Spy Novels

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SPY NOVELS

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March 23, 2023

Using Life Experiences

to craft an authentic spy novel

By Brittany Butler — Writer’s Digest

Author Brittany Butler discusses her first-hand knowledge in using life experience to craft an authentic spy novel.

I’ve been writing The Syndicate Spy in my head for years. You see, I’m a former CIA targeting officer with first-hand knowledge in the recruitment and handling of spies and the dismantling of terrorist networks abroad. I adore thrillers and spy novels. But none of the books I have read and loved have come close to telling what it was really like for a woman working at the CIA.

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March 21, 2023

Espionage Book Recommendations

from a former spy

By Brittany Butler — CrimeReads

Brittany Butler on spy reads and how they hold up to actual intelligence work.

When you work at the CIA, you’re taught that everything you do is a secret. You need to be invisible. But when I sit down to read a spy novel, it’s difficult to divorce my experiences from what I’m reading. But what I find fascinating is when authors manage to capture the true essence of espionage after having never worked in intelligence. 

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The Real Book Spy’s 2023 Reading Guide

By The Real Book Spy

Here it is. We’ve been teasing it for a couple of months, but the full 2023 Reading Guide is now live and features over nearly 200 soon-to-be-released thrillers from all of the biggest names the genre has to offer.

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5 Tips for Writing a Spy Thriller

By Alma Katsu

Novelist and former senior intelligence analyst Alma Katsu shares her wisdom for creating a realistic and gripping spy thriller novel.

Spy thrillers are, first and foremost, stories, and that means your characters are going to carry the day. Readers fall in love with characters, so take no shortcuts here. Make sure your protagonist is interesting and complex, not just an amalgam of stereotypes.

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The Real Book Spy

By Ryan Steck — The Real Book Spy

Full coverage of all your favorite thriller authors, and their characters, unlike anywhere else on the web! 

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The 10 Highest Rated Thrillers

in book spy history

By Ryan Steck — The Real Book Spy

As we wind down the coverage for 2022, we’ve already started looking ahead to 2023.

Along the way, I thought might be fun to look at the highest-ranked books I’ve ever reviewed, prompting a fun trip down memory lane to look back at some of the greatest thrillers to hit bookstores over the ten or so years. To prepare myself to write this article, I went back and not only read my original reviews of these titles, but I re-opened the books too and poured back over the same pages that had once left me stunned. In the end, it was fun to see just how well these thrillers stand up to the thousands of books that have followed them.

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Notable 2023 Thrillers

By Ryan Steck — The Real Book Spy

part 1

Oh, what a year it’s been for must-read thrillers in 2022. Think about it, we got action-packed new books from Jack Carr and Mark Greaney and got to see tv and film adaptions (on Amazon and Netflix, respectively) of their series over the summer. Plus, all the household heroes—we’re talking Rapp, Harvath, Ryan, Corey, Bosch, and so many more—were back and better than ever.

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part 2

As we prepare to say goodbye to 2022, don’t worry, there’s still a lot of coverage left for this year’s books—but we also can’t help looking ahead at 2023, which is shaping up to be another huge year of can’t-miss thrillers.

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Missed Targets

SEVEN ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION THRILLERS

By William Martin — CrimeReads

Nothing concentrates a story like the threat of an assassination.

If you’re a reader, you know from a glance at the flap copy that something big is going to happen in the book you’ve just picked up, something that will keep you turning pages right up until the moment when the assassin aims his weapon.

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What’s on a Spy Novelist’s Bookshelf?

some essential espionage-adjacent reads

By Susan Ouellette — CrimeReads

It may come as no surprise that my bookshelf is dominated by spy novels and non-fiction books about the CIA and the KGB. While I prefer novels, there are several non-fiction books I consider essential to understanding the world of espionage.

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The Greatest True Spy Stories

By Via Bantam — CrimeReads

A look at some of the wildest, most revelatory nonfiction books about espionage and the life of spies.

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Best Spy Books of All Time

By PennBookCenter.com

We can not resist a dip into the mysterious world of the spy thriller. These Best Spy Books 2022 span the federal and the global, mixing the personal and the political and demonstrating how they’re inextricably linked with keys, lies, conspiracies, and secret plots abound.

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23 of the Best Spy Thrillers

By Dead Good Books

We can’t resist a dip into the mysterious world of the spy thriller. With secrets, lies, conspiracies and undercover plots abound, these books span the national and the international, blending the personal and the political and showing how they are inextricably linked.

From the classic to the contemporary, here are some of the best spy thrillers around.

