Game Without Rules by Michael Gilbert will appeal if you like short stories with a spy/thriller theme. It’s a genre I enjoy and I wolfed them down.
Gilbert is another in a series of neglected authors. He was a schoolmaster before serving in the Honourable Artillery Company in WW II and joining a law firm, where he became a partner. He had a rule only to write on his daily commute from Kent to London so as not to interfere with his job and family life. Thirty novels and fourteen books of short stories attest to his industry on the train. He reminds me of John Mortimer.
In 1980, Gilbert was made a C.B.E. (Commander, Order of the British Empire). Other honors include receiving a Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association for lifetime achievement in 1994 and being named as a “grandmaster” by the Mystery Writers of America in 1988. (Wiki)
Here is an introduction to Game Without Rules.
An amateur cellist and beekeeper respectively, Mr. Behrens and Mr. Calder are two seemingly retired British gentlemen who are in fact ingenious agents for British intelligence. Here is a collection of stories following their exploits–written by a master of humor and suspense.
It is hard to say what element is most effective in these tales: the smooth ingenuity of plotting; the manner of telling, which disconcertingly combines elegance and harshness; or the shock of their amoral realism. “In this job,” Mr Behrens has said, “there is neither right nor wrong. Only expediency.” These are short thrillers in the sense of entertaining and exciting reading. They are also short works of art in social realism. (The New York Times Book Review)
I will be surprised if you don’t enjoy them, if you can lay your hands on a copy. Now here is another perfect mini-thriller. Just as good as James Bond but shorter.
https://youtu.be/VKxq5auuUVk