The Laundry Files (series)

Stross wrote a fun series of novels combining the Lovecraftian and Spy Thriller genres. He also wrote a fine essay explaining that both genres explore our reactions to vast malevolent forces. In horror novels, we succumb along with the hero, while in thrillers we can at least hope the hero will save us, without succumbing to the malevolent forces of his own service’s bureaucracy… Stross is a great admirer of Len Deighton, and when I ran out of Deightons I moved on to le Carré, neither of whom I had read before (though I have seen both the 1979 BBC series and the 2011 film of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”.)

All highly recommended.