The best spy thrillers ever written – and that are about more than spies

John Le Carré is one of the reasons I became a spy thriller writer. Like Joseph Conrad who wrote great novels that happened to be set at sea, Le Carré writes literary novels set in the world of spies. Spare, authentic, intensely realistic, this book plunges you deep into the duplicitous world of spy tradecraft, reeling you in with a brilliant plot, spot-on characterizations and line after line of dialogue you’ll want to quote. The story depicts Alex Leamas, a burnt-out British agent who defects in a scheme to eliminate a powerful East German spymaster, but what it's really about are the choices we make—and the costs. This book made me realize that genre could be a tool and not a walled-in garden.

Eric Ambler was the first author to write with realism and authenticity about the world of spies. His work often features ordinary people who are not criminals or professional spies, but who suddenly find themselves caught up in that murky world. In this novel, while in Turkey, mystery writer Charles Latimer meets Colonel Haki, who shows him the body of a notorious criminal, Dimitrios, in the Istanbul morgue. Intrigued and sensing a story, Latimer investigates Dimitrios’ career, which will turn out to be a lot more intriguing and dangerous than anything he bargained for. Ambler’s thrillers keep you on the edge and this one, which includes a ride on the Orient Express, will have you furiously turning the pages. Dimitrios set the standard for every spy thriller that followed. 

Reading a novel by Alan Furst is like seeing Casablanca for the first time, if it were written by Hemingway. There’s that same evocative atmosphere of people smoking cigarettes, having affairs, making sophisticated remarks, while looming over them is the war. Furst mines a narrow niche. All of his books are set in Europe either during World War Two or in the Thirties, with the war threatening. The protagonist here is Colonel Mercier, military attaché at the French embassy in Warsaw. Mercier must navigate the salons and alleyways of Warsaw against all manner of spies and German agents. The book is also an exploration of love in a desperate time through Mercier’s affair with the beautiful Anna, a Polish lawyer. It’s very good. Furst is always good. 

No subject in history has ever been more raked over than World War Two. And the trope of hunter and prey is standard thriller fare. Yet with this book, Ken Follett reinvented the WW2 thriller. How’d he do it? First, by making his protagonist not the good guy, but the Nazi spy. Second, by writing it so compellingly, you can’t put it down. Faber, a deadly German spy codenamed “the Needle,” uncovers the biggest secret of the war: clues that will let Hitler know where the D-Day invasion will take place. Can Professor Godliman and ex-copper Bloggs stop him before he can get the information back to Germany? Brilliant adversaries equally matched makes not just for a terrific read, but every other writer, including me, jealous.

While this novel follows a standard thriller trope of hunter and hunted, it’s like no other on this list, not being an especially realistic depiction of the spy world. So why did it make my list? The most compelling hook I’d read in years, combined with killer pacing and fascinating sleuthing detail. Here’s the setup: The body of a woman is found in a seedy New York hotel room floating face-down in a bathtub filled with sulfuric acid, impossible to identify. The protagonist, a former intelligence agent and forensic pathologist must hunt down an unknown Saudi terrorist. Is the writing on the extraordinary level of the others on this list? Perhaps not. But when it comes to suspense, it’s in a class all its own.