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Best Spy Books

By Read This Twice

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40 Best Spy Novels of All Time

By Reedsy

Lovers of spy fiction are some of the most devoted genre fans of all, and it’s easy to see why. The best spy novels are thrilling, dangerous, and often a little sexy. They explore politics and history through a unique lens (and we’re not just talking about night vision goggles). Their heroes speak seven languages and drive a minimum of four expensive cars — all well above the speed limit, might we add. Plus, admit it: you always secretly thought you’d make a great spy.

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15 Best Espionage Novels

By Mal Warwick on Books

A word of caution: I do not pretend that these 15 books are the best espionage novels ever written—only that they’re the best ones I’ve read and reviewed on this site. There may well be tens of thousands of spy novels in print, and no one—nor even any group of people—could possibly claim to identify the very best among all those stories.

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10 Spy Novels with Women Protagonists

By Paul Vidich — Electric Lit

For the first time in the agency’s 74-year history, women dominate the upper ranks of the CIA. Since 2018, Gina Haspel has been the Director of Central Intelligence, and three of her top five directorates (support, analysis, and science & technology) are also headed by women.

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The Best Espionage Novels 2022

the year’s best spy novels and international thrillers

By CrimeReads

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The Best Espionage Novels of 2021

By CrimeReads

Perfume thieves, Silicon Valley spies, and Cold War slow-burns. We’re looking back at the year in spy fiction.

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The Best Spy Novels Written by Spies

By Alma Katsu — CrimeReads

It’s a perennial question: do spies write the best spy novels? It’s the business of secrets, after all; you can’t help but wonder how much authors get right. Surely, the only authentic spy books are the ones written by people on the inside, right?

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Top 125 Best Spy Authors Ranked

By Tim Shipman — Spybrary

Do we have a treat in store for you spy book fans!

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Amazon Best Sellers in Espionage Thrillers

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SPY BOOKS

“Spying is waiting.”
― Charles Cumming, A Foreign Country

The Director

The Director: A Novel by [David Ignatius]

By David Ignatius

Graham Weber has been the director of the CIA for less than a week when a Swiss kid in a dirty T-shirt walks into the American consulate in Hamburg and says the agency has been hacked, and he has a list of agents’ names to prove it. This is the moment a CIA director most dreads. Like the new world of cyber-espionage from which it’s drawn, The Director is a maze of double dealing, about a world where everything is written in zeroes and ones—and nothing can be trusted.

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Bloodmoney

a novel of espionage

Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage by [David Ignatius]

By David Ignatius

Someone in Pakistan is killing the members of a new CIA unit trying to buy peace with America’s enemies. It falls to Sophie Marx, a young officer with a big chip on her shoulder, to figure out who’s doing the killing and why. Unfortunately for Sophie, nothing is quite what it seems.

This is a theater of violence and revenge, in which the last act is one that Sophie could not have imagined.

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Body of Lies

Body of Lies: A Novel by [David Ignatius]

By David Ignatius

SCIA soldier Roger Ferris has come out of Iraq with a shattered leg and an intense mission— to penetrate the network of a master terrorist known only as “Suleiman.”

Ferris’s plan is inspired by a masterpiece of British intelligence during World War II: He prepares a body of lies, literally the corpse of an imaginary CIA officer who appears to have accomplished the impossible by recruiting an agent within the enemy’s ranks.

This scheme binds friend and foe in a web of extraordinary subtlety and complexity. When it begins to unravel, Ferris finds himself flying blind into a hurricane. His only hope is the urbane head of Jordan’s intelligence service.

But can Ferris trust him?

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Body of Lies on Prime Video

rent or buy

Body of Lies

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The Company

a novel of the cia

The Company: A Novel of the CIA by [Robert Littell]

By Robert Littell

The New York Times bestselling spy novel The Company lays bare the history and inner workings of the CIA. This critically acclaimed blockbuster from internationally renowned novelist Robert Littell seamlessly weaves together history and fiction to create a multigenerational, wickedly nostalgic saga of the CIA—known as “the Company” to insiders. Racing across a landscape spanning the legendary Berlin Base of the ’50s, the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Bay of Pigs, Afghanistan, and the Gorbachev putsch, The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an amoral, elusive, formidable enemy—and each other—in an internecine battle within the Company itself.

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The Book of Spies

An Anthology of Literary Espionage

The Book of Spies: An Anthology of Literary Espionage (Modern Library) by [Anthony Burgess, John Steinbeck, John le Carré, Rebecca West, Alan Furst]

By Anthony Burgess, John Steinbeck, John le Carré, Rebecca West, Alan Furst

An anthology of the world’s best literary espionage, selected by a contemporary master of the genre, Alan Furst.

