Why am I passionate about this?

Looking at photographs after my father died, when still living in Spain, I reflected on what life had been like for young men of the WWII generation. This sparked the start of my Peter Cotton series. Living abroad for so long, having more than one language and culture, gives people dual perspective, a shifting identity, which is something that fascinates me—and makes Cotton ideal prey for recruiting as an intelligence agent. I also wanted to explore the complex factors in the shifting allegiances after WW2, when your allies were often your worst enemy. All these are themes that recur in the books chosen here.


I wrote

The Maze of Cadiz

By Aly Monroe,

Book cover of The Maze of Cadiz

What is my book about?

The Maze of Cadiz is the first of the Peter Cotton series, which shows the path of a young economist…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Night of Wenceslas

Aly Monroe Why did I love this book?

The Night of Wenceslas was the first thriller I read. I was in my teens, and into reading poetry at the time. My parents knew the author—we had even spent Boxing Day together—so Lionel Davidson was the first real novelist I met in person and I remember being excited to read this book.

The protagonist, Nicholas Whistler is young, half English and half Czechoslovakian. He hates working in his father’s business and is in debt because of his dissolute lifestyle. As a way out of his problems, he is lured into carrying out a mission in Prague and finds he has been duped into becoming an unwitting spy.

This book did not stop me from reading poetry—but spurred me to read much more widely.

By Lionel Davidson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Night of Wenceslas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The award-winning debut thriller from the bestselling author of Kolymsky Heights

'Quite simply the best thriller writer around.' Spectator

Nicolas Whistler is young, bored and in debt. When an opportunity to make some money arises, he can't turn it down. He is sent to Prague to carry out a simple assignment, but he soon finds himself trapped between the secret police and the clutches of the mysterious Vlasta. Whether he likes it or not, Nicolas is now a spy.

'Fast-moving, exciting, often extraordinarily funny.' Sunday Times

'Brilliant. Don't miss it.' Observer


Book cover of Epitaph for a Spy

Aly Monroe Why did I love this book?

I read Eric Amber when I was young, and again when I was invited to take part in Andrew Marr’s BBC4 documentary Sleuths, Spies and Sorcerers.

Ambler’s books have no heroes or jingoism. He revolutionized spy fiction by injecting realism. He portrays the chaos of Europe in the 1930s, with people trying to survive without papers. In Epitaph for a Spy, Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee, has become stateless after the Treaty of Trianon. In France, he is arrested for spying because of a mix-up with camera film. He is told to find the real spy or be deported, which could mean death. He is left with no choice but to become a spy.

Ambler said that he wanted to write “credible and literate spy fiction.” He amply succeeded in this.

By Eric Ambler,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Epitaph for a Spy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee and language teacher living in France, is enjoying his first break for years in a small hotel on the Riviera. But when he takes his holiday photographs to be developed at a local chemists, he suddenly finds himself mistaken for a Gestapo agent and a charge of espionage is levelled at him. To prove himself innocent to the French police, he must discover which one of his fellow guests at his pension is the real spy. As he desperately tries to uncover the true culprit's identity, Vadassy must risk his job, his safety and everything…


Ad

Book cover of Broken Mirror

Broken Mirror By Cody Sisco,

A fractured mind or a global conspiracy? Uncovering the truth can be hell when nobody believes you… and you can’t even trust yourself. 

"A fantastic science fiction thriller with a sincere and important message.”—Kirkus Reviews. 

“A breathtaking, deeply dark alternate-history Earth with complex characters, layered worldbuilding, and twist after twist…

Book cover of Then We Take Berlin

Aly Monroe Why did I love this book?

Lawton and I both write novels about the post-WWII period and have had great conversations on author panels. The protagonist of Then We Take Berlin, Joe Wilderness, is something of a picaresque anti-hero. His mother died in a bomb attack, his abusive father basically abandoned him, so Joe survives as a petty thief, works the black market, and reads everything in his local library. Called up for National Service, his total lack of respect for rules lands him in military prison—and MI6 offers him a way out. So begins his career as a spy. Set in two timeframes, I particularly enjoyed Lawton’s portrayal of Wilderness’s chameleon-like powers of adaptation and his struggle to reconcile his private life, married to his boss’s daughter, and his undercover persona as a spy.

By John Lawton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Then We Take Berlin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“A stylish spy thriller” of postwar Berlin—the first in a thrilling new series from the acclaimed author of the Inspector Troy Novels (TheNew York Times Book Review).
 
