The Secret Agent

Joseph Conrad (1907)

Although written more than 100 years ago there is something timely about what is arguably Conrad’s most enduring novel, which sees his secret agent embroiled in a plot to blow up Greenwich Observatory on behalf of – perhaps – a group of anarchists. It absolutely predicts the rise of terrorism.

[amazon asin=1484879449&template=*lrc ad (left)]The Manchurian Candidate

Set during the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate concerns the brainwashing of a whole company of soldiers by Korean Communists, to allow their officer to become a “sleeper” in the American Government. Complex and steeped in the paranoia of the time.

The Hunt for Red October

Tom Clancy (1984)

At the height of the Cold War the captain of a Russian nuclear submarine that cannot be detected defects to the west, bringing his craft – Red October – with him. The Russians try to stop him. The Americans and the hero Jack Ryan try to stop them. Incredibly tense and superbly claustrophobic.

Killing Floor

Lee Child (1997)[amazon asin=0743482972&template=*lrc ad (right)]

When ex-army loner Jack Reacher gets off a bus in a one-horse town in the American South he is instantly arrested and charged with murdering his own brother. But boy have they picked the wrong man to pick on…

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Ian Fleming (1963)

It might almost have been any of them, but Fleming’s tenth Bond book reveals the spy in a softer, more humane light, even falling in love and getting married – though not for long – while battling with Ernst Blofield in his high alpine fastness.

[amazon asin=0425269361&template=*lrc ad (left)]The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

John le Carré (1963)

“What do you think spies are: priests, saints and martyrs?” No! They are, among other things, vain fools and le Carré’s third novel, a marvellously bleak take on the Cold War, shows them at their morally repugnant worst.

Where Eagles Dare

Alistair MacLean (1967)

MacLean wrote the novel at the same time as the screenplay (which was to be made into the greatest war film of all time) and it is the best of his many; full of ferocious action, double-crossing spies and fist fights on cable cars. Top stuff.

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