Here is an extraordinary collection of work from some of the finest novelists of the twentieth century. Inspired by the politics of tyranny or war, each of these writers chose the base elements of spy fiction—highly evolved spy fiction—as the framework for a literary novel. Thus Alan Furst offers a diverse array of selections that combine raw excitement and intellectual sophistication in an expertly guided tour of the dark world of clandestine conflict.

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“One learns more from smiles than frowns.”
― Alan Furst, The Spies of Warsaw

 

Night Soldiers: A Novel by [Alan Furst]

By Alan Furst

Alan Furst has lived for long periods in France, especially in Paris, and has travelled as a journalist in Eastern Europe and Russia. He has written extensively.

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Alan Furst — A Hero of France

Speaking at Politics and Prose in 2016
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Writing Spy Novels

By Alan Furst

Alan Furst speaks about his evolution as a writer, his research and writing process.

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The Nightingale

The Nightingale: A Novel by [Kristin Hannah]

By Kristin Hannah

With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France—a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

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John Le Carré Espionage Novels

Absolute Friends (Le Carre, John) by [John le Carré]

By John le Carré

John le Carré was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy: Tinke, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy, and Smiley’s People. His novels include The Little Drummer Girl, A Perfect Spy, The Russia House, Our Game, The Taileor of Panama, and Single & Single. John le Carre lived in Cornwall.

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7 John Le Carré Novels

That Inspired Great Spy Thriller Movies and Series

By Maddie P — Collider

Whenever we think of spy fiction, it’s mostly James Bond that comes to mind. The primly dressed, suave, martini-loving gentleman, agent 007 glamorizes espionage. But if you want a completely different view of spycraft and spies, then there’s one creator that would serve your intrigue in just the way you expect.

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Wolf Trap

Wolf Trap: A Thriller by [Connor Sullivan]

By Connor Sullivan

Set a trap… See who comes.

Under the direction of the Special Activities Center in the Operations Directorate of the CIA, over three hundred highly trained agents operate in the darkest shadows of the country’s covert wars. Plucked from the highest echelons of America’s special mission units, these individuals go through rigorous training by the Agency to perfect the arts of assassination, sabotage, infiltration, and guerrilla warfare.

According to the United States government, this Ground Branch of the CIA does not exist. But when diplomacy and military intervention fails, the President of the United States calls upon it to solve America’s most dangerous crises.

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The Black Tulip

A Novel of War in Afghanistan

The Black Tulip: A Novel of War in Afghanistan by [Milton Bearden]

By Milton Bearden

Set in the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan and the equally hazardous headquarters of the CIA Operations Directorate in Washington, The Black Tulip is a fast-paced thriller, based on real events, by the legendary spy who masterminded the plot to arm Afghan freedom fighters in their holy war against the Soviets. A longtime veteran of the CIA, Bearden knows the tricks of the trade, the price of honor, the bonds of blood, and the enduring lure of retribution.

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The Riddle of the Sands

The Riddle of the Sands (Modern Library Classics) by [Erskine Childers, Milton Bearden]

By Erskine Childers

While on a sailing trip in the Baltic Sea, two young adventurers-turned-spies uncover a secret German plot to invade England. Written by Childers—who served in the Royal Navy during World War I—as a wake-up call to the British government to attend to its North Sea defenses, The Riddle of the Sands accomplished that task and has been considered a classic of espionage literature ever since, praised as much for its nautical action as for its suspenseful spycraft.

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Prince of Spies

The Richard Prince Thrillers Book 1

Prince of Spies (The Richard Prince Thrillers Book 1) by [Alex Gerlis]

By Alex Gerlis

1942: A German spy comes ashore on a desolate stretch of Lincolnshire beach. But he is hunted down by a young detective, Richard Prince. The secret services have need of a man like him…

In occupied Europe, Denmark is a hotbed of problems for British intelligence. Rumours of a war-ending weapon being developed by the Germans are rife.

Sent to Copenhagen, Prince is soon caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Dodging Gestapo agents, SS muscle and the danger of betrayal, his survival – and the war effort – hangs in the balance.

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Sea of Spies

The Richard Prince Thrillers Book 2

Sea of Spies (The Richard Prince Thrillers Book 2) by [Alex Gerlis]

By Alex Gerlis

The Allies are desperate to stop neutral Turkey supplying vital materials to the Nazis – materials which could help them win the war. But then a British agent makes a fatal mistake, and disappears in Istanbul.

In England, detective turned spy Richard Prince – back from a clandestine mission in Nazi-occupied Europe – is hunting for his lost son. Before long he is drawn into a dangerous follow-up operation, posing as a journalist in Turkey.