John Wilfrid Holderness—aka Joe Wilderness—was a young Cockney cardsharp surviving the London Blitz before he started crisscrossing war-torn Europe as an MI6 agent. With the war over, he’s become a “free-agent gumshoe” weathering Cold War fears and hard-luck times. But now he’s being drawn back into the secret ops business when an ex-CIA agent asks him to spearhead one last venture: smuggle a vulnerable woman out of East Berlin.
 
Arriving in Germany, Wilderness…


Book cover of Box 88

Aly Monroe Why did I love this book?

BOX 88 is a thoroughly modern-day spy story set in two timeframes. Lachlan (‘Lockie’) Kite, the protagonist, is poles apart from Lawton’s Joe Wilderness. An apparently chance meeting at the funeral of an old school friend leads him to be abducted. Flashback 30 years, and we see how he was recruited to a secret cell of intelligence operatives (Box 88) when barely out of his upper-class boarding school. He is trained and asked to undergo a mission while spending the summer at the house of a school friend in France. While there, he falls heavily in love, and somehow manages to carry out his mission—albeit with devastating consequences. This portrayal of an intelligent young man growing up feels real and is beautifully handled. The start of a great series.

By Charles Cumming,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Box 88 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of Parade's Most Anticipated Books of 2022!


A secret agent comes of age—and reckons with the legacy of his first mission—in this thriller by New York Times-bestseller Charles Cumming, “the best of the new generation of British spy writers” (The Observer)


Lachlan Kite is a member of BOX 88, an elite transatlantic black ops outfit so covert that not even MI6 and the CIA are certain of its existence — but even the best spy can’t anticipate every potential threat in a world where dangerous actors lurk around every corner. At the funeral of his childhood best friend, Lachlan…


Ad

Book cover of The Circus Infinite

The Circus Infinite By Khan Wong,

Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon where everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the…

Book cover of Berta Isla

Aly Monroe Why did I love this book?

Javier Marías, who died recently, is a mesmerising writer. I lived in Spain for many years and have read most of his books. I recommend reading A Heart So White to start, but here, Berta Isla is perfect. This book introduces Tomás Nevinson, who is Anglo-Spanish. While studying at Oxford, he declines an offer to join MI6. He is then accused of murder—a ruse to oblige him to become an infiltrator. Now married to Berta in Madrid, he officially works for the embassy, but travels frequently on undercover missions, while Berta and their children find it difficult to accept his long, unexplained absences.

The book is an exploration of deception, betrayal, loyalty, identity, how a person becomes a spy, and how this impacts personal life.

I shall miss him.

By Javier Marías,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Berta Isla as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A thrilling new literary offering from the acclaimed author of The Infatuations and A Heart So White

'For a while, she wasn't sure that her husband was her husband. Sometimes she thought he was, and sometimes not...'

Berta Isla and Tomas Nevinson meet in Madrid. They are both very young and quickly decide to spend their lives together - never suspecting that they will grow to be total strangers, both living living under the shadow of disappearances.

Tomas, half-Spanish and half-English, has an extraordinary gift for languages and accents. Leaving Berta to study at Oxford, he catches the interest of…


Explore my book 😀

The Maze of Cadiz

By Aly Monroe,

Book cover of The Maze of Cadiz

What is my book about?

The Maze of Cadiz is the first of the Peter Cotton series, which shows the path of a young economist - intelligence agent after World War II during the decline of Britain as a colonial power. I was interested in ‘real’ experience, the grubby realities, and how Cotton becomes what he will be. I hope Peter Cotton’s voice represents a humble reality, without artificially imposed heroism, and shows him as a creature of his time. There are very few people left who lived through this period—it is only just within living memory—but those who are still alive, and can still express themselves, have become more and more honest about the messy, incompetent, and often casually cruel way in which things happened.

Book cover of The Night of Wenceslas
Book cover of Epitaph for a Spy
Book cover of Then We Take Berlin

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,596

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 You might also like…

Book cover of The Oracle of Spring Garden Road

The Oracle of Spring Garden Road By Norrin M. Ripsman,

The Oracle of Spring Garden Road explores the life and singular worldview of “Crazy Eddie,” a brilliant, highly-educated homeless man who panhandles in front of a downtown bank in a coastal town.

Eddie is a local enigma. Who is he? Where did he come from? What brought him to a…

Book cover of Quick Bright Things

Quick Bright Things By Michael Golding,

This delightful fable about the Golden Age of Broadway unfolds the warm story of Artie, a young rehearsal pianist, Joe, a visionary director, and Carrie, his crackerjack Girl Friday, as they shepherd a production of a musical version of A Midsummer Night's Dream towards opening night. 

Drawn from the personal…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in espionage, spies, and Prague?

Espionage 643 books
Spies 672 books
Prague 34 books