Perhaps it’s because I have just finished reading Mick Herron’s Slow Horses (I realise that I have come late to the table on this one, but I can’t recommend it highly enough – if there has been a better first chapter written in the past 10 years, I’d like to read it), but my interest in the world of spookery, duplicity and dirty deeds has been piqued anew.

This was heightened by a report last week that two Scotland Yard officers are being employed to try to identify those responsible for the novichok poisonings in Salisbury in March.

These officers go under the suitably sleuthy title of “super recognisers” – a new one to me; I’m still in the dark ages of babysitters, controllers and handlers – and are looking at 5,000 hours of CCTV footage to find matches with images of airline passengers leaving the country in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

Former senior Met detective Mick Neville, who established the squad, said super recognisers can spot people even if they disguise themselves. He said: “Super recognisers have an innate skill shared by only around 1% of the population. It is not something you can teach but is a huge asset in an investigation like this.”

This is the sort of cloak-and-daggery that makes the world of espionage so beguiling and eternally fascinating, and the job title is hard to top. In a nice plot thickener, a Scotland Yard spokesman refused to confirm the use of super recognisers.

There is even a professional body for this gifted elite, the Association of Super Recognisers, so if you think you’re one of the 1%, I recommend you get in touch pronto. Me? Not a chance, so I think I’ll settle for hotfooting it to the nearest bookshop for the next Mick Herron.

• Jonathan Bouquet is an Observer columnist