The mission soon goes wrong. Out of touch with London and stranded hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, Prince will have to find evidence of the Turks secret trade with the Nazis, as well as a way out.

Chances of survival? Low. Chance of completing his mission? Prince will do whatever it takes.

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Ring of Spies

The Richard Prince Thrillers Book 3

Ring of Spies (The Richard Prince Thrillers Book 3) by [Alex Gerlis]

By Alex Gerlis

Berlin, 1939: A German intelligence officer learns a top agent is quickly moving up the British Army ranks. He bides his time.

Arnhem, 1944: British paratroopers have been slaughtered in one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War. A shell shocked officer is convinced: the Germans knew they were coming.

But who betrayed them?

Back in London, Richard Prince, detective and spy, is approached by MI5 about a counterintelligence operation. Information is leaking and British troops are dying. Prince has to stop it, and crack the suspected spy ring at all costs. But in the world of espionage nothing is as it seems…

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Agent in Berlin

The Wolf Pack Spies Book 1

Agent in Berlin: 'A master of spy fiction to rival le Carré' David Young (The Wolf Pack Spies Book 1) by [Alex Gerlis]

By Alex Gerlis

War is coming to Europe.

British spymaster Barnaby Allen begins recruiting a network of agents in Germany. With diplomatic relations quickly unravelling, this pack of spies soon comes into their own: the horse-loving German at home in Berlin’s underground; the young American sports journalist; the mysterious Luftwaffe officer; the Japanese diplomat and the most unlikely one of all… the SS officer’s wife.

Despite constant danger and the ever-present threats of discovery and betrayal, Allen’s network unearths top-secret plans for a new German fighter plane – and a truly devastating intelligence prize… an audacious Japanese plan to attack the United States. But can they prove it?

The race is on.

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Running into the Darkness

Running into the Darkness: an Espionage Conspiracy Thriller (The Deepest Darkness series Book 1) by [D. A. Bale]
By D. A. Bale

Samantha never intended to kill the President. As a doctor, she swore an oath to protect life – not take it. But that was before he ordered the murder of her family.

Swept from the frigid New York City winter, Dr. Samantha Bartlett returns to the Midwest to once again confront the sting of death – and face those she left behind. But she’s not alone. A strange man she dubs “Shades” haunts her every step as she seeks answers to the inferno which claimed her grandmother’s life, an eerie reminder of her parents’ deaths. The secrets Samantha uncovers forever shatter the image of those she only thought she knew.

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The Adults in the Room

A Tim Hall Mystery

The Adults in the Room: A Tim Hall Mystery by [Jeffrey Mechling, Kathleen Ryder, Marie Groves]
By Jeffrey Mechling

A former CIA operative, Tim Hall believed his life had moved on for the better after a forced resignation. His memories lost after a tragic accident, he could only recall bits and pieces of his previous spy-work days, with flashbacks returning in the form of dreams and nightmares.

After falling in love with a voluptuous local bartender in Baltimore, Tim was finally looking forward to spending the rest of his days in peace and harmony. A shadow of his former self, this was an opportunity to redeem himself from the life of sabotage and global intelligence.

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Red Widow

Red Widow by [Alma Katsu]

By Alma Katsu

An exhilarating spy thriller written by an intelligence veteran about two women CIA agents whose paths become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division–one that’s coming from inside the agency.

Lyndsey Duncan worries her career with the CIA might be over. After lines are crossed with another intelligence agent during an assignment, she is sent home to Washington on administrative leave. So when a former colleague–now Chief of the Russia Division–recruits her for an internal investigation, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Lyndsey was once a top handler in the Moscow Field Station, where she was known as the “human lie detector” and praised for recruiting some of the most senior Russian officials. But now, three Russian assets have been exposed–including one of her own–and the CIA is convinced there’s a mole in the department. With years of work in question and lives on the line, Lyndsey is thrown back into life at the agency, this time tracing the steps of those closest to her.

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Red London

Red Widow Book 2

Red London (Red Widow Book 2) by [Alma Katsu]

By Alma Katsu

CIA agent Lyndsey Duncan has a new asset to turn, in order to prevent the most calculated global invasion of our time. But will their blossoming friendship get in the way?

After an explosive takedown of a well-placed mole within the CIA, agent Lyndsey Duncan has been tasked with keeping tabs on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. She arrives in London fully focused on the assignment at hand, until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, the very person responsible for ending her last mission overseas after they were caught in a whirlwind affair, personally calls for her.

