'Spies and Other Gods' is an espionage novel by a former British intelligence officer

NPR's Book of the Day

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

James Wolff is the pseudonym of a former British intelligence officer who now writes espionage novels. His latest, Spies and Other Gods, follows the Head of British Intelligence at the tail end of a long and successful career who feels that his mental acuity is beginning to slip away. In the midst of this brain fog, Sir William Rentoul must join forces with intelligence teams across Europe to track down an anonymous assassin. In today’s episode, Wolff joins NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly for a conversation about the personal cost of spying and Wolff’s cast of Iranian characters.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Alyssa Adwarnie, and this is NPR's book of the day. Who better to write a juicy spy novel than a former spy? Well, today we have one of those for you.
0:13.2	Former British intelligence officer James Wolfe, which is a pseudonym, has written a novel called Spies and Other Gods.
0:20.5	It's a book about a handful of European intelligence officers
0:23.5	tracking an Iranian assassin, codenamed Caspian,
0:27.9	who's killed Iranian dissidents all over Europe.
0:31.4	Wolf talks with NPR's All Things Considered host Mary Louise Kelly
0:34.9	about how his fictional villain comes at a time when the whole
0:38.9	world is focused on Iran.
0:42.7	There's keeping a low profile, and then there's our next guest, James Wolfe, except not his
0:49.6	real name, that's a pseudonym. I would tell you what he looks like, except his headshot on the jacket
0:55.0	of his novels, not to mention every photo you will find of him online, is of the back of his head,
1:01.1	shot from behind so you can't glimpse his face. James Wolfe had a career as a British intelligence
1:07.8	officer. Now, he writes about them. His latest espionage novel is spies and other
1:13.4	gods. He's on the line from London, James Wolfe. Welcome. Thank you very much. I gather from your
1:19.2	acknowledgments that even your kids give you a hard time about the pseudonym. They do. They're young
1:24.2	enough that they don't quite understand the reason for it. And in a very nice way, they feel proud on my behalf. And so they'd like me to be able to be a bit more front-footed about publicity for the book.
1:36.4	Well, let's go to the cast of fictional characters that you have invented for this novel. And start with Sir William Rintoul.
1:46.4	He's the head of British intelligence.
1:48.6	When we meet him, he is not enjoying it much.
1:52.0	No, he's at the tail end of a long and very successful career.
1:56.6	But he's suffering from what the book describes as a brain fog,
2:00.3	the descent of a brain fog,
	...

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