Books: Rounding Up the Usual Suspects the Cold War's Aftermath Still Breeds Political Thrillers - but Peter Whittaker Prefers the Sour Taste of Vichy; the Fortune Teller by Donald James Century, Pounds 10, 424pp; Stealing Thunder by Peter Millar Bloomsbury, Pounds 16.99, 308pp; Remembrance Day by Henry Porter Orion, Pounds 12.99, 373ppred Gold by Alan Furst HarperCollins, Pounds 16.99, 258pp

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DONALD JAMES wrote prolifically, under a variety of pseudonyms, before making a breakthrough with Monstrum: a tale of serial killing and social disintegration set in post-millennial Moscow. His sequel, The Fortune Teller, again features his less-than-astute detective Constantin Vadim, who conducts his inquiries in a vodka-induced haze and broods darkly on the soul of Mother Russia.

It is 2017, centenary of the Revolution, and Vadim is home in the Arctic port of Murmansk, a lawless place in which Sin City, an outcast community perched on the frozen waters of Lake Polkava, is the epicentre of corruption. When Constantin's wife Natalya, a doctor, fails to return from an …