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The Asset Spy

Spy thriller book 1

The Asset (Spy Thriller Book 1) by [Saul Herzog]

By Saul Herzog

Montana, USA
When Lance Spector quit the CIA, he swore he was out for good. One more government lie and he would go off the deep end. They could find someone else to do their dirty work. As far as he was concerned, Washington, Langley, the Pentagon could all go to hell.

Yekaterinburg, Russia
A secret Russian expedition returns with a devastating new pathogen, harvested from the frozen corpses of mammoths. It’s the biological super weapon they’ve been looking for, an apocalypse-level pathogen, a virus more deadly than anything ever to come out of a Russian lab. Something that will stop NATO and the Americans in their tracks.
A Biological Chernobyl.

Washington DC, USA
A mysterious vial, sealed in a titanium case, arrives at CIA headquarters. They have no idea who sent it, but it comes with a note.  “I will only speak to Lance Spector.”

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The Soviet Sisters

a novel of the cold war

The Soviet Sisters: A Novel of the Cold War by [Anika Scott]

By Anika Scott

A gripping new historical novel filled with secrets, lies, and betrayals, following two spy sisters during the Cold War

Sisters Vera and Marya were brought up as good Soviets: obedient despite hardships of poverty and tragedy, committed to communist ideals, and loyal to Stalin. Several years after fighting on the Eastern front, both women find themselves deep in the mire of conflicts shaping a new world order in 1947 Berlin. When Marya, an interpreter, gets entangled in Vera’s cryptic web of deceit and betrayal, she must make desperate choices to survive—and protect those she loves.

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The Crimson Thread

The Crimson Thread by [Kate Forsyth]

By Kate Forsyth

In Crete during World War II, Alenka, a young woman who fights with the resistance against the brutal Nazi occupation, finds herself caught between her traitor of a brother and the man she loves, an undercover agent working for the Allies.

May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks, and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers.

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The Librarian Spy

The Librarian Spy: A Novel of World War II by [Madeline Martin]

By Madeline Martin

Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence.

Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It’s a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. Yet she knows that the Nazis are searching for the press and its printer in order to silence them.

As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war.

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Yesterday’s Spy

Yesterday's Spy: A Novel by [Tom Bradby]

By Tom Bradby

London, 1953. Harry Towers is a recently retired, and even more recently widowed, British intelligence officer. But he springs to action when hears that his estranged son Sean has disappeared in Tehran after writing a damning article about the involvement of government officials in the opium trade.

In Tehran, a city on the brink of a historic coup, Harry’s career as a spy soon proves perfect training for this much more personal mission as American, British, Iranian, and French players flit in and out of the scene. But as the first attempt at a coup in the city fails and foreign powers jockey for oil, money, and influence, Sean’s disappearance takes on a more sinister tone. Was he really taken in retribution for his reporting, or is this an attempt to silence a globally significant revelation he was preparing to make?

Or, most terrifying of all, does Sean’s disappearance have nothing to do with him at all? Has Harry’s past caught up to them all?

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The Barista’s Guide to Espionage

an eva destruction novel

The Barista's Guide To Espionage: An Eva Destruction Novel by [Dave Sinclair]

By Dave Sinclair

There’s a new girl in town and she’s come to kick some ass.

Meet Eva Destruction, the only thing quicker than her mouth is her talent for getting into trouble. It’s true she’s always had an eye for a bad boy but when she falls for billionaire super-villain Harry Lancing, it seems that even Eva may have bitten off more than she can chew. Eva hurtles headlong into terrorist attacks, assassinations, car chases and the occasional close encounter with a dashing spy who seems determined to charm Eva into bed as he is to thwart Lancing’s plans to bring down every government on Earth.

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The Swamp

Deceit and Corruption in the CIA

The Swamp : Deceit and Corruption in the CIA (An Elizabeth Petrov Thriller Book 1) by [Jeff Grant]

By Jeff Grant

An Elizabeth Petrov Thriller—Book 1

The Russians have developed a weapons system so powerful and deadly it could alter the balance of power in the world—and in space. What happens when an admittedly nerdy CalTech physics grad, a former model rocket enthusiast turned Ph.D., working at NASA’s renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory in sunny Pasadena, is recruited by a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) desperate to close the gap?

Dr. Elizabeth Petrov was brought to the US as a toddler from Russia by her grandfather and speaks the language like a native. Her unique combination of birthright, education, and experience studying the field of hypersonic flight, where spacecraft can reach speeds over five times the speed of sound, brings her country calling. From all indications, the Russian system will soon be operational, a fact too chilling to even entertain.

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Jeff Grant

By Peter Eisner — SpyTalk

An ex-CIA man’s debut thriller dives deep into politics amid foreign threats.

