Grab these 22 riveting fiction and nonfiction books about spies on your next library day. This list includes new release books and backlist gems to discover.
I can fully admit that I have only read a handful of spy novels over my decades of reading, but I had to laugh that all of my glowing reviews start the same way: “This book was out of my wheelhouse and I’m so glad I read it.”
This week’s book list moves between fact and fiction, tracing the many ways espionage slips into ordinary lives. From meticulously researched histories that expose real intelligence networks (especially female spies), to novels that explore imagined lives. Together, this list invites you to read across timelines, genres, and perspectives where the lines between personal reckonings and bigger world consequences are often thinner than we expect.
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Books About Spies
Explore this list of 22 spy books that include some of my all-time favorites and a healthy dose of backlist gems that I can’t wait read.
Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn
Kuehn blends memoir, historical investigation, and true-crime thriller as she reckons with her family's shocking ties to the Nazi party.
The story begins in 1994, when Kuehn receives a letter from a screenwriter spilling out a secret she never knew, that her family was Nazi spies.
Initially, her father denies the story, which relieves Christine, but when he calls her back sobbing, she learns that there was more to her father, aunt, and grandparents' story than met the eye.
A journalist by day, she embarks on a painstaking 30-year investigation, piecing together archives, FBI files, correspondence, photographs, and interviews to uncover the truth about her grandfather, Otto.
What she discovers is astonishing and horrifying. Otto, along with his wife and daughter, was a Nazi intelligence agent sent to Hawaii in 1935, operating in Oahu in the years leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Kuehn's storytelling is meticulous and reads like a thriller- at times, you will feel as though you are reading something entirely fictional. It is profoundly human as she wrestles with her newly inherited legacy. You can hear Christine’s story on the Book Gang podcast this week.
The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr
In this page-turning novel, Bina, a Polish Jew, is confined to the Warsaw Ghetto and uses her beauty, resourcefulness, and Aryan‑looking features to work undercover for the resistance, gathering information and smuggling supplies to protect her community during one of the most harrowing chapters of the Holocaust.
After escaping the ghetto, she reinvents herself as Lena Browning, a Hollywood legend decades later, but her past never fully lets go.
Through Sienna Hayes, a modern‑day actress determined to make a biopic of Lena’s life, we discover the layers of her secret identities, resilience, and wounds that still throb decades later.
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The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay
Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, audiobook readers can transport themselves to the shadowed years after World War II, following a woman as she unravels her family’s past through a cache of letters tied to a divided Berlin.
Curiosity quickly turns into something more dangerous, as the correspondence reveals secrets shaped by surveillance, resistance, and postwar intelligence tensions.
Reay leans into the atmosphere with foggy streets, fractured loyalties, and the quiet dread of being watched rather than action-heavy spy story. Fans of character-driven stories will love this one.
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Alias Emma by Ava Glass
This cozy spy-thriller debut drops you straight into the life of Emma Makepeace, a newly minted British intelligence agent on her first major assignment.
In a single, heart-pounding night across London, she must shepherd a reluctant asset to MI6 before assassins and a hacked citywide surveillance grid catch them both, but it's a mission that forces her to use every ounce of training.
With London’s infamous “Ring of Steel” CCTV cameras turned against her, every step becomes a gamble as readers uncover why Emma became a spy in the first place.
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
Set in 1986, the novel follows Marie, a Black woman working as an FBI intelligence officer who is sidelined into clerical work until she’s recruited for a covert CIA-backed operation in Burkina Faso.
Her assignment is to undermine a revolutionary leader by gaining his trust and access. Wilkinson grounds the story in real geopolitical history, exploring how U.S. intelligence operations destabilized post-colonial governments.
I really enjoyed this one because Wilkinson creates a beautiful and believable relationship between the two characters. She also shows just how hard it is to move up in this world as a Black woman. It was on Obama’s favorite books list for a reason.
The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen (The Martini Club)
The Spy Coast is the first entry in Tess Gerritsen’s new Martini Club series, a smart and character-driven espionage thriller that opens with retired CIA operative Maggie Bird trying to leave her past behind on her quiet chicken farm.
