Love Sleeper Agent? Readers share 100 books like Sleeper Agent...

By Ann Hagedorn,

Here are 100 books that Sleeper Agent fans have personally recommended if you like Sleeper Agent. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

Mark Simmons Author Of Room 39 & The Cornish Legacy

From my list on espionage that reach the core of the spiesā€™ world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been passionate about the world of espionage ever since I saw James Bond for the first time on the silver screen. I read Ian Flemingā€™s books in those early Pan editions and entered the exotic world of devious enemies, exotic locations, fast cars, and women. After service in the Royal Marine Commandos, I began writing in 1984. To date, I have written sixteen books and over 200 articles. Eight of the books are espionage-themed. The rest are military history and historical novels. 

Mark's book list on espionage that reach the core of the spiesā€™ world

Mark Simmons Why did Mark love this book?

I chose this book as it explores the difficult, murky world of the double agent, that of Colonel Oleg Gordievsky of the KGB. I could have chosen any one of half a dozen of Benā€™s books for great nonfiction writing. However, this story is set in a wonderful period for the espionage lover: the Cold War of the 1980s. A rollicking yarn that I think is one the best escape from Russia stories there is. I have to say this book constantly amazed me.

Indeed, I owe a debt to Ben, as his writing inspired me to write my own nonfiction espionage books, of which I have written four to date.

By Ben Macintyre,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Spy and the Traitor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ā€¢ The celebrated author of Double Cross and Rogue Heroes returns with a thrilling Americans-era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War.

ā€œThe best true spy story I have ever read.ā€ā€”JOHN LE CARRƉ

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist ā€¢ Shortlisted for the Bailie Giffords Prize in Nonfiction

If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, theā€¦


Book cover of Operation Whisper: The Capture of Soviet Spies Morris and Lona Cohen

Jack Barsky Author Of Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America

From my list on real espionage stories from ex undercover KGB.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am one of ten undercover illegal agents the Soviet Union sent to the United States during the height of the Cold War. We were admired and lionized as the elite of the elite. I spent altogether 10 years spying for the KGB in the US before cutting my ties to the espionage world for personal reasons. When the FBI introduced themselves nine years later, I had become what the KGB wanted me to become, a true blue American, and that is who I am today.  

Jack's book list on real espionage stories from ex undercover KGB

Jack Barsky Why did Jack love this book?

This book is a detailed description of the MI5 investigation of an undercover KGB couple by the names of Peter and Helen Kroger. In reality, they were American citizens named Morris and Lona Cohen. 

They were important members of the Rosenberg spy ring that stole the atomic secret. They fled the country just in time to escape execution. In 1954 they were redeployed to the UK to gather information concerning the nuclear submarine research done by the UK Navy off the isle of Portland. 

This book gives the reader insights into the complex police work needed to unmask deep-cover agents. After 8 years in jail, the Cohens were released and spent the remainder of their life in Moscow. They were part of the team that prepared me for my mission as a deep cover agent.

By Barnes Carr,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Meet Morris and Lona Cohen, an ordinary-seeming couple living on a teacher's salary in a nondescript building on the East Side of New York City. On a hot afternoon in the autumn of 1950, a trusted colleague knocked at their door, held up a finger for silence, then began scribbling a note: Go now. Leave the lights on, walk out, don't look back. Born and raised in the Bronx and recruited to play football at Mississippi State, Morris Cohen fought for the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War and with the U.S. Army in World War II. He and hisā€¦


Book cover of Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster

Jack Barsky Author Of Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America

From my list on real espionage stories from ex undercover KGB.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am one of ten undercover illegal agents the Soviet Union sent to the United States during the height of the Cold War. We were admired and lionized as the elite of the elite. I spent altogether 10 years spying for the KGB in the US before cutting my ties to the espionage world for personal reasons. When the FBI introduced themselves nine years later, I had become what the KGB wanted me to become, a true blue American, and that is who I am today.  

Jack's book list on real espionage stories from ex undercover KGB

Jack Barsky Why did Jack love this book?

Markus Wolf is generally considered the greatest Spy Master of the Cold War. 

He was in charge of intelligence for the Stasi (East German Intelligence Service), which was focused primarily on the enemy on the other side of the Berlin Wall. The Stasi was incredibly successful, having placed up to 1,000 East German agents into high places in the German government. 

