Len Deighton 1962
- What it is
-
Spies, moles and state secrets · it messes with your head
- Genre
- Thriller Classics Crime
- Feels
- Morally grey Cerebral Mysterious Wry Tense
Everything below shares at least two of these traits, or sits with it in some reader's stack. We tell you why as you go.
Books similar to The Ipcress File
Coming from The Ipcress File? Start with Slow Horses, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. 46 more below, each with why it fits.
4 books
The closest to yours
Slow Horses
Mick Herron 2010
Grouped with yours in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John le Carré 1987
Readers put them together in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
Earthlight
Arthur C. Clarke 2015
You'll keep turning it over for days · spies, moles and state secrets
A Memory Called Empire
Arkady Martine 2019
Nothing is quite what it seems · you'll finish it in two nights
4 books
It grabs you with a mystery and espionage
The Bourne Identity
Robert Ludlum 1966
A reader shelved it with yours in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
I am Pilgrim
Terry Hayes 2013
Readers put them together in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
Munich
Robert Harris 2019
No clean hands here · spies, moles and state secrets
7 books
It grabs you with a mystery and wry
Club Dumas
Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993
It messes with your head · you can't put it down
The Runaway Jury
John Grisham 1996
No clean hands here · a trial at the heart of the story
The Silver Pigs
David Lindsey 1992
You need to know how it ends · one more chapter, then another
Asesinato en la Casa Rosa (Los crímenes de Loeiro 1)
Arantza Portabales 2025
No clean hands here · a crime, and the clues to solve it yourself
The devotion of suspect X
Keigo Higashino 2011
You end up rooting for the wrong people · a twist at the end that changes everything
The Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides 2018
Nothing is quite what it seems · it won't tell you everything at once
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie 1926
Nothing is quite what it seems · a crime, and the clues to solve it yourself
2 books
Espionage and wry
Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré 1964
A reader shelved it with yours in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
Use of Weapons
Iain Banks 1990
Nobody is entirely good · it tells it straight
11 books · Alike in just one
Only it grabs you with a mystery
Presumed Innocent
Scott Turow 1987
You end up rooting for the wrong people · the truth comes out bit by bit
Fingersmith Msr
Sarah Waters 2002
Nobody is entirely good · it's hiding a secret
The God of the Woods
Liz Moore 2024
You end up rooting for the wrong people · it leaves you thinking
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn 2011
You end up rooting for the wrong people · the truth comes out bit by bit
The Housemaid
Freida McFadden 2022
You end up rooting for the wrong people · the truth comes out bit by bit
Mejor muerto
Susana Rodríguez Lezaun 2024
Nobody is entirely good · it's hiding a secret
The girl on the train
Paula Hawkins 2014
You end up rooting for the wrong people · the truth comes out bit by bit
Verity
Colleen Hoover 2018
Nobody is entirely good · properly scary
Sharp Objects
Gillian Flynn 2007
It grabs you with a mystery · it tells it with no filter
The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood 2005
No clean hands here · sad, and in no hurry
Behind Closed Doors
B.A. Paris 2016
It grabs you with a mystery · it'll scare you
3 books · Alike in just one
Only espionage
Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews 2013
Readers put them together in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
Damascus Station
David Mccloskey 2021
Readers put them together in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
Count Zero
William Gibson 1986
It messes with your head · a threat that keeps growing
12 books · Alike in just one
Only wry
Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth 1990
Readers put them together in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
Anatomy of a Murder
Robert Traver 1958
No clean hands here · a trial at the heart of the story
The Talented Mr Ripley
Patricia Highsmith 1973
Nobody is entirely good · a threat that keeps growing
Notes on a Scandal
Zoe Heller 2003
You end up rooting for the wrong people · it ties your stomach in a knot
Little Big Man
Thomas Berger 2004
Comforting, like coming home, but in literary fiction
Lincoln Lawyer
Michael Connelly 1895
Nobody is entirely good · a threat that keeps growing
Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis 1998
Comedy with teeth · within the walls of a school
Mala gente
Alberto Caliani 2026
Nobody is entirely good · pitch-black comedy
True Grit
Charles Portis 1969
Sharp and very funny · outlaws and guns in the West
The Murder at the Vicarage
Agatha Christie 2026
You'll keep turning it over for days · a cozy mystery, no gore
Three Men in a Boat
Jerome Klapka Jérôme 2003
Comforting, like coming home · odd and endearing
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Oyinkan Braithwaite 2018
Funny, and it bites · it stirs you up inside
5 books
More similar books
Defending Jacob
William Landay 2012
You end up rooting for the wrong people · it leaves you shaken
The quiet American
Graham Greene 1955
A reader shelved it with yours in Spy novels where nobody gets out clean
A Time to Kill
John Grisham 1989
No clean hands here · fierce and defiant
No Country for Old Men
Cormac McCarthy 1900
Nobody is entirely good · it tells it with no filter
You
Caroline Kepnes 2014
Nobody is entirely good · it gets under your skin
Still hunting?
Ask other readers for books like this one
On Drayfus, a stack is a small shelf a reader hand-picked around one theme. Open one with this book and other readers vote in the titles that belong, so your list keeps growing without you.
Other stacks with this book
