Best Literary Spy
Under Western Eyes is a novel by Joseph Conrad, first published in 1911, that examines political violence, betrayal, and exile among Russian revolutionaries. Its central figure, the student Kirylo Sidorovitch Razumov, becomes entangled with the authorities after a revolutionary seeks refuge in his r...
American Tabloid is a 1995 historical crime novel by James Ellroy that serves as the first volume in his Underworld USA Trilogy. Spanning the years 1958 to 1963, the narrative explores the intersection of organized crime, the FBI, and the CIA, leading up to the assassination of President John F. Ken...
Cause for Alarm is a thriller novel by Eric Ambler, first published in 1938. The narrative follows Nicky Marlow, an unemployed British engineer who accepts a job in Fascist Italy on the eve of World War II. He soon discovers that his employer is involved in a complex international arms-dealing opera...
Kingdom of Shadows is Alan Furst's 2000 historical spy novel set in 1938 Paris, following a Hungarian diplomat who is reluctantly drawn into European underground resistance networks before World War II.
Leaving Berlin is a 2014 historical spy novel by Joseph Kanon set in post-World War II Berlin during the early Cold War era. The story follows Alex Meier, a German-born American writer who was blacklisted in Hollywood and agrees to return to the divided city on an intelligence mission. As tensions r...
"Shibumi" is a 1979 spy novel by American author Trevanian. The story centers on Nicholai Hel, a master assassin, western Go champion, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Seeking a state of "shibumi" (effortless perfection), Hel lives quietly in the Basque Country until he is drawn back...