This is a tale of espionage devised and executed by the best. Wolf was the inspiration for the famous ā€œKarlaā€ character in John Le Carreeā€™s novels

By Markus Wolf, Anne McElvoy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Man Without a Face as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For decades, Markus Wolf was known to Western intelligence officers only as "the man without a face." Now the legendary spymaster has emerged from the shadows to reveal his remarkable life of secrets, lies, and betrayals as head of the world's most formidable and effective foreign service ever. Wolf was undoubtedly the greatest spymaster of our century. A shadowy Cold War legend who kept his own past locked up as tightly as the state secrets with which he was entrusted, Wolf finally broke his silence in 1997. Man Without a Face is the result. It details all of Wolf's majorā€¦


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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Book cover of Breaking Cover

Jack Barsky Author Of Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiances as a KGB Spy in America

From my list on real espionage stories from ex undercover KGB.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am one of ten undercover illegal agents the Soviet Union sent to the United States during the height of the Cold War. We were admired and lionized as the elite of the elite. I spent altogether 10 years spying for the KGB in the US before cutting my ties to the espionage world for personal reasons. When the FBI introduced themselves nine years later, I had become what the KGB wanted me to become, a true blue American, and that is who I am today.  

Jack's book list on real espionage stories from ex undercover KGB

Jack Barsky Why did Jack love this book?

Michelle fell in love with Joseph Assad, who was born and raised in Egypt, as a teenager. At the time she graduated with a masterā€™s degree in contemporary Arabic studies, Joseph was already a member of the CIA. The two got married, and Michelle joined the CIA.

They were deployed as a couple of undercover agents in Iraq during the 8-year Iraq war. Michelle describes her entire time in the CIA, from training to highly dangerous operations, in vivid detail. As a white woman in an Islamic country, she literally had a target on her back. The couple got out of many dicey situations, but the most breathtaking section of the book deals with a rescue mission to save several hundred Christians from a war-torn zone.

Disclosure: Michell is a good friend of mine.

By Michele Rigby Assad,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A real-life, canā€™t-put-down spy memoir.
The CIA is looking for walking contradictions. Recruiters seek out potential agents who can keep a secret yet pull classified information out of others; who love their country but are willing to leave it behind for dangerous places; who live double lives, but can be trusted with some of the nationā€™s most highly sensitive tasks.

Michele Rigby Assad was one of those people.

As a CIA agent and a counterterrorism expert, Michele soon found that working undercover was an all-encompassing job. The threats were real; the assignments perilous. Michele spent over a decade in theā€¦


Book cover of Divide Me by Zero

Alina Adams Author Of My Mother's Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region

From my list on Soviet historical fiction which skips the cliches.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born in Odessa, USSR, a Southern Ukrainian city that many more people know now than when my family and I immigrated in 1977. Growing up in the US, everything I read about Soviet immigrants was either cliched, stereotyped, or plain wrong. A 1985 short film, Mollyā€™s Pilgrim, about a (presumably Jewish) Soviet immigrant girl showed her wearing a native peasant costume and a scarf on her head which, for some reason, Americans insisted on calling a ā€œbabushka.ā€ ā€œBabushkaā€ means ā€œgrandmotherā€ in Russian. Why would you wear one of those on your head? I was desperate for more realistic portrayals. So I wrote my own. And the five books I picked definitely offer them.

Alina's book list on Soviet historical fiction which skips the cliches

Alina Adams Why did Alina love this book?

Math reigned supreme in the USSR. I was never particularly good at it. I had to immigrate to the United States to marry an American nuclear engineer turned math and physics teacher. In Divide Me By Zero the heroineā€™s widowed mother describes love in mathematical terms. The passage reminded me of my husband. I forced him to listen to me read it out loud to him. ā€œWow,ā€ he said. "Thatā€™s hot." Read this book for the heart-wrenching storyā€”and the hot math.

By Lara Vapnyar,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Divide Me by Zero as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times Editorā€™s Choice


As a young girl, Katya Geller learned from her mother that math was the answer to everything. Now, approaching forty, she finds this wisdom tested: she has lost the love of her life, she is in the middle of a divorce, and has just found out that her mother is dying. Nothing is adding up.


With humor, intelligence, and unfailing honesty, Katya traces back her lifeā€™s journey: her childhood in Soviet Russia, her parentsā€™ great love, the death of her father, her motherā€™s career as a renowned mathematician, and their immigration to the Unitedā€¦


Book cover of Winter Garden

Kelli Estes Author Of The Girl Who Wrote in Silk

From my list on dual timelines.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always loved history, but thereā€™s something extra-special about a novel that shows history and how that history is still relevant today. Dual timeline novels tell an historical event through the eyes of a character living it and through the story of a present-day character connected to that history. I'm the author of two published dual timeline novels. One of my greatest passions is to learn about the history of a place I'm visiting so that I can practically see the history all around me. I currently live near Seattle with my husband and two sons and, when Iā€™m not writing, can be found outside walking or boating the Salish Sea.

