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A Stranger in Corfu

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A Stranger in Corfu

By: Alex Preston
Narrated by: Helen Lloyd
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About this listen

'Suspenseful, vivid and impossible to put down' TOM HOLLAND
'Laced with thrills' EVIE WYLD
'Utterly gripping' ADAM RUTHERFORD

On the Greek island of Vidos the past lingers like salt in the air. The inhabitants – former members of MI6 – are sent here to be forgotten. Exiled. Either too damaged or too compromised to be allowed to live freely.

For years, residents make the best of their fate – old enemies reconcile, long-lost friends swim together in the warm sea and estranged lovers share a bed once more. But secrets bind tightly. And when one of their own washes up dead, alliances fracture and a tide of suspicion begins to rise.

A vivid reimagining of a real, hidden slice of the British Intelligence Service’s history, A Stranger in Corfu is an exquisitely tense and masterfully spun novel about shadowy morality, unravelled secrets and the futility of trying to outrun the past.

©2026 Alex Preston (P)2026 Canongate Books Ltd Historical International Mystery & Crime Mystery Thriller & Suspense Exciting

Critic reviews

Le Carré meets The Durrells - A Stranger is Corfu is a brilliantly atmospheric thriller. Suspenseful, vivid and impossible to put down (TOM HOLLAND)
A beautiful, taut novel laced with the thrills of lives half-lived and never escaped; of friendship, love and relentless betrayal beneath Corfu's blazing sun and the restless, dark sea - where secrets threaten to drown them all. A story that haunts long after the last page (EVIE WYLD)
All stars
Most relevant
Alex Preston is evidently a highly accomplished writer, but I found this both implausible as a premise and not especially gripping in the telling. I finished it last week and have already forgotten elements of the plot and the denouement.

Implausible and not especially grabbing

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Unlikeable characters, an unrealistic plot and just a bit uninteresting. If I was reading rather than listening I wouldn’t have finished it. The narration was ok.

Quite a boring meandering story

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3 different ways apparently listening to this

I bought this because I love Corfu and spy novels, what could go wrong ?

Three minutes in I realised , I’ve heard this voice before , the narrator had ruined Helen Fry’s MI9 for me and unfortunately this narration was as bad

If you are aware of the Cold War history of Philby betraying the Albanians in the 50’s you have a head start on everyone else as this otherwise is a difficult book to follow.

Nice premise to create a story of dodgy ex spy’s being pensioned off to an island where they can’t cause any trouble, a bit like dodgy Mi5 operatives being pensioned off to Slough House ,

It looks like Mick Heron is influencing everyone these days

Really wanted to like this book, but the story is just too far fetched and has a quickly contrived ending. However buy it and read it on your holidays whilst laid out on a sunbed in Kassiopi, and decide which pronunciation you prefer

How do you pronounce Kassiopi ?

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