Wherever there are people, there are spies. Large cities—where individuals gather by the hundreds of thousands—are hot spots for clandestine work. In the backrooms of elegant restaurants and along seedy back alleys, from seemingly impenetrable embassies to crowded bazaars, our most famous metropolises host covert operatives who collect intelligence, snoop on their fellow practitioners, and infiltrate the governments of enemies and allies alike.
Whether you’re interested in historical espionage or modern-day hijinks, here’s a list of seven novels from cities around the globe to whet your appetite. Once you’ve sampled some of these books, maybe you’ll want to conduct a literary deep dive into your own favorite spy locale.
With today’s resurgence of book banning, it pays to notice which books countries have forbidden. Lara Prescott’s debut novel, The Secrets We Kept, focuses on a book outlawed by the Soviets: Dr. Zhivago. At the height of the Cold War, two women are plucked from the CIA’s secretarial pool and tasked with smuggling copies of Pasternak’s banned book into Soviet Russia. The story moves brilliantly between the loves and lives of the women in D.C. and the story of Pasternak and his beloved Olga Ivinskaya, the muse for Lara in his novel. With its focus on the role of women in international espionage and the value of literature to encourage our better instincts, The Secrets We Kept is an excellent addition to your spy novel shelf. Bonus: D.C. in its glorious heyday when the city was filled with people willing to risk their lives and careers to defend democracy.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 3, 2019. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
For those curious about espionage in modern day Russia, I recommend former CIA officer Jason Matthew’s excellent series, starting with Red Sparrow. But my heart belongs to the Arkady Renko books by Martin Cruz Smith—a series which launched with the indomitable Gorky Park. Renko is a brilliant chief detective in charge of homicide investigation in Moscow. The son of an avowed Stalinist general known as the butcher, Renko has chosen a different path, proving himself willing to take on and expose the evil doings of the elite in both the USSR and the USA. The characters are deep, the prose elegant, the plots sublime. Bonus: A terrifying glimpse into Soviet Moscow with its prison-like architecture, deep winter cold, and an economy that demanded its inhabitants practice frugality and ingenuity to survive.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around February 13, 2018. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
I’m cheating a bit, because while Ilium opens in London, it quickly moves to Mallorca, Croatia, Paris, and Cap Ferret. But our protagonist is thoroughly British. And young. And naïve. And smart. She’s the perfect unwitting asset. The title comes from the Latin name for the city of Troy, while the events of the story—played out as a series of revelations—are loosely based on historical events. I won’t share that history, as doing so would tip readers to the novel’s surprise ending. Suffice to say Ilium is riveting, a cerebral experience—different from more action-packed spy novels but no less rewarding. Bonus: Multiple settings presented in sharp detail.
Format
Hardcover
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 16, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
I’ve been a fan of Kanon’s work since his debut novel, Los Alamos. Kanon’s specialty is lifting the cover on the lives of people in and around the two World Wars. Istanbul was a hotbed of spies after World War Two, and Kanon takes full advantage of this about-to-boil-over pot of intrigue. His hero, American Leon Bauer, is drawn into a conspiracy that calls into question his courage, his morality, and what a man owes the world. A love affair deepens the emotional weight of the book, as does a look into the lives of those who lost everything with the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Bonus: Istanbul has been a city of intrigue since its founding as Byzantium in the 7th century BCE. The mosques and bazaars, the sun-glimmering waterways, the steep hills and ancient stone walls … all are brought to life in this novel.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 16, 2013. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
This debut novel exploded onto the literary world, quickly scooping up acknowledgements as diverse as Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award and a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. The prose leaps off the page, but it’s in world-weary CIA spy Shane Collins that we find the dark heart of any honest book on spydom: spying takes a terrible toll on its practitioners. Collins has become an alcoholic burnout just as the monarchy of Bahrain (an island country in the Persian Gulf) is under attack by Iran through their proxies (sound familiar?). Berry has real-world experience of Bahrain and the CIA, and this knowledge shines through. Bonus: Learning about a Middle Eastern country you might not have heard of and seeing it vividly portrayed through the eyes of the poverty-doomed locals, the jaded expat community, and in the glittering beaches, skyscrapers, and palaces of royalty and the well-to-do.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around April 16, 2024. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Israel’s foreign intelligence agency is Mossad. And Mossad’s man on the ground is art-restorer Gabriel Allon. Across a twenty-three-book series (and counting), the stoic, taciturn Allon tackles terrorists and thieves, murderers and madmen. In The Fallen Angel, the twelfth book in the series, he takes on the dangerous world of antiquities theft. Silva’s razor-sharp dialogue, fast plot development, and crisp writing ensures his novels a place in the top tier of great spy thrillers. Bonus: Jerusalem’s Old City. Readers are sped through the narrow alleyways of the historic city and into the tunnels beneath the Temple Mount, the world’s most sacred—and contested—piece of ground.
Format
Mass Market
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 25, 2013. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
McCloskey was a CIA analyst, and his knowledge burnishes this astonishing debut. Set in the early days of the Syrian uprising in 2011, the novel follows the attempts of a CIA case officer and his colleagues to find an asset who can infiltrate the intelligence division of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and help undermine the regime. Once that asset is found—a woman who works in Assad’s palace—the true cat and mouse game begins. Damascus Station dramatically and realistically portrays the brutality of Assad’s security forces, the heartbreak of Syrians caught in the destruction of their country, and one man’s determination to do the right thing, whatever the cost. Bonus: If you’ve followed the on-going events in Syria from afar—the actions of rebels, ISIS operatives, Russians, Israelis, and Americans—this book will give you a deeper understanding of the forces at play and why Syria matters.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 25, 2022. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Sisters Nadia and Cass Brenner are heirs to Ocean House, a decades-old empire that builds superyachts for the rich and powerful: emirs, oligarchs, and titans of industry throughout America and Europe. They’re a next-generation success with the design of their soon-to-be-commissioned megayacht for a Chinese billionaire. But the sisters’ entrée into the coveted Asian market is tragically cut short when Cass falls from a fortieth-floor hotel balcony.
A Singapore detective rules suicide. Nadia’s been in the yacht business too long not to be suspicious. Especially when she discovers Cass’s involvement in dangerously illicit activities. Pulled into the same web of betrayal, lies, and secrets that trapped her sister, Nadia is on the most perilous mission of her life. Because uncovering the truth behind her sister’s death could tear the Brenner family apart–and it just might get her killed.
From Seattle to Austria to the South China Sea, Nadia must hold on to the one thing that can keep her safe. It’s the Brenner family motto: Trust no one.
Format
Trade Paperback
This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around January 1, 2025. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.
Barbara Nickless loves espionage. She has traveled extensively, studying alongside members of the intelligence community while exploring the world of HUMINT—human intelligence. She is a member of the World Affairs Council, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, and the FBI Citizens Academy Alumni Association. She has written two award-winning and bestselling series. Her latest novel, The Drowning Game, is a standalone spy thriller set in Singapore, Seattle, and Shanghai.
