The Set of All Spies

by David Hull

Irascible Pike of Logic and placid Hallux of Math enjoy quiet evenings at the fire, soaking up just enough Scotch to pour themselves into orderly dreams. Until one night a creature from Hallux’s past intrudes on their academic oasis: MI6 agent Barrington Barnes. He activates Hallux, long-ago mathematician to the spies, and despatches him to Dresden. Outraged anti-communist Pike insists on accompanying his naïve and trusting friend. Pike’s son Steven, slacker and poet, decides he might as well tag along.

In Dresden they are soon entangled with Stasi agents, East German punks, and an ambitious KGB agent known as Little Volodya. All the while Hallux the mathematician monitors a number station, awaiting further orders from Barnes. But the orders never arrive.

Does the set of all spies not include Pike and Hallux? If not, then why have they been bugged, attacked, imprisoned, released, re-captured, and driven off into the night? If so, then why doesn’t anyone seem to care?

218 pages, Paperback

Published September 8, 2026

About the author

David Hull was born in Regina and grew up in Owen Sound, Ontario. His poems and stories have appeared in many Canadian literary journals including The Walrus, The Malahat, The Fiddlehead, as well as On Spec, the science fiction magazine. He is a past winner of the Prairie Fire Long Fiction award.

The Man Who Remembered the Moon, is published by Dumagrad Books as a Kindle Single and as a paperback.

Reviews

[Michaelea Silver]

I got an advance reader copy of this book. The first few chapters are a bit drier. The book also jumps between different characters quickly and can be a bit confusing in the beginning. However, after about a quarter-halfway through the novel, it became very entertaining. Overall, it was a good read!