scott Stoddard are honeymooning in the South of France when their idyll is interrupted by a notice from Scott’s draft board advising him that his status is being reviewed. Desirée, the former French countess who is already three months pregnant, doesn’t understand why her new husband, an American, must traipse off to some military base in Germany to be tested.
Scott’s remarkable scores on the tests attract the attention of the CIA, and Scott, much to his dismay, becomes part of their world of intrigue and deceit. How can he get back to the life that he and Desirée had envisioned? When all else fails, blackmail is the answer.
A Spy with Scruples plunges readers into the complicated political world of Cold War Europe. From neutral Switzerland to the aristocratic salons of Paris to bombed-out Berlin, Scott ingratiates some and offends more. But he has a plan.
What excites me about A Spy With Scruples
When I was younger, I desperately wanted to be either a spy or a detective when I grew up. When I was in elementary school, I even created a fake detective agency with my friends—we didn’t have any real cases, but that didn’t stop us from pretending we were young vigilantes forced to carry out critical missions.
The farthest we got with our detective work was attempting to dust for fingerprints when our desserts kept mysteriously disappearing from our lunchboxes.
We put flour on the lunch tables, attempting to catch our thief’s prints as they were robbing our treats, but (unsurprisingly) nothing came from it.
Even in middle and high school, I was a fan of spy novels and the adventure they represented. I sped through the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter (a YA fiction with the first book titled I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You) and dreamed of jetting off to spy school.
That’s why I’m excited for A Spy With Scruples and its espionage focus. I’m happy to live vicariously through a secret agent, whether that’s a high schooler learning how to be a spy or Gary Dickson’s scrupulous character, Scott Stoddard, as they encounter hidden agendas and dangerous missions.
A Spy With Scruples encapsulates the best of many genres, blending together mystery, historical fiction, and romance, and the French setting adds to its intrigue.
About the Author: Gary Dickson
Gary Dickson is an inveterate traveler and a Francophile sans merci. Educated in Switzerland in history, literature, and the classics, Gary lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Susie.
His other novels include An Oddity of Some Consequence, An Improbable Pairing, and his poetry collection The Poetry of Good Eats. His CIA novel, A Spy With Scruples, is a sequel and all books can be found on Gary’s website.
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Where to get A Spy With Scruples by Gary Dickson
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