A Few Recommended Espionage Books

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It’s no secret I’ve spent most of my career working counterespionage and counterintelligence (it’s in all my bios and I appear publicly as a Special Agent of the FBI). i get asked what my favorite espionage/spy novels are enough that I thought I’d share a few. I’m also adding a couple of non-fiction titles. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but off the top of my head (so don’t rake me over the coals if I left off one of your favorites!). Plus, I’m always on the lookout for other titles, so feel free to name a few for me!

Some thoughts on espionage and spy stories: One thing that has always irked me is most spy novels (movies, TV shows, etc.) tend to glorify the spy, or at least follow the spy closely and have us cheer them on. What we don’t typically find in entertainment is the process of catching a spy or perhaps using the spy as an unwitting participant in a larger game, making the spy believe they are working for us, when in fact we’re using the spy to pass information we want country x to believe—a disinformation campaign. For me, that type of story is way more interesting than one where we follow a spy around hoping they won’t get caught. Those stories are suspenseful and full of tension, of course, but catching a spy can be as equally suspenseful and tense.

In no particular order:

  • Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carre’ - why? Well, it’s a book, TV series (with Alec Guiness!), and a film which deal with an insider threat. Someone inside is the spy and the intelligence service is trying to catch the insider. Great stuff. I enjoy the George Smiley books a great deal, and would also toss in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (also a great film with Richard Burton).

  • The Miernik Dossier - Charles McCarry - McCarry’s been called the American John le Carre’, and is often compared to him. But he’s really his own thing—like le Carre’ he was a professional, and that’s probably where the comparison comes into play. The Paul Christopher series is for you if you’re interested in the way U.S. intelligence services operate.

  • Slow Horses - Mick Herron - I love this series, Slough House, which is a dumping ground for British Intelligence Agents who have screwed up. I love that premise, and Herron is a wonderful story teller (also a great guy—I was on a panel with him once and chatted with him at the bar afterward).

  • The IPCRESS File - Len Deighton -in the films he’s called Harry Palmer (played by Michael Caine), but try the first three books: IPCRESS, Horse Under Water, and Funeral In Berlin. Unlike the erudite, well-educated, people inhabiting other espionage novels, Deighton’s protagonist is more blue-collar, which makes some of the interactions with other characters so much fun.

  • The Mask Of Dimitrios - Eric Ambler - if you can find Epitaph For A Spy, go for that one, too. These are books published in the 1930s, but don’t let that deter you! I’d say Ambler’s books have a bit of the Hitchcock type character who’s out of his depth or the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  • The 39 Steps, John Buchan — this one was originally serialized way back in 1915! This is a man on the run type thriller. There’s a Hitchcock film of the same name, if you’d rather watch than read. It’s a quick read, but again, this is a man who at first appears as if he’s in over his head, but puts the best interests of his country before his own. World War I was already raging when this was written, so it was timely to say the least.

  • Our Man In Havana - Graham Greene - he also wrote the screenplay for The Third Man, an excellent film. Also check out The Confidential Agent and The Quiet American.

  • Daniel Silva - He’s best known for his Israeli art restorer who also happens to be a spy and assassin. If that doesn’t do it for you, try his first book: The Unlikely Spy - this takes place during World War II and focuses on the Allied attempt to obfuscate the D-Day landings.

  • Ashenden — W. Somerset Maugham — not a novel, but a collection of loosely related short stories about a British agent.

There are so many more, and I’m sure there are more modern examples, but I’m so drawn to the past that I tend to stick with those for the most part. I purposely left off James Bond, but there are a couple Fleming books that aren’t completely outlandish—From Russia With Love, Moonraker (this film is outlandish, but the book is not!), Casino Royale. Oh, and then there’s Alan Furst—oh, and many, many more. I’ll stop. And for science fiction and fantasy fans there are espionage/spy novels there, too—but that’s a different list.

I do have a couple non-fiction recommendations.

  • The Spy And The Traitor - Ben Macintyre - the story of a KGB official who spied for the British. Macintyre’s other books are almost equally as fascinating. There’s also one on Kim Philby and some others on WWII deception campaigns.

  • The Sword And The Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive and the History of the KGB - fascinating insight into how Mitrokhin spent years amassing KGB documents and handing it over to the Brits.

There are a great many non-fiction books on spies and tradecraft, especially World War II and Cold War. I think I’ll create another list of films and TV shows—though many of the novels above were made into films or TV shows, so you could track them down and likely find others while you’re at it.

Let me know some of your favorites!