Kelli's book list on dual timelines

Kelli Estes Why did Kelli love this book?

I love a good mystery and a good story within a story. This book has both. Estranged sisters, Meredith and Nina, have never been close with their mother, Anya, until they finally have a chance to understand what made her so icy. As a deathbed promise to her husband, Anya agrees to tell their daughters her story, but it is so difficult for her that she must tell it little by little and as a fairy tale. From frozen, war-torn Leningrad to modern-day Alaska, the story changes this family forever. 

For anyone who has secrets, or has someone in their life they just canā€™t understand, this powerful book helps you see that there is a way through. It also reminds us that everyone has a story that can thaw the hardest of hearts.

By Kristin Hannah,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the New York Times number one bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes Kristin Hannah's haunting, heartbreakingly beautiful novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between past and present.

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and travelled the world to become a famous photo journalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, these two estranged women will find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother,ā€¦


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Book cover of Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence

Need to Know by Nicholas Reynolds,

The authoritative but accessible history of the birth of modern American intelligence in World War II that treats not just one but all of the various disciplines: spies, codebreakers, saboteurs.

Told in a relatable style that focuses on actual people, it was a New Yorker "Best of 2022" selection andā€¦

Book cover of Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy

Pamela Holmes Author Of The Curious Life of Elizabeth Blackwell

From my list on extraordinary women.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m fascinated by singular women who have found ways to express themselves and to flourish in the face of doubt. My experience of moving country as a child, family breakdown, losing a parent as a teenager, and dropping out has left me intrigued by other women with the drive to survive on their own terms. Of course, the social constraints a woman must overcome will vary according to when she lived, but common characteristics will be bravery and obstinacy. Iā€™ve now written three novels about women who have succeeded against the odds. I hope the books Iā€™ve recommended captivate you as much as they do me.

Pamela's book list on extraordinary women

Pamela Holmes Why did Pamela love this book?

You canā€™t approve of Ursula Kuczynski, codename ā€˜Sonyaā€™.

She was a spymaster, bomb-maker, and secret agent for the Soviet Union. Her work helped the Soviets build the atom bomb. But you canā€™t help being intrigued by this devoted wife and mother-of-three who rode her bicycle across the countryside to gather scientific information and used her childrenā€™s teddies to smuggle radio parts.

Ursulaā€™s story, told by Macintyre in forensic, referenced detail, is astonishing. This cool, clever woman fooled everyone. Iā€™m fascinated by the photographs, too; one of her cuddled up with her children in the garden, another of her in Berlin selling communist literature from a book barrow. They added to the feeling of alarm; so much went on in clear view.

By Ben Macintyre,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Agent Sonya as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Published in Paperback on 27 May

'His best book yet' The Times

'Macintyre's page-turner is a dazzling portrait of a flawed yet driven individual who risked everything (including her children) for the cause' Sunday Times

DISCOVER THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF THE SPY WHO ALMOST KILLED HITLER - FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR

Ursula Kuczynski Burton was a spymaster, saboteur, bomb-maker and secret agent. Codenamed 'Agent Sonya', her story has never been told - until now.

Born to a German Jewish family, as Ursula grew, so did the Nazis'ā€¦


Book cover of The Madonnas of Leningrad

Elizabeth Millane Author Of Sixty Blades of Grass

From my list on WWII Resistance and Survival in europe.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was six years old, my Dutch relatives visited. Stories swirled about their bravery in getting secrets from the Germans and sharing the intel with the Allies, about their privation during the hunger winter, and their work hiding their Jewish countrymen. I studied abroad in 1977-1978 and took the opportunity to visit my Dutch relatives. They told me more stories of their resistance work, their escapades, and, most importantly, their ā€œwhyā€ during my time with them. Such stories donā€™t leave youā€“ever. They percolated in my head for years until a voice came to me, Rikaā€™s voice, and I began to write. Sixty Blades of Grass is the result.

Elizabeth's book list on WWII Resistance and Survival in europe

Elizabeth Millane Why did Elizabeth love this book?

I love this book because it breathes WWII in a way Iā€™ve never read. This book is a story about the siege of Leningrad. I loved the imagery captured by a curator of the Hermitage, skillfully interwoven with a back story in the United States.

As the Hermitage is dismantled in anticipation of the German bombs, the women commit the placement of the precious artwork to memory in images and story form. The tension rises with the scarcity of food and fuel and the loss of friends.