  • How far would a U.S. government official go to protect secrets and maintain power in the belief that he or she was acting for the greater good?
  • Would they risk their lives? Would they threaten the lives of others?
  • In a divided country, seething with disinformation, who can we trust as the guarantors of American democracy?

These are the questions raised by former CIA officer Jeff Grant in his thought-provoking debut spy thriller, The Swamp.

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The Prince Is Missing

The Kori Briggs Series of Thriller Spy Novels

The Prince is Missing!: A Kori Briggs Adventure (The Kori Briggs Series of Thriller Spy Novels) by [A.P. Rawls]

By A.P. Rawls

She’s fun. She’s smart. She’s gorgeous…

…Oh, and she’s a real badass when she needs to be. She’s Kori Briggs, super spy, and if you haven’t spent any time with her yet, what the heck are you waiting for

In this fourth book of the popular A.P. Rawls series of Kori Briggs suspense spy thrillers, Kori has been tasked with the assignment of finding England’s missing Prince Grayson! All signs point to a kidnapping at the hands of an American ex-con, but Kori knows there’s much more to the story. Follow her and her trusty Russian sidekick Anya Kovalev as they scour the grand city of London for clues to the prince’s disappearance.

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Adaptation Of The Bannerman Spy Novels

By Shania Russell — Slash Film

AMC has acquired the rights to the spy series and Shane Black has signed on as executive producer to turn the critically-acclaimed novels into a TV series.

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A Spy Among Friends Review

An elegant Cold War thriller

By Manuel Betancourt — AV Club

The title for A Spy Among Friends, last year’s British thriller that makes its MGM+ premiere on March 12, intentionally flirts with the glaring tension its narrative rests on. The spy genre, after all, depends on a timeless mantra—“trust no one”—that seems to stand in clear contradistinction to what one expects from one’s friendships. 

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A Spy Among Friends

Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by [Ben Macintyre, John le Carré]

By Ben Macintyre

Who was Kim Philby?

Those closest to him—like his fellow MI6 officer and best friend since childhood, Nicholas Elliot, and the CIA’s head of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton—knew him as a loyal confidant and an unshakeable patriot. Philby was a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union. Together with Elliott and Angleton he stood on the front lines of the Cold War, holding Communism at bay. But he was secretly betraying them both: He was working for the Russians the entire time.

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Agent Sonya

the spy next door

Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy by [Ben Macintyre]

By Ben Macintyre

In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her.

They didn’t know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn’t know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb.

Moscow’s most daring wartime spy!

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Third Eye Spies

Third Eye Spies

For more than 20 years the CIA studied psychic abilities for use in their top-secret spy program. With previously classified details about ESP now finally coming to light, there can be no more secrets.

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Look! It’s FREEE!

Target One

The Spy Game—Book #1

Target One (The Spy Game—Book #1) by [Jack Mars]

By Jack Mars

Jacob Snow—elite soldier-turned-CIA agent, haunted by his tortured past—is one of the CIA’s greatest assets, and is dispatched when the stakes are highest. When an ancient Egyptian relic goes missing under mysterious circumstances, Jacob knows this is no run-of-the-mill robbery: the relic holds a secret—one that could destroy everything.

Jacob seeks out a mysterious and beautiful archeologist, whose brilliance is needed on the case. Together, they must partner to decode the archeological riddles and stop the terrorists before it is too late.

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Target Two

The Spy Game—Book #2

Target Two (The Spy Game—Book #2) by [Jack Mars]

By Jack Mars

Jacob Snow—elite soldier-turned-CIA agent, haunted by his tortured past—is one of the CIA’s greatest assets. When a terrorist group sets its eyes on the greatest archeological treasure of the holiest city, Jacob, dispatched, knows he has little time to reach Jerusalem before it sparks an international war.

Jacob knows, even more, that he cannot solve the case without partnering with the mysterious archeologist he hopes to not fall in love with.

As they spring into action to decode the ancient riddles and stop them, they soon realize the plot goes deeper than they could have imagined. With the fate of the world in the balance, they may just be out of time.

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Coming April 25, 2023
Pre-Order Now!

Target Three

The Spy Game—Book #3

Target Three (The Spy Game—Book #3) by [Jack Mars]

By Jack Mars

Jacob Snow, elite soldier-turned-CIA agent, must race into action when a new terrorist group arises with a terrifying weapon: a deadly disease, lying dormant underwater for centuries. If unleashed, it will wreak unimaginable destruction—and Jacob is the only one who can stop it.

But the path to finding it lies through an ancient relic. And the only one brilliant enough to unravel its symbolism is Jana, Jacob’s mysterious partner and archeologist.

