Spies on the Rise: Contemporary Espionage Thrillers and Related Works

By Crowley Clark

Looking for your next spy novel? Here is your guide to many of the top espionage thrillers over the last seventy-plus years.

Espionage thrillers in some form have been written for 200 years, starting with James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy in 1821, then contributions from others like Kim by Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent at the turn of the century.

There were others, but when it comes to the contemporary espionage thriller, it all started with James Bond.

If you’re like me, you saw a James Bond movie before you read a James Bond book. Then maybe you picked up one of legendary author Ian Fleming’s works featuring the super-spy and realized that while the movies are great, the books are even better. Although I’ve not gone as far as to read the spin-offs like Young Bond or The Moneypenny Diaries, I’ve read (or listened to) forty-seven books featuring 007.

The first Bond novel, Casino Royale, was published on April 13th, 1953. It was then that James Bond was born, introducing the contemporary espionage thriller. It also set a high bar for the genre.

There have been many greats since Ian Fleming, including those who continued writing about James Bond. John Gardner wrote fourteen Bond novels between 1981 and 1996, including well-regarded titles such as Icebreaker (1983) and Nobody Lives For Ever (1986). Raymond Benson produced three novelizations of 007 films and wrote six original novels between 1997 and 2002, with favorites including Zero Minus Ten (1997) and High Time To Kill (1999).

James Bond is the archetype protagonist of the spy novel, the first and perhaps the best, but other writers brought new characters to life in the decades after Fleming ruled the 1950s.

John le Carré released Call for the Dead in 1961. He further elevated the genre with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963). In contrast to 007’s glamor, the mild-mannered character George Smiley introduced us to a grittier, more realistic view of intelligence work.

The 1970s brought us a few new stars. Frederick Forsyth became an international star with The Day of the Jackal (1971), a heavily researched tale about a professional assassin. Robert Ludlum gave us fast-paced, conspiracy-driven thrillers such as The Matarese Circle (1979) and the well-known The Bourne Identity (1980).

Ludlum continued to surge with more books featuring Jason Bourne, but the 1980s had one true king (no offense, Stephen). Tom Clancy gifted us the meticulously researched "techno-thriller" starting with The Hunt for Red October (1984), which focused on military and intelligence technology. Before his death, Clancy wrote twenty novels, and there are another ten plus written by others in the “Ryanverse.”

The 1990s brought a shift as the Cold War went into hibernation, and it also brought us two new greats. First was Daniel Silva, who kicked off his career with The Unlikely Spy in 1996. Silva is best known for the Gabriel Allon series, now sitting at 25 titles, which features the art restorer and intelligence operative. Through the dogged determination of a true sales professional, Vince Flynn willed his first book, Term Limits, to become a local bestseller by publishing and marketing it himself. Afterward, he landed a traditional publishing deal, and the world was not denied Mitch Rapp.

While others continued to burn brightly, the post-9/11 2000s brought us two more stars of the spy novel. In 2002, Brad Thor released The Lions of Lucerne and introduced us to Scot Harvath, the first of at least 25 novels featuring the former Navy SEAL and Secret Service agent.  In 2009, Mark Greaney released the high-octane Gray Man series featuring Court Gentry.

More masters of the espionage thriller arrived after 2010. The Brit Mick Herron focused on failed spies and injected humor into the genre with his Slough House series, beginning with Slow Horses in 2010. Jason Matthews, the author of The Red Sparrow Trilogy, brought authentic insider knowledge from his CIA background to stories about deep-cover operations. Former SEAL Jack Carr launched his career with The Terminal List in 2018, introducing us to protagonist James Reece, a raw tactician out to right the wrongs of modern corruption.

As the world becomes more modern, espionage thrillers have evolved, pushing the genre in several directions. They feature more complex characters, provide political depth and realism, and highlight our new realities. We now get a glimpse of the grit behind the glamour and a preview of threats that loom just around the corner. Classic spycraft will always have its place, maybe more so as Big Brother gets bigger and watches our every move. The added threat of digital-age warfare and technology has taken the espionage thriller to a place that, seventy years ago, would have been considered science fiction.

It takes a year to bring a book to life, and you read it in a week. I get it. Keep it up with a few more solid choices:

• One to watch: David McClosky is a former CIA analyst turned consultant and author who details realistic tradecraft in his writing. He is getting good reviews and gaining momentum by sticking with his winning formula. Start with Damascus Station or the most recent standalone and his fourth book, The Persian.

• Sophomore effort: Michael Idov wrote a modern, edgy spy novel called The Collaborators, and the second book, called The Cormorant Hunt, promises the same dark humor, fast pace, and moral complexities with the return of main character CIA officer Ari Faulk.

• Series you need - Look out, James Reece! Former Navy SEAL John Demsey might give you a run for the money, and I’m not sure who would win in a fight. This series by Andrews & Wilson, which started with the title Tier One, is on book nine. Ray Porter, the same narrator of the Terminal List series, brings these books to life in audiobook form.

Don’t be afraid to tiptoe outside the genre and dabble in something new. These choices stray from pure espionage, but their authors still pack punches and tons of twists:

• Dan Brown hit his stride with Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who navigates one riveting conspiracy after another from Angels & Demons (2000) to The Secret of Secrets (2025).

• David Baldacci’s 6:20 Man series follows Army Ranger turned financial analyst Travis Devine as he navigates survival, secrets of his past, and hidden conspiratorial motives.

• David Morrell gifted us First Blood (Rambo), but he has a solid body of work that includes several outstanding thrillers like The Brotherhood of the Rose.

• Lee Child’s popular Jack Reacher series follows a nomadic ex-Army MP as he travels from town to town and finds himself in the middle of local corruption, murder, and other criminal conspiracies, solving them with his own brand of vigilante justice.

• Gregg Hurwitz explores the clash between extreme violence and protagonist Evan Smoak's moral code. The Orphan X series is like Batman, but with fewer gadgets and no costume, or like Jack Reacher, but with more lethal training and a nice place to live.

• Don Winslow brought the narco-thriller to life with The Power of the Dog trilogy, a violent work depicting DEA agent Art Keller versus cartels in the never-ending war on drugs.