![]() Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black (2020) 361 pages ★★★★★ - A suspenseful World War II espionage thriller set in ParisĮngland shuddered in terror in the summer of 1940. Even though Atkinson’s tale appears to be quite pedestrian through much of the book, with only her brilliant use of the language to carry the tale, it’s nothing of the sort. However, we don’t learn the full story until nearly the end of the book. Ten years later, we find her working as a children’s radio producer for the BBC, when her wartime work comes back to haunt her. But the formative events in the plot occur three and four decades earlier, when Juliet had been recruited as a typist by MI5. We meet her in 1981 as she nears 60 years of age. ![]() The story revolves around Juliet Armstrong. Nearly all the action takes place in those three years. The sort of thing most Americans frown through.Ītkinson spins out her tale in sections that shift abruptly through the years, from 1981, back to 1950, then further to 1940, and so forth. Yet Kate Atkinson’s latest, Transcription, is surprisingly funny. After reading her earlier books, the last thing I would have expected is humor. Transcription by Kate Atkinson (2018) 331 pages ★★★★★ – Kate Atkinson’s latest is a beautifully written spy story ![]() The unlikely investigator is Charles Latimer, “a lecturer in political economy at a minor English university” who has left behind the academic life and become a successful author of formulaic detective novels. After surviving one of the gruesome massacres of Armenians and Greeks undertaken by Kemal Ataturk, the legendary founder of modern Turkey, Makropoulos is said to have participated in assassination plots in at least two countries, engaged in espionage as a freelance agent, and murdered several men. The novel is structured as an account of a wide-ranging investigation into the life and death of a notorious international criminal named Dimitrios Makropoulos. However, A Coffin for Dimitrios can be best seen as an historical novel that depicts Europe between the two World Wars, and does so masterfully. But it would be a mistake to pigeonhole what may be Eric Ambler’s most accomplished work as merely an espionage novel, as it features few of the familiar devices of that genre-which may be why it’s so highly regarded. ![]() Image: A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (1939) 309 pages ★★★★★ – Still a lively read among classic spy novelsįirst published in 1939, A Coffin for Dimitrios is widely regarded as one of the best spy novels ever written. 15 (well, actually, 16) top espionage novels reviewed here This image bears little resemblance to the practice of espionage today, but it makes for compelling fiction. There may well be tens of thousands of spy novels in print, and no one-nor even any group of people-could possibly claim to identify the very best among all those stories. There are some exceptions for titles I read before I began reviewing books, others for those I rated below ★★★★☆, and still others that I simply haven’t read yet.Ī word of caution: I do not pretend that these 15 books are the best espionage novels ever written-only that they’re the best ones I’ve read and reviewed on this site. And for the most part you’ll find all the novels in each series listed below. There, you’ll find multiple titles by a number of the authors featured here: Alex Berenson, Charles Cumming, Alan Furst, Mick Herron, Joseph Kanon, John le Carré, Jason Matthews, Stella Rimington, Ross Thomas, Paul Vidich, and Edward Wilson.Īs you’ll see below, a great many of the books listed here are in series. Those titles, too, are listed in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names. An abundance of runners-upīelow the list of my 16 favorites, you’ll find reviews of the full list of the best espionage novels I’ve reviewed with ratings of at least ★★★★☆. This post was updated on September 10, 2023. I’ve listed them in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names. And I gave every one of these 16 titles a score of ★★★★★ on its review. Though my preliminary list included multiple titles by several of the authors included here, I’ve arbitrarily limited myself to a single title from every writer. My 15 favorites-well, make that 16: I couldn’t choose-are listed immediately below. Over the past decade, I’ve read and reviewed more than 150 espionage novels (not counting a great many more I never finished).
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