Step into the shadowy world of espionage and international political intrigue with pulse-pounding thrillers of spy novels. From the masterful classic 'The Day of the Jackal' by Frederick Forsyth to the witty and shrewd 'Our Man in Havana' by Graham Greene and the gripping 'The Spy who came in from the Cold' by John Le Carre, these novels will captivate you at every turn. Delve into the minds of slick spies and mysterious agents as they navigate high-stakes missions. These page-turners will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Whether you're a seasoned fan of the genre or just looking for a thrilling new read, spy novels and intelligence thrillers are sure to leave you breathless.
Click on the book cover to order from Amazon.com!
David Baldacci
The Fix
Amos Decker Series - Book 3
2018 (First published: 2017)
Amos Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters. A man shoots a woman execution-style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself. An agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency, orders Decker to back off the case. Decker must forge an uneasy alliance with the Defense Intelligence Agency to prevent an international incident that could spell the end of the United States as we know it.
Check Price on AmazonFrederick Forsyth
The Day of the Jackal
2007 (First published: 1971)
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 one of the world's most heavily guarded man. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal.
Check Price on AmazonFrederick Forsyth
The Deceiver
1992 (First published: 1991)
Sam McCready serves Britain as Chief of Deception & Disinformationfor the British Secret Intelligence Service. He's competent, dedicated, in his prime. Why then this push to get him out? The options are painful -- early retirement or an administrative backwater. Who wants him out, and why? And what happens if he refuses to go quietly? It's a wild card, confrontational, risky.
Check Price on AmazonGraham Grene
Our Man in Havana
2007 (First published: 1958)
Mr. Wormold, salesman of vacuum cleaners in a city of power brokers becomes a spy for the British MI6 to earn some extra income. This crisply written spy novel will drag you down with almost unbearable tension, while at the same time make you giggle with its parodies and absurd plot. A true masterpiece!
Check Price on AmazonJack Carr
Savage Son: A Thriller
Book 3 of Terminal List
2020
Former Navy SEAL James Reece must infiltrate the Russian mafia and turn the hunters into the hunted. Deep in the wilds of Siberia, a woman is on the run, pursued by a man harboring secrets—a man intent on killing her.
Check Price on AmazonJohn Le Carré
Call for the Dead
George Smiley Novel - Book 1
2020 (First published: 1961)
After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds 'Circus' head Maston is trying to blame him for the man's death, he begins his own investigation, meeting with Fennan's widow to find out what could have led him to such desperation. But on the very day that Smiley is ordered off the enquiry he receives an urgent letter from the dead man.
Check Price on AmazonJohn Le Carré
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Georg Smiley Novels - Book 3
2013 (First published: 1963)
In Le Carré's first masterpiece Alec Leamas, a British agent in early Cold War Berlin, is responsible for keeping the double agents under his care undercover and alive. When the East Germans start killing them, Leamas is sent deep into Communist territory to find out why. "The finest spy story ever written" (Graham Green).
Check Price on AmazonJohn Le Carré
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spie
George Smiley Novel - Book 5
2000 (First published: 1974)
George Smiley, former senior official in Britain's Secret Intelligence Service is living unhappily in forced retirement - following the failure of an operation codenamed Testify in Czechoslovakia which ended in the capture and torture of agent Jim Prideaux. "Control", chief of the Service, had suspected that one of the five senior intelligence officers at the SIS was a Soviet mole, and had assigned them code names - derived from the English children's rhyme "Tinker, Tailor".
Check Price on AmazonJohn Le Carré
Smiley's People
George Smiley Novel - Book 7
2020 (First published: 1979)
A Soviet defector has been assassinated on English soil, and George Smiley is called back to the 'Circus' to cover up the mess. But what he discovers sends him delving into the past, on a trail through Hamburg and Paris to Cold War Berlin - and a final showdown with his elusive nemesis, Karla. The last confrontation between the indefatigable spymaster and his great enemy, as their rivalry comes to a shattering end.
Check Price on AmazonLen Deighton
The IPCRESS File
Harry Palmer Novels - Book 1
2021 (First published: 1962)
A high-ranking scientist has been kidnapped. A secret British intelligence agency must find out why. What seemed a straightforward mission turns into something far more sinister. With its sardonic, cool, working-class hero, Len Deighton's sensational debut The IPCRESS File rewrote the spy thriller and became the defining novel of 1960's London.
