I love political / spy thriller. Some of my favourites are older classics of the genre like the Day of the Jackal and the Manchurian Candidate. I also love more recent stuff like the Mitch Rapp series and the Terminal List series.
Please recommend me a good political or spy thriller.
by SnooOnions8098
8 Comments
The Red Sparrow trilogy by Jason Matthews is fantastic. Can’t recommend highly enough if you like the whole spy thriller genre!
(The movie is eminently skippable though. There are only two reasons to watch it and they’re both attached to Jennifer Lawrence).
Phillip Kerr’s Berlin series.
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
I think this aligns? Such a great book.
Slow Horses
Mark Greaney’s The Grey Man series should be right up your alley, along with Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone series, first book is The Templar Legacy. Also, consider David Baldacci’s Camel Club series.
Charles McCarry is my favorite American author in this space. You may already know him. But I would say _The Tears of Autumn_ is a great starting point. He has several books featuring the same main character / adjacent. All are excellent. Then later in his career he published two standalones that are just perfect. _The Shanghai Factor_ and _The Mulberry Bush_.
Other American authors I like in this space are Olen Steinhauer and Dan Fesperman, especially their earlier work. Steinhauer’s _Tourist_ series has stood up to multiple enjoyable rereads, and his 5-book set that he opened his career with is also excellent, though not fully in the espionage space. With Fesperman, while I love his early work especially his debut _Lie in the Dark_, his later work is more hit or miss, so read descriptions and see if something appeals.
The British really own this genre. Eric Ambler was the first major practitioner — his run of pre-WW2 novels is unmatched. _A Coffin for Dimitrios_ being the most celebrated. I’ve enjoyed all of his work, into the 80s, but that first run is really what’s responsible for this entire genre. For instance, John le Carré (whose work in this space is often just top notch) called him “the source from which we all draw.”
Len Deighton is another great mid century British espionage writer. While I enjoy his “unnamed” protagonist works like _The Ipcress File_ my absolute favs are the Bernard Sampson novels — starting with _Berlin Game, Mexico Set_ and _London Match_. Funny, sarcastic, good action, bureaucratic angst, just fabulous.
A last writer to mention is the Scotswoman Helen MacInness. She was so good (pre, during, and post WW2) that many thought her work was ghostwritten by her diplomat spouse. Never read a bad one by her but just love _Assignment in Brittany_.
My entree to this space was an anthology edited by Alan Furst — it’s the perfect launching point for this genre. And Furst himself is a very solid writer.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/253562
James Ellroy’s trilogy “Underworld USA” that begins with American Tabloid is quite closely related to the political environment of the time.
“The Shot” by Philip Kerr was also interesting.
Alan Furst. His books are mostly set in Europe during WW2.
And, of course, have to mention John le Carre (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).