But when a dead body appears on her driveway, and familiar dangers from a failed mission resurface, she realizes her old life still has a grip on her.
With the help of her circle of fellow ex-CIA friends (affectionately dubbed the “Martini Club”), she begins to untangle a centuries-old operation called Operation Cyrano that spans from Bangkok to London and back home.
Gerritsen balances taut international intrigue with warm, witty camaraderie, letting the pace shift from cozy Maine scenes to pulse-quickening flashbacks of past missions in this incredible new series.
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Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak
This Cold War–era political thriller imagines a First Lady with a mysterious past that will tick the boxes for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo fans. In this story, we have a woman born in Soviet Russia, raised in Paris, and reinvented as a model before marrying a brash American president who opens up her past to a journalist.
Told through the structure of an investigative biography, the story follows as she uncovers revelations about the First Lady’s father, a KGB operative, and is forced to question what the world gets wrong about her.
The narrative weaves together the high stakes of public image, but prepare for a slow burn. Audiobook listeners will appreciate the authentic accents and immersive narration.
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The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
We don't necessarily know how time travel works in this novel, but we do know that the story is set in the near future, when the British government is just developing the means to travel through time.
To ensure they don't change the course of history, they have extracted people from historical war zones, natural disasters, and epidemics, as these people would have naturally died in their timelines, and it is unclear what time traveling may do to their bodies.
Commander Gore is one recruit. It's a shock for him to discover that no one had survived an expedition he went on. But he isn't alone in these feelings, as he bands with a group of four other misfits, all displaced from different eras, navigating their own backstories and modern-day nonsense.
The unnamed narrator is a bridge who is assigned this government job that she knows little about, except that it pays well. She finds herself at the heart of this top-secret project.
But as she grows closer to Commander Gore, they navigate complicated feelings for each other and uncover chilling layers to this project that neither expected.
Humorous and steamy, this selection is best for literary fiction readers.
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The Book Spy by Alan Hlad
Hlad’s WWII historical spy details Roosevelt’s unlikely intelligence team of librarians and microfilm experts, trained by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services to gather critical information hidden in a variety of media.
Their mission is to collect and smuggle vital intelligence back to London, where one librarian is eventually asked to pose as a double agent in the heart of a Nazi financier’s circle.
The novel blends meticulous historical detail with a subtle yet real personal connection between these characters as they partner to gather intelligence, showing how ordinary people can become extraordinary operatives when the stakes are highest in this bookish feast of a story.
If you love this story concept, don’t miss The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin, which covers similar terrain.
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The Expats by Chris Pavone
Pavone’s debut thriller was a 5-star read for me as we immerse ourselves in Kate’s seemingly ordinary life as an American expat in Luxembourg whose life is full of playdates, coffee mornings, and weekend trips across Europe … but also a secret past as a CIA operative she’s desperately trying to leave behind.
Just as she’s settling into suburban life abroad, a new American couple arrives who may not be who they say they are, and Kate finds herself unraveling a web of deception that threatens her family, her marriage, and her carefully constructed façade.
Pavone’s prose is polished and pulsing, full of double crosses and layered motives that keep the reader guessing throughout.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
The Rose Code follows three women recruited to Britain’s codebreaking operation, each bringing different skills (and secrets) to the fight against Nazi intelligence during World War II.
Quinn grounds the novel in real cryptographic history, including the work surrounding Enigma and the later Venona project, while centering the emotional and social hierarchies that shaped women’s roles in intelligence.
The story unfolds during wartime collaboration, as a mysterious traitor threatens both national security and long-buried friendships. It’s a meticulously researched espionage novel..
If you fall in love with the author’s work, be sure to explore her other backlist historical fiction selections.
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."
So begins the nonfiction account that follows Virginia Hall, an American spy working for British intelligence in Nazi-occupied France.
Despite a prosthetic leg and repeated underestimation, Hall built resistance networks, coordinated sabotage, and evaded the Gestapo.
