Most read Espionage books

Susan Fletcher, a brilliant cryptographer, is tasked with protecting the NSA's most sensitive secrets within a digital fortress she helped design. But when a rogue agent threatens to unleash a devastating code, she must race against time to stop him. This high-stakes thriller explores the dangerous intersection of digital espionage, personal danger, and the constant battle for privacy.

• betrayal
• quest

In 1947, Charlie St. Clair is an unmarried, pregnant American socialite searching for her cousin who went missing in Nazi-occupied France. Her quest leads her to London, where she encounters Eve Gardiner, a former World War I spy whose secret network was destroyed by a devastating betrayal thirty years prior. Together, these two very different women set out on a journey across Europe to find the truth and confront the ghosts of their pasts.

• dual timeline
• multiple povs
• betrayal
• revenge

Three women from very different worlds break German codes at Bletchley Park, until betrayal tears them apart. In 1947 an encrypted letter pulls them back together to hunt a traitor from their past.

• dual timeline
• betrayal
• mystery box
• found family

A mysterious, mud-caked stranger staggers into Hercule Poirot's flat, traces the figure '4' on the floorboards, and collapses without explanation.

• betrayal
• secret identity
• rivals
• quest

Dive into Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, a sprawling adventure that bridges World War II and the present day. Follow brilliant minds and unlikely heroes as they race against time to protect secrets of cryptography, from cracking Nazi codes to thwarting modern-day conspiracies. It's a story about the power of information and the fight for future freedom.

• dual timeline
• quest

London in the aftermath of the First World War is full of demobilised soldiers and idle young people with no money and no prospects.

• secret identity
• quest
• betrayal
• friends to lovers

Four very different people—a paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar—must work together to stop a city-wide threat. They need to sneak into enemy territory and discover the secret behind the mechanical soldiers known as the Clockwork Boys. If they succeed, they'll earn their freedom, but failure means ruin, and they might just turn on each other before the enemy does.

• found family
• quest
• morally grey
• forced proximity

When a plane crashes under mysterious circumstances, quality assurance VP Casey Singleton is thrust into an investigation. She must sift through corporate secrets and media frenzy to find out if the disaster was an accident or sabotage. This novel explores the dangerous intersection of aviation, business, and truth.

• reluctant hero

Courtland Gentry, the Gray Man, is a former CIA officer turned assassin for hire. After a contract goes wrong, his own side betrays him, and hit squads chase him across Europe toward a final fight in a Normandy chateau.

• betrayal
• anti hero
• survival

The crew of the Rocinante faces a dire new threat as an old enemy returns with advanced technology. They must unite disparate factions to confront this powerful adversary and protect the fragile peace they've fought to maintain. The future of human civilization rests on their shoulders.

• quest
• survival

Cammie Morgan is a sophomore at a school that secretly trains spies. She can hack, track and fight, but when she falls for an ordinary boy who must never learn the truth, nothing in her training covers it.

Alex Rider is back, and this time he's on his own. A seemingly benevolent pop star is secretly plotting global destruction, and Alex is the only one who can stop him. Alex must race against time to expose the truth before the world is fooled by the villain's charm and it's too late.

• chosen one
• reluctant hero
• secret identity
• quest

Fresh off a dangerous mission and still recovering, teen spy Alex Rider is pulled back into the world of espionage. This time, he must protect the son of a billionaire from eco-terrorists threatening a revolutionary space hotel. Alex faces a ticking clock to stop a disaster that could have global consequences.

• reluctant hero
• quest
• secret identity

Alex Rider is back for his most dangerous mission yet in the ninth installment of the series. The young spy must confront the remnants of the SCORPIA organization as the fate of the world hangs in the balance. This climactic adventure brings high stakes and a thrilling conclusion.

• chosen one
• quest

Alex Rider's ordinary life shatters when he learns his uncle's death wasn't an accident, but a murder. Recruited by MI6, Alex must step into his uncle's shoes to complete a dangerous mission. He's plunged into a world of spies and assassins, and must race against time to find his uncle's killers before he becomes their next victim.

• chosen one
• fish out of water
• reluctant hero
• mentor figure

Alex Rider thought his days of espionage were over, but his next mission is his most dangerous yet. A ruthless adversary plans to unleash a nuclear weapon, forcing Alex to team up with the CIA. He must race against time, traveling from Miami to Russia to prevent global domination.

• quest

Alex Rider is dealing with the fallout of a shocking revelation about his father's past. His search for answers takes him to Italy, where he becomes entangled with the shadowy criminal organization known as Scorpia. Alex faces a critical decision that will shape his future and his path toward retribution.

• revenge
• quest

Alex Rider's latest assignment takes him to Australia, where he's recruited by the Secret Service for a dangerous mission in Southeast Asia. He must infiltrate ruthless snakehead gangs while also seeking answers about his family. But as Alex gets closer to the truth, he uncovers a dark secret that puts him in grave danger, with his old enemies watching his every move.

