The 10 books on this stack
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Damascus Station
David Mccloskey · 2021
Finalist for the 2022 ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel "Damascus Station is simply marvelous storytelling.…[A] stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre." —Financial Times A CIA officer and his recruit arrive in war-ravaged Damascus to hunt for a killer in this page-turner that offers the "most authentic depiction of modern-day tradecraft in print." (Navy SEAL sniper and New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr). CIA case officer Sam Joseph is dispatched to Paris to recruit Syrian Palace official Mariam Haddad. The two fall into a forbidden relationship, which supercharges Haddad’s recruitment and creates unspeakable danger when they enter Damascus to find the man responsible for the disappearance of an American spy. But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad’s spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard. Set against the backdrop of a Syria pulsing with fear and rebellion, Damascus Station is a gripping thriller that offers a textured portrayal of espionage, love, loyalty, and betrayal in one of the most difficult CIA assignments on the planet.
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I am Pilgrim
Terry Hayes · 2013
Can you commit the perfect crime? Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn't exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation. But that book will come back to haunt him. It will help NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down. And it will take him to a rundown New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found facedown in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone. It is a textbook murder - and Pilgrim wrote the book. What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation will become a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion. Pilgrim will have to make a journey from a public beheading in Mecca to a deserted ruins on the Turkish coast via a Nazi death camp in Alsace and the barren wilderness of the Hindu Kush in search of the faceless man who would commit an appalling act of mass murder in the name of his God.
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Slow Horses
Mick Herron · 2010
Let us be clear about this much at least: Slough House is not in Slough, nor is it a house... Slough House is Jackson Lamb's kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who've screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown a surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They're the service's poor relations - the slow horses - and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it's threatened that he'll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself. Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what's the kidnappers' connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda ... And unless the slow horses can prove they're not as useless as they're thought to be, a young man's death is going to echo around the world. Praise for Mick Herron: Mick Herron never tells a suspense story in the expected way, which is why his new novel, Reconstruction, reads as much like a puzzle mystery as it does a thriller . ..unpleasant things are bound to happen, and they do-but not until Herron has finished surprising us . . . there is no hiding under the desk. New York Times. 'This is one of these novels where you read it, not just to see what happens at the end, but to see what happens on the very next page' Booklist 'Good characterisation, dialogue and well-paced narrative make this confident first novel frighteningly plausible' Sunday Telegraph 'Tight, literary and cliché free' Publishers Weekly 'Stylish and engaging' Washington Post
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Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews · 2013
From New York Times bestselling author and veteran CIA officer Jason Matthews, the electrifying modern spy thriller Red Sparrow— also a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton! In contemporary Russia, state intelligence officer Dominika Egorova has been drafted to become a “Sparrow”—a spy trained in the art of seduction to elicit information from their marks. She’s been assigned to Nathaniel Nash, a CIA officer who handles the organization’s most sensitive penetration of Russian intelligence. The two young intelligence officers, trained in their respective spy schools, collide in a charged atmosphere of tradecraft, deception and, inevitably, a forbidden spiral of carnal attraction that threatens their careers and the security of America’s valuable mole in Moscow. For fans of John le Carré and Ian Fleming and featuring “high-level espionage, pulse-pounding danger, sex, double agents, and double crosses” (Nelson DeMille), Red Sparrow is a timely and electrifying thriller that is impossible to put down.