It is a love story told in imagery and heartbreak: an excellent emotional capture and an example for Sixty Blades of Grass.

By Debra Dean,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Madonnas of Leningrad as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œAn extraordinary debut, a deeply lovely novel that evokes with uncommon deftness the terrible, heartbreaking beauty that is life in wartime. Like the glorious ghosts of the paintings in the Hermitage that lie at the heart of the story, Deanā€™s exquisite prose shimmers with a haunting glow, illuminating us to the notion that art itself is perhaps our most necessary nourishment. A superbly graceful novel.ā€  ā€” Chang-Rae Lee, New York Times Bestselling author of Aloft and Native Speaker

Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America,ā€¦


Book cover of Nothing Here but Stones

Betsy R. Rosenthal Author Of When Lightnin' Struck

From my list on Jewish historical fiction on family and friendship.

Why am I passionate about this?

Before becoming an author, I was a civil rights lawyer, so naturally, Iā€™m drawn to stories that shine a light on prejudice and hatred for ā€œthe other.ā€ My desire to combat the bigotry that stems from ignorance, coupled with my fascination with the historical struggles of the Jewish people, led me to write this latest book. Because my kids can trace their ancestors to Spain, I took an interest in learning everything I could about the Spanish Inquisition and the fate of the Jews of Spain. I added some of my own family lore from Russia and voila! When Lightninā€™ Struck was born. The research gave me a great excuse to visit Spain!

Betsy's book list on Jewish historical fiction on family and friendship

Betsy R. Rosenthal Why did Betsy love this book?

There is a crossover with my book in the fleeing of a Jewish family from persecution in Russia. I was captivated by this slice of American Jewish history that I was completely unaware of. Eleven-year-old Emma tells the story of her familyā€™s journey with a group of Jewish Russian pioneers making their way to Cotopaxi in the mountains of Colorado in the mistaken belief that rich farmland and completed houses awaited them. These pioneers werenā€™t prepared for such a harrowing journey and the many struggles of frontier life they would encounterā€”marauding bears, poor land for growing crops, an early frost, and being a different religion from the other settlers. The author was inspired to write this story after learning that the remains of the Cotopaxi Jewish colony are located on her familyā€™s land. 

By Nancy Oswald,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Nothing Here but Stones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

At first I thought everything in America would look like New York City, with shops and crowded streets, but I have discovered, the farther west we travel, that there are long stretches of nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I only hope the place we are going to is not so empty.

Nothing Here but Stones is based on a Russian Jewish colony that settled in Cotopaxi, Colorado, in 1882. Told from the viewpoint of eleven-year-old Emma, the book vividly portrays the hardships and struggles of the colony.

They were promised housing and rich ground for farming. Instead, the land is rocky andā€¦


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Book cover of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

No Average Day by Rona Simmons,

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.

The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention onā€¦

Book cover of The Trees of the Dancing Goats

Arthur A. Levine Author Of The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol

From my list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve had a long career, publishing books that have won the highest awards in the industry, including two books that won Caldecott Medals. Iā€™m best known as the editor of the Harry Potter books. But my expertise in this area also comes from being a father, a reader, and the author of several books with Jewish and intersectional themes.

Arthur's book list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times

Arthur A. Levine Why did Arthur love this book?

In this warm telling of a cherished memory, Polacco presents a Jewish girl celebrating Hanukkah who discovers that her Christian neighbors are too sick with Scarlet Fever to celebrate their holiday. So she resolves to help. 

Patricia Polaccoā€™s storytelling voice has brought warmth and comfort to millions of readers. Combined with her signature art, full of expressive lines and bright color combinations, Polacco produces a story about community that feels like a warm embrace.

By Patricia Polacco,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Trees of the Dancing Goats as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Trisha loves the eight days of Hanukkah, when her mother stays home from work, her Babushka makes delicious potato latkes, and her Grampa carves wonderful animals out of wood as gifts for Trisha and her brother. In the middle of her family's preparation for the festival of lights, Trisha visits her closest neighbors, expecting to find them decorating their house for Christmas. Instead they are all bedridden with scarlet fever. Trisha's family is one of the few who has been spared from the epidemic. It is difficult for them to enjoy their Hanukkah feast when they know that their neighborsā€¦


Book cover of The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
Book cover of Operation Whisper: The Capture of Soviet Spies Morris and Lona Cohen
Book cover of Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster

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Interested in nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union, and espionage?

Nuclear Weapons 72 books
The Soviet Union 381 books
Espionage 646 books