Check Price on AmazonLen Deighton
Horse Under Water
Harry Palmer Novels - Book 2
2021 (First published: 1963)
A sunken U-Boat has lain undisturbed on the Atlantic ocean floor since the Second World War - until now. Inside its rusting hull, among the corpses of top-rank, lie secrets people will kill to obtain. Harry Palmer is sent from fogbound London to the Algarve, where he must dive through layers of deceit in a place rotten with betrayals.
Check Price on AmazonLen Deighton
Funeral in Berlin
Harry Palmer Novels - Book 3
2021 (First published: 1964)
1963 Berlin is dark and dangerous. The anonymous hero has been sent to help arrange the defection of a leading Soviet scientist - in an elaborate mock coffin. But, as he soon discovers, this deception hides an even deadlier truth. One of the first novels written after the construction of the Berlin Wall, the novel revels in the murky, chilling atmosphere of a divided city.
Check Price on AmazonLen Deighton
The Billon Dollar Brain
Harry Palmer Novels - Book 4
2021 (First published: 1966)
Texan billionaire General Midwinter will stop at nothing to bring down the USSR - even if it puts the whole world at risk. Palmer is sent from his shabby Soho office to bone-freezing Helsinki in order to penetrate Midwinter's vast anti-Communist network - and stop a deadly virus from wiping out the planet.
Check Price on AmazonNelson DeMille
The Lion's Game
John Corey - Book 2
2001 (First published: 2000)
Detective John Corey now faces his toughest assignment yet: the pursuit and capture of the world's most dangerous terrorist -- a young Arab known as "The Lion" who has baffled a federal task force and shows no sign of stopping in his quest for revenge against the American pilots who bombed Libya and killed his family.
Check Price on AmazonNelson DeMille
Radiant Angel
John Corey - Book 7
2016 (First published: 2015)
John Corey has left the Anti-Terrorist Task Force and returned home to New York City, taking a job surveilling Russian diplomats working at the U.N. Mission. It is thought to be "a quiet end". But Corey realizes something the U.S. government doesn't: The all-too-real threat of a newly resurgent Russia. Then Vasily Petrov, a colonel in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service posing as a UN diplomat, mysteriously disappears
Check Price on AmazonRichard Condon
The Manchurian Candidate
2013 (First published: 1959)
Sgt Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a POW he is a 'sleeper', a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. Was made into an excellent movie - starring Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.
Check Price on AmazonVince Flynn / Kyle Mills
Enemy at the Gates
Book 20 of Mitch Rapp Series
2022
CIA counterterrorist agent Mitch Rapp has decided to back away from his proffesional life, but then the world’s richest man asks Mitch to rescue a scientist, who’s bio research compound has been burned to the ground and is on the run from an African terrorist.
Check Price on AmazonVince Flynn / Kyle Mills
Oath of Loyalty
Book 21 of Mitch Rapp Series
2022
The new murder business is based on double-blind secrecy. Neither the killer nor the client knows the other’s identity. Because of this, assassins can’t be called off nor can they afford to fail. No matter how long it takes until their target is dead.
Check Price on Amazon
Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligence agencies.
It was given new impetus by the development of fascism and communism in the lead-up to World War II, continued to develop during the Cold War, and received a fresh impetus from the emergence of rogue states, international criminal organizations, global terrorist networks, maritime piracy and technological sabotage and espionage as potent threats to Western societies.
As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure and the politico-military thriller. It started to emerge during the 19th Century. Early examples of the espionage novel are "The Spy" (1821) and "The Bravo" (1831), by American novelist James Fenimore Cooper.
Modern spy novels are usually written by insiders, such as former intelligence officers or members of special operations teams. American examples include Barry Eisler, "A Clean Kill in Tokyo" (2002); Charles Gillen, "Saigon Station" (2003); R J Hillhouse, "Rift Zone" (2004); Gene Coyle, "The Dream Merchant of Lisbon" (2004) and "No Game For Amateurs" (2009); Thomas F. Murphy, "Edge of Allegiance" (2005); Mike Ramsdell, "A Train to Potevka" (2005); T.H.E. Hill, ´"Voices Under Berlin" (2008); Duane Evans, "North from Calcutta" (2009); Jason Matthews, "Red Sparrow" (2013) and T.L. Williams, "Zero Day: China's Cyber Wars" (2017).
More on Wikipedia