How not to be followed

Belfast taught me most of what I know about surveillance detection. The same discipline that kept me clean in the field now runs through every route James O'Neill walks in The Lost Key.

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Is the tradecraft in British spy fiction actually real?

Most spy thrillers get it wrong. Not dishonestly — the writers are skilled, the research is genuine — but the version of intelligence work that fills most fiction is built from other fiction. Here is what the genre gets right, what it consistently gets wrong, and why it matters to readers.

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