Tana Standish Psychic Spy in Afghanistan, 1979 Books in Order

Tana Standish is one of Nik Morton's most distinctive creations, because the series asks you to accept two things at once. First, these are serious historical espionage thrillers set against real Cold War pressure points. Second, their lead operative is psychic.

Morton makes that combination work by grounding Tana in history before he asks you to believe the stranger part.

According to the series setup, Tana was orphaned in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War and later adopted by a naval officer and his wife. By the time the books begin, she is working for British intelligence and using her unusual abilities in a trade where trust is already scarce. Her gifts help, but they also expose her. She can sense danger and possibility, yet hostile psychics can sense her too. That turns the series' supernatural twist into a vulnerability rather than a cheat code.

The books move through major flashpoints of the 1970s and early 1980s. Mission: Prague places her in Czechoslovakia in 1975, dealing with underground resistance, Soviet control, and a traitor inside the network. Mission: Tehran pushes her into Iran in 1978 as the Shah's rule buckles, SAVAK terror spreads, and intelligence loyalties grow murky. Mission: Khyber takes her into Afghanistan in 1979, where local politics, freedom fighters, Soviet pressure, and rough terrain make every move dangerous. Mission: Falklands later shifts the action to Argentina, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia at the start of that historic conflict.

A recurring thread across the series is the Soviet psychic programme based in Kazakhstan. That gives Tana enemies who can challenge her on her own ground. Yakunin, one of the psychics tracking her, adds extra tension because loyalty in these books is rarely neat. People are watched, used, betrayed, and sometimes forced to choose between country and conscience.

What makes the series work is the balance. The psychic element is always there, but it does not replace tradecraft, danger, or politics. There are safe houses, interrogations, compromised allies, listening posts, border crossings, and missions that can go wrong in several different ways at once. The historical backdrop matters too. Morton clearly likes the texture of place, whether that means Prague under Soviet shadow, Iranian unrest, Afghan landscapes, or the junta years in Argentina.

The tone is closer to a tense spy thriller than to fantasy. Tana's powers add pressure and atmosphere, but the books still care about secrecy, timing, deception, and the cost of operating in countries already close to the edge.

She is not invincible.

That is exactly why the series has bite.