Together, they must find and stop the terrorists before its too late. But in a shocking twist, Jacob realizes that his own path may just come back to bring him down.

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The Deadly Secret

A Danika Stone Series Book 1

The Deadly Secret: A CIA Assassin Political Espionage Spy Thriller (A Danika Stone Series Book 1) by [J.K. Hopkins]

By J.K. Hopkins

A Middle Eastern terrorist state has developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons … and is determined to use them.

With a nuclear showdown looming, the President must choose between launching a first strike or gambling on the CIA to execute a perilous mission that could cost thousands of lives but spare the world from a much more terrifying outcome.

Brilliant, lethal and an expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Agent Danika Stone is uniquely qualified for the daring assignment that was little more than a laundry list of unattainable objectives with impossible deadlines. It was a suicidal operation from which she was not likely to return.

And that was the good news.

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Project Aurora

Project Aurora Thrillers Book 1
1Project Aurora: An action-packed Big Tech conspiracy thriller (Project Aurora Thrillers Book 1) by [Daniel Pelfrey]

By Daniel Pelfrey

The Central Intelligence Agency has a hidden hand in the tech world, controlling an intricate web of corporate entities carefully concealed from the public. All for their own nefarious ends – to gather intelligence, weaponize social media outlets, and craft the ultimate human agent.

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Damascus Station

Book 1 of 2

Damascus Station: A Novel by [David McCloskey]

By David McCloskey 

CIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad’s recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy.

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coming october 3, 2023

Moscow X

Book 2 of 2

Moscow X: A Novel by [David McCloskey]

By David McCloskey 

A daring CIA plot threatens chaos in the Kremlin. Its execution is foiled by a Russian woman with secret loyalties.

CIA operatives Sia and Max enter Russia to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London firm that conceals the wealth of the super-rich. Max’s family business in Mexico—a CIA front since the 1960s—is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple, and their targets are Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife, Anna, who is both a banker and an intelligence officer. 

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The Berlin Exchange

The Berlin Exchange: A Novel by [Joseph Kanon]

By Joseph Kanon 

Berlin, 1963. An early morning spy swap, not at the familiar setting for such exchanges, nor at Checkpoint Charlie, where international visitors cross into the East, but at a more discreet border crossing, usually reserved for East German VIPs. The Communists are trading two American students caught helping people to escape over the wall and an aging MI6 operative. On the other side of the trade: Martin Keller, a physicist who once made headlines, but who then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller’s most critical possession: his American passport. Keller’s most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife Sabine and their young son.

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Triple Cross

The Kate Henderson Thrillers Book 1

Triple Cross (The Kate Henderson Thrillers) by [Tom Bradby]

By Tom Bradby

Attempting to rebuild her shattered life on vacation in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell—and he needs her help.

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Double Agent

The Kate Henderson Thrillers Book 2

Double Agent (The Kate Henderson Thrillers Book 2) by [Tom Bradby]

By Tom Bradby

Kidnapped in Venice by a Russian defector, Kate knows she’s in trouble. But when he offers her conclusive video evidence that the British Prime Minister is a live agent working for Moscow, Kate’s holiday quickly becomes the start of her next mission.

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Secret Service

The Kate Henderson Thrillers Book 3

Secret Service (The Kate Henderson Thrillers) by [Tom Bradby]

By Tom Bradby

An MI6 officer must find a traitor hiding within the highest ranks of government.

Senior MI6 officer Kate Henderson is in possession of the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb. She heads up the Russia Desk of the Secret Intelligence Service, and one of her undercover operations has revealed some alarming evidence that a senior UK politician is a high-level Russian informer.

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The Matchmaker

A Spy in Berlin

The Matchmaker: A Spy in Berlin by [Paul Vidich]

By Paul Vidich

An American woman targeted by the Stasi must confront the truth behind her German husband’s mysterious disappearance.

Berlin, 1989.  Protests across East Germany threaten the Iron Curtain and Communism is the ill man of Europe.

Anne Simpson, an American who works as a translator at the Joint Operations Refugee Committee, thinks she is in a normal marriage with a charming East German. But then her husband disappears and the CIA and Western German intelligence arrive at her door.

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The Moscow Rules

The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War

The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War by [Antonio J. Mendez, Jonna Mendez]

By Antonio J. Mendez and Jonna Mendez

“From the spymaster and inspiration for the movie Argo, discover the real-life spy thriller of the brilliant but under-supported CIA operatives who developed breakthrough spy tactics that helped turn the tide of the Cold War.” — Malcolm Nance

Antonio Mendez and his future wife Jonna were CIA operatives working to spy on Moscow in the late 1970s, at one of the most dangerous moments in the Cold War. Soviets kept files on all foreigners, studied their patterns, and tapped their phones. Intelligence work was effectively impossible. The Soviet threat loomed larger than ever.