• quest
• reluctant hero
• rivals
• secret identity

Alex Rider's life is anything but ordinary when a dangerous plot emerges to unleash a deadly virus. A villain plans to use genetically modified corn, threatening a global catastrophe. Alex must confront mercenaries and intense combat to stop the disaster in this thrilling installment of the series.

• chosen one
• quest

The fourth Millennium novel (published in English as The Girl in the Spider's Web) is the first written by David Lagercrantz, continuing the series created by Stieg Larsson. Late one night, journalist Mikael Blomkvist takes a call from a source: a brilliant computer scientist who has developed groundbreaking artificial-intelligence research and now fears for his life, having stumbled into something that powerful intelligence agencies would kill to control. The story soon draws in Lisbeth Salander, who has been quietly waging her own war against criminal networks and government surveillance. As a murder throws Blomkvist and Salander back together, the case reaches into the highest levels of espionage, the secretive world of hacking, and, most dangerously of all, Lisbeth's own family history and the estranged twin sister who shares her past. Fast-paced and contemporary, this installment revives Larsson's characters for a new cyber-age thriller of surveillance, genius, and revenge. Newcomers can follow it as a fresh entry point, but it rewards readers who know Lisbeth Salander from the original trilogy.

Anne Beddingfeld is young, orphaned, and hungry for adventure when she watches a man fall to his death on the platform of a London Underground station.

• secret identity
• quest
• mystery box
• road trip

When two powerful men die suddenly, the only connection is their sons attending the exclusive Point Blanc Academy. Alex Rider, a teenage spy, must go undercover at the remote mountain school to uncover the truth behind the sinister Dr. Grief's operation. Armed with gadgets and a fake identity, Alex faces a dangerous mission to expose the academy's secrets before it's too late.

Jason Bourne wakes up on a seashore with no memory, only a mysterious bank account number implanted in his body. This clue leads him to Switzerland and into a dangerous world where he must uncover his true identity. As he pieces together his past, he realizes he is a highly trained secret agent, hunted by unknown enemies. This spy thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat.

• secret identity

A revolution erupts in the small Middle Eastern state of Ramat, and in the chaos a fortune in jewels is spirited out of the palace by people who will not survive to deliver it.

• secret identity
• betrayal
• heist
• court intrigue

The Hunt for Red October is Tom Clancy's blockbuster 1984 debut, the novel that invented the modern techno-thriller and introduced CIA analyst Jack Ryan. When Marko Ramius, the Soviet Union's most brilliant submarine commander, takes the experimental ballistic-missile submarine Red October to sea, he does the unthinkable: he sets course for the United States, intending to defect with his officers and hand over the Soviets' most advanced boat -- one fitted with a near-silent "caterpillar" drive that could tip the nuclear balance. The entire Soviet Atlantic fleet is soon hunting Red October to sink her before she can reach American waters, while the U.S. Navy struggles to work out whether Ramius means war or defection. Caught in the middle is Jack Ryan, an analyst who must convince skeptical admirals and politicians of his read on Ramius's intentions -- and then stake his life on being right. Meticulously researched and paced like a chess match played beneath the ocean, the novel blends submarine warfare, intelligence tradecraft, and Cold War brinkmanship into a taut cat-and-mouse chase. A word-of-mouth sensation praised by President Reagan and later adapted into a hit film, The Hunt for Red October launched one of the best-selling thriller franchises of all time.

• multiple povs
• mentor figure
• betrayal
• secret identity

A weekend house party gathers a group of bright young people at Chimneys, the grand country estate now leased to the self-made Sir Oswald Coote and his wife.

• secret identity
• mystery box
• betrayal

Alex Rider is thrust into his most perilous mission yet, heading to Russia to thwart a global plot. With assassins closing in and time running out, Alex must use all his skills to stay alive and complete his assignment.

• quest
• survival

British agent James Bond is sent to a high-stakes baccarat game at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux, northern France, to bankrupt Le Chiffre, a paymaster of a Soviet-controlled French trade union who has lost his organisation's funds. Bond works with Vesper Lynd, a colleague from the British service, while the CIA's Felix Leiter and French intelligence's René Mathis help from the sidelines. The card game is only the first test of a mission that grows far more dangerous.

• betrayal
• anti hero

In 1558, religious conflict tears through England as Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald find themselves on opposite sides of a brewing civil war. When Elizabeth Tudor takes the throne, Ned joins her newly formed secret service to protect the queen from assassination plots and foreign invasion. Their love remains tested by decades of extremism and violence that sweep across Europe.

• forbidden love
• court intrigue
• secret identity
• family saga

A standout Jack Ryan thriller about the price of a secret war. After a drug cartel murders a friend of the President, Washington launches a covert, off-the-books campaign against Colombia's cartels. Now a senior CIA official, Jack Ryan slowly uncovers the illegal operation -- and the abandonment of the soldiers sent to fight it -- while operatives John Clark and Ding Chavez battle to survive on the ground. A gripping, angry look at loyalty, legality, and unaccountable power.