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The Bourne Identity
Robert Ludlum · 1966
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Meet Jason Bourne. He has no past. And he may have no future. The basis for the critically acclaimed major motion picture starring Matt Damon! His memory is a blank. He only knows that he was fished out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues. A frame of microfilm surgically implanted beneath the flesh of his hip. Evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face. Strange things that he says in his delirium—maybe code words. Initials: “J. B.” And a number on the film negative that leads to a Swiss bank account, a fortune of four million dollars, and, at last, a name: Jason Bourne. But now he is marked for death, caught in a maddening puzzle, racing for survival through the deep layers of his buried past into a bizarre world of murderous conspirators—led by Carlos, the world’s most dangerous assassin. And no one can help Jason Bourne but the woman who once wanted to escape him. “[Robert] Ludlum stuffs more surprises into his novels than any other six-pack of thriller writers combined.”— The New York Times Jason Bourne’s adventures continue: THE BOURNE IDENTITY • THE BOURNE SUPREMACY • THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
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Quiet American
Graham Greene · 1955
"I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused," Graham Greene's narrator Fowler remarks of Alden Pyle, the eponymous "Quiet American" of what is perhaps the most controversial novel of his career. Pyle is the brash young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon, where the French Army struggles against the Vietminh guerrillas. As young Pyle's well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to stand safely aside as an observer. But Fowler's motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and himself, for Pyle has stolen Fowler's beautiful Vietnamese mistress. Originally published in 1956 and twice adapted to film, The Quiet American remains a terrifiying and prescient portrait of innocence at large. This Graham Greene Centennial Edition includes a new introductory essay by Robert Stone. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John le Carré · 1987
This enhanced eBook edition of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy includes the international trailer for the highly acclaimed film, directed by Tomas Alfredson from Studio Canal and 'The Guide to George Smiley'. The Circus has already suffered a bad defeat, and the result was two bullets in a man's back. But a bigger threat still exists. And the legendary George Smiley is recruited to root out a high-level mole of thirty years' standing - though to find him means spying on the spies. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is brilliant and ceaselessly compelling, pitting Smiley against his Cold War rival, Karla, in one of the greatest struggles in all fiction.
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IPCRESS File
Len Deighton · 1962
'A stone-cold Cold War classic' Toby Litt, Guardian A high-ranking scientist has been kidnapped. A secret British intelligence agency must find out why. But as the quarry is pursued from grimy Soho to the other side of the world, what seemed a straightforward mission turns into something far more sinister. With its sardonic, cool, working-class hero, Len Deighton's sensational debut The IPCRESS File rewrote the spy thriller and became the defining novel of 1960's London. 'Changed the shape of the espionage thriller ... there is an infectious energy about this book which makes it a joy to read' Daily Telegraph
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
John le Carré · 1964
All cats are alike in the dark. At the height of the Cold War, disillusioned British spy Alec Leamas is persuaded to stay out 'in the cold' for one last risky operation against the powerful leader of the East German Secret Service. But Leamas has committed a cardinal error: he's fallen in love. After a lifetime of deception and betrayal, can there be room for humanity in the ruthlessly manipulative world of international espionage? The first ever John le Carré novel to be adapted for the stage, this award-winning 1963 thriller has been hailed as a modern masterpiece. Leading playwright David Eldridge creates this gripping theatrical version. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre in August 2024.
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Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth · 1990
'A year-zero genre reboot that defined the modern movement toward detailed, procedural narrative, where the intrigue is about how, not just what.' LEE CHILD 'Utterly compelling ... And they say genre fiction can't be art' THE TIMES (Our favourite 50 novels of the past 70 years) 'As gripping now as it was 50 years ago' THE TIMES ________________ 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY LEE CHILD One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the exhilarating story of the struggle to catch a killer before it's too late. 1963. An anonymous Englishman is hired by the Operations Chief of French terrorist organisation O.A.S. to murder the French president, General Charles de Gaulle. A failed attempt in the previous year means the target will be nearly impossible to reach. Only one man could do the job: an assassin of legendary talent known only as The Jackal. This remorseless and deadly killer must be stopped. But he is a man without a name, without an identity; a lethal spectre. How can you stop an assassin nobody can identify? The task falls to the best detective in France - and the price of failure is unthinkable. ________________ 'Masterful suspense . . . The Day of the Jackal changed the shape of popular fiction from the moment it was finished' BEN MACINTYRE, THE TIMES 'In a class by itself. Unputdownable' SUNDAY TIMES 'Very clever and immensely entertaining' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A perfect example of the adventure story . . . well written, entirely believable, with this intriguing, enigmatic character at its centre' ROBERT HARRIS 'A year-zero, game-changing thriller, one of the most significant of all time' LEE CHILD 'Wonderful and way ahead of its time' JAMES PATTERSON 'An extraordinary book' NICK ROBINSON, BBC RADIO 4 TODAY PROGRAMME 'A masterpiece' MARCUS SCRIVEN, MAIL ON SUNDAY 'I was spellbound . . . riveted by this chilling story.' GUARDIAN