Books About Espionage

1. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold- John le Carre

   Readers said:
   "beautifully crafted novel and very entertaining", "angry, grim", "seminal spy novel", "cold war spies"
    

   In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse-a desk job-Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service-with himself as the bait. In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants.
   Setting a standard that has never been surpassed, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a devastating tale of duplicity and espion ...Read More

    
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2. Slow Horses- Mick Herron

   Readers said:
   "clever original tense", "above average, nicely complicated", "sly humour and tension", "too much detail"
    

   You don't stop being a spook just because you're no longer in the game.
   Banished to Slough House from the ranks of achievers at Regent's Park for various crimes of drugs and drunkenness, lechery and failure, politics and betrayal, Jackson Lamb's misfit crew of highly trained joes don't run ops, they push paper.
   But not one of them joined the Intelligence Service to be a 'slow horse'.
   A boy is kidnapped and held hostage. His beheading is scheduled for live broadcast on the net. And whatever the instructions of the Service, the slow horses aren't going to just sit quiet and watch . .
   'As a master of wit, satire, insight… Herron is difficult to overpraise' Daily Telegraph
   ...Read More

    
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3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy- John le Carre

   Readers said:
   "a mole hunt", "brilliantly written, plotted and imagined", "a gripping read", "very well written"
    

   The man he knew as "Control" is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn't quite ready for retirement-especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley recognizes the hand of Karla-his Moscow Centre nemesis-and sets a trap to catch the traitor.
   The Oscar-nominated feature film adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) and features Gary Oldman as Smiley, Academy Award winner Colin Firth (The King's Speech), and Tom Hardy (Inception).< ...Read More

    
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4. The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War- Ben Macintyre

   Readers said:
   "fantastic", "well-researched and written", "easy to follow and intriguing", "cold war espionage"
    

   If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasing ...Read More

    
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5. Need to Know- Karen Cleveland

   Readers said:
   "tight and fast pace", "suspense filled thriller", "believable, fast paced", "suspenseful, emotional and gripping"
    

   Vivian Miller. High-powered CIA analyst, happily married to a man she adores, mother of four beautiful children. Until the moment she makes a shocking discovery that makes her question everything she believes.
   She thought she knew her husband inside and out. But now she wonders if it was all a lie. How far will she go to learn the truth? And does she really . . .
   . . . NEED TO KNOW?
   NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
   FINALIST FOR THE ITW THRILLER AWARD
   Perfect husband. Perfect father. Perfect liar?
   "Terrific."-John Grisham
   "Superb."-Lee Child
   "Breathtaking, heart-pounding."-Louise Penny
   "A fast-paced, relentlessly gripping read."-Chris Pavone
   Film ...Read More

    
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6. I Am Pilgrim- Terry Hayes

   Readers said:
   "first person thriller", "undercover government work", "fast-paced and deliberate", "a perfect summer read"
    

   A breakneck race against time…and an implacable enemy.
   An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid.
   A father publicly beheaded in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square.
   A notorious Syrian biotech expert found eyeless in a Damascus junkyard.
   Smoldering human remains on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan.
   A flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity.
   One path links them all, and only one man can make the journey.
   Pilgrim.
   "I Am Pilgrim is simply one of the best suspense novels I've read in a long time." -David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author
   "A big, ...Read More

    
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7. Casino Royale- Ian Fleming

   Readers said:
   "cold war spy novel", "spare writing and plotting", "casinos and gambling", "short, to the point"
    

   There is only one Bond.
   Discover the nation's favourite spy in the addictive first novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. Catch up on this classic adventure before the release of No Time to Die.
   Le Chiffre is a businessman with expensive tastes, and SMERSH's chief operative in France. But as his dissolute lifestyle threatens to ruin him, his only hope is to risk his paymasters' money at the card table.
   James Bond, the finest gambler in the service, has a deadly new mission: to outplay Le Chiffre and shatter his Soviet cell.
   Amidst the opulence of Casino Royale, the two men face each other for a game with the highest stakes of all.
   'Bond is a hero for all time' Jeffr ...Read More

    
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8. The Day of the Jackal- Frederick Forsyth

   Readers said:
   "well-researched and well-written", "a classic thriller", "fast paced political thriller", "lame plot device"
    

   THE CLASSIC THRILLER FROM #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR FREDERICK FORSYTH
   "The Day of the Jackal makes such comparable books such as The Manchurian Candidate and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold seem like Hardy Boy mysteries."-The New York Times
   The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man.
   One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it s ...Read More

    
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9. American Assassin- Vince Flynn

   Readers said:
   "well-written and fast-paced", "believable and exciting", "fast paced novel", "cia counter-terrorism operative"
    

   In #1 New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn's explosive and "captivating" (Glenn Beck) thriller, witness the young Mitch Rapp as he takes on his first assignment.
   Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world…and then tragedy struck. Terrorists attacked innocent American citizens, and Rapp's girlfriend was among the murdered. Two hundred and seventy souls perished on that cold December night, and thousands of family and friends were left searching for comfort. Mitch Rapp was one of them, but he was not interested in comfort. Now he wants retribution.
   Two decades of cutthroat partisan politics have left the CIA and the country in an increasingly vulnerabl ...Read More

    
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10. Our Man in Havana- Graham Greene

    Readers said:
    "absurdist espionage novel", "fiction, a comic novel", "funny and prescient", "the cuban missile crisis"
     

    MI6's man in Havana is Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Charles Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true… ...Read More

     
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See all the book recommendations at  https://www.meetnewbooks.com/find-books/espionage

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