Do you love spy stories as much as I do? I used to visit my cousins’ lake house every summer and the only books in the house were spy novels—Neville Shute, Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, John le Carré. When I’d finished devouring my own books, I would start on these. In recent years, I’ve also found some terrific spy thriller series on television. Here are just some of the fantastic shows I’ve enjoyed. Let me know if you have any to add to the list!
The Americans
This edge-of-the-seat Cold War spy thriller series is about two agents who were infiltrated into America to live like a normal suburban married couple while undertaking dangerous undercover missions for the Soviets. They live this way for decades, even have children together, before things start to unravel when an FBI agent moves in across the road. Brilliant performances by Keri Russell (of Felicity and Austenland fame) and Matthew Rhys.
Homeland
Carrie Mathieson is a bipolar CIA agent engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with a returned American prisoner of war she believes was turned by Al-Qaeda. Carrie’s manic episodes, which allow her to think laterally and come up with connections others miss, is also her greatest threat as she tries to keep her condition secret from everyone, including the CIA.
Spooks/MI-5
In this drama, we follow new recruits at MI-5, the domestic secret service of Britain, as they foil terrorist attacks and other threats to national security, while also dealing with internal politics that threaten to jeopardize their missions. When one of the main characters dies in the first season, you know that no one is safe!
Burn Notice
Michael Westen is a former CIA operative who has been “burned.” Without explanation, the CIA fires him and denies his existence. With no money or identity and forbidden to leave his hometown of Miami, Michael is forced to confront issues from both his childhood and his love life that he has been using his role as an agent to avoid. But Michael is driven to help people, and before long he is using his secret agent skills to solve the problems of Miami locals, while also attempting to find out who is behind getting him burned and why.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
A classic! The adaptation of John le Carré’s sophisticated Cold War thriller about the British secret service and the hunt for a Soviet mole who is betraying them from within.
A Novel of the Real Miss Moneypenny
World War II London: When Victoire “Paddy” Bennett first walks into the Admiralty’s Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans he requests the newlywed Paddy's help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?
Socialite Friedl Stottinger is a beautiful Austrian double agent determined to survive in wartime England, which means working for MI-5, investigating fifth column activity among the British elite at parties and nightclubs. But Friedl has a secret—some years before, she agreed to work for German Intelligence and spy on the British.
When her handler at MI-5 proposes that she work with Serbian agent, Dusko Popov, Friedl falls hopelessly in love with the dashing spy. And when her intelligence work becomes fraught with danger, she must choose whether to remain loyal to the British and risk torture and execution by the Nazis, or betray thousands of men to their deaths.
Soon, the lives of these two extraordinarily brave women will collide, as each travels down a road of deception and danger leading to one of the greatest battles of World War II.
Historical | Thriller Spy [William Morrow Paperbacks, On Sale: October 4, 2022, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063111806 / ]
Christine Wells writes historical fiction featuring strong, fascinating women. From early childhood, she drank in her father’s tales of kings and queens and epic struggles for power across the globe, and has been a keen student of history ever since. She began her first novel while working as a corporate lawyer, and has gone on to write about periods ranging from Georgian England to World War II France. She loves dogs, the beach and antiquing on Instagram and lives with her family in Brisbane, Australia.
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