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ARGO

How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History

Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by [Antonio Mendez, Matt Baglio]

By Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio

The true, declassified account of CIA operative Tony Mendez’s daring rescue of American hostages from Iran that inspired the critically-acclaimed film directed by and starring Ben Affleck, and co-starring John Goodman, Alan Arkin, and Bryan Cranston.

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and captured dozens of American hostages, sparking a 444-day ordeal and a quake in global politics still reverberating today. But there is a little-known drama connected to the crisis: six Americans escaped. And a top-level CIA officer named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious yet incredibly risky plan to rescue them before they were detected.

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The Slough House Novels

By Mick Herron

Mick Herron’s eight Slough House novels have been shortlisted for eight CWA Daggers, winning twice, and shortlisted for the Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year three times. The first, Slow Horses, was picked as one of the best twenty spy novels of all time by the Daily Telegraph, while Joe Country was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller.

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The Syndicate Spy

A Juliet Arroway Novel

The Syndicate Spy: A Juliet Arroway Novel by [Brittany Butler]

By Brittany Butler

“Sacrifices must be made; battles will be lost. It is always this way in a quest for change.”

In the near future, Earth’s oil reserves are depleted. Nations grapple to find an alternative energy source. Terrorists race for control over world resources. And the Syndicate—a conglomerate of allied intelligence agencies—struggles to maintain peace.

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The Vienna Connection

Darren Priest Mysteries Book 1

The Vienna Connection (Darren Priest Mysteries Book 1) by [Dick Rosano]

By Dick Rosano

Former intelligence expert Darren Priest tries to distance himself from his old life, and turns to a new vocation as a wine and food writer.

He quickly discovers that some things you can’t un-volunteer for. Called to Vienna by the U.S. President, Priest undertakes a covert mission where friend quickly turns into foe.

With numerous enemies threatening his mission, can Priest figure out whom to trust – and keep the Vienna Connection a secret?

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The Etruscan Connection

Darren Priest Mysteries Book 2

The Etruscan Connection (Darren Priest Mysteries Book 2) by [Dick Rosano]

By Dick Rosano

After a distinguished scientist dies under suspicious circumstances at an archaeological dig in Tuscany, Darren Priest and Alana Weber are called in to investigate.

They discover that the now-deceased scientist’s work was focused on Italy’s earliest history, and the possible connection to the mysterious Etruscan people. Ancient coins found at the site point to the Lydian Kingdom of Turkey, but also to nefarious activities, the Curse of Croesus, and the possibility that the origins of Roman Empire would have to be called to question.

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The Paletti Notebook

Darren Priest Mysteries Book 3

The Paletti Notebook (Darren Priest Mysteries 3) by [Dick Rosano]

By Dick Rosano

Florence, 1553. An assassin sent by Arma Dei disappears into the night, with him a collection of heretical art and writings.

For five centuries the satchel, containing sketches and writings by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and many others, is pursued by kings, popes, princes, and scavengers. The Paletti Notebook lives on through rumor and legend, which also suggest that it contains the infamous Gospel of Matthias, thought to be lost forever.

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Ashes and Smoke

A Dominic Bellagio Thriller

Ashes and Smoke: A Dominic Bellagio Thriller (Dominic Bellagio Thriller Series Book 1) by [Adam James]

By Adam James

Following a lifetime of undercover operations, Dominic Bellagio takes refuge in Southern California where he’s living the quiet life at the beach surfing, fishing, jogging along the shore and playing keyboards in a local jazz combo.

Then his old black ops partner, Eduardo “Cat” Catalanos, shows up out of nowhere with a load of unfinished business that upends Dominic’s relationship with his new girlfriend and propels him into the shadow world of betrayal and sudden death that he thought he’d left behind so long ago.

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SPY NOVELISTS

AP Rawls

Robert Baer

Bayard & Holmes

Milton Bearden 

Mark Bowden

Yossef Bodansky

James Bruno

Brittany Butler

Jack Carr

Charles Cumming

Len Deighton

Alan Furst

Kristin Hannah

Mick Herron

Saul Herzog

David Ignatius

Adam James

Sebastian Junger

Andrew Kaplan

Alma Katsu

Philip Kerr

John le Carré

Robert Littell

Ben Macintyre

Jack Mars

John R. Maxim

Mark Mazzetti

George Orwell

Chris Pavone

Dick Rosano

Martin Cruz Smith

Olen Steinhauer

David Vinjamuri

Valerie Plame Wilson

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