Purnell draws on declassified intelligence files and firsthand accounts to reconstruct this true story that has captivated its readers.
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The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos
When a retired FBI agent is found brutally murdered, Sheriff Porter Beck, a former Army intelligence officer and reluctant hometown returnee, starts pulling at a thread that leads straight back to Cold War espionage and America’s nuclear testing past.
What begins as a local investigation quickly expands into a decades-old spy story involving Russian operatives, government cover-ups, and the dangerous cost of forgotten loyalties.
Borgos skillfully braids past and present, using stark landscapes and slow-burn revelations to build unease rather than relying on nonstop action. The result is a smart, atmospheric thriller that feels both intimate and expansive, offering readers the kind of series opener that quietly hooks you.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Charlie Fitzer, a down‑on‑his‑luck substitute teacher, finds his fortune changed when an estranged billionaire uncle dies and leaves him a shocking inheritance: a secret supervillain empire complete with a volcano lair and a roster of enemies.
Scalzi offers a satirical take on secret organizations and inherited global conspiracies. While comedic, it relies on familiar intelligence tropes while cleverly critiquing how power hides in plain sight.
Spy fiction fans will recognize the bones beneath the jokes.
Husbands & Lovers by Beatriz Williams
I would define this story as spy-adjacent. This soapy story takes readers from the revolutionary fervor of 1950s Cairo to the serene beaches of New England in 2022, where the lives of two women, separated by decades, intertwine through a treasured family heirloom.
Mallory’s life centers on her son, Sam, who needs a kidney transplant after ingesting a poisonous mushroom at summer camp. But, as she searches for a donor match, she uncovers painful family secrets, including her mother's mysterious adoption and a surprising reunion with a childhood sweetheart who has deeper ties to her family.
With a dual timeline shift to midcentury Egypt, readers follow a Hungarian refugee as she navigates her love and loyalty to a city on the brink of revolution.
The way these stories emerge delighted book club members who appreciated the rich history embedded in this surprising, steamy love story.
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Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon
Code Name Hélène is a spellbinding historical spy novel inspired by the true life of Nancy Wake, one of the most decorated women of World War II and a fearless operative in the French Resistance.
Told in interwoven timelines organized around the four different identities she assumed during the war, the story follows Nancy’s evolution from a headstrong Australian expatriate and aspiring journalist in Paris to a masterful smuggler of people and documents, and finally an elite undercover agent trained by British intelligence.
Rich with bravery, wit, love, and grit, this nearly 500‑page story stands alongside The Alice Network in bringing a powerful female spy to the forefront of WWII fiction.
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
This Civil War–era romance novel follows a formerly enslaved woman recruited into Union intelligence to spy within a Confederate household.
Elle, a freedwoman with an extraordinary memory, volunteers to pose as a mute enslaved woman to gather intelligence for the Union, but it's a choice that places her in constant danger and forces her to navigate not just war but daily humiliation.
Across this backdrop of espionage and racial violence, she meets Malcolm , a Scottish Pinkerton agent undercover as a Confederate officer, where their shared mission draws them into a deep emotional and intellectual connection in this steamy story.
Cole bases the story on documented Black spy networks, including the real-life work of Harriet Tubman.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
This Is How You Lose the Time War is a lyrical, mind-bending spy novella that reads like poetry.
In this sapphic story, two rival agents—Red and Blue—work for opposing futures, traveling through time to alter history in subtle but critical ways. Their battles of intelligence and sabotage slowly evolve into a secret, tender correspondence, where letters hidden across timelines become a medium for each other.
Be warned, readers should be prepared for a perplexing story that will challenge you as the two halves come together in this short book.
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
This backlist novel is required reading for any spy novel enthusiast.
Le Carré’s 1963 classic is the definitive Cold War espionage novel following Alec Leamas, a disillusioned British intelligence officer, sent on a dangerous mission to bring down a high-ranking East German spymaster.
The plot centers on deception layered atop deception, with devastating consequences. Many consider this as one of the most accurate depictions of intelligence culture.
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
Slow Horses kicks off a darkly funny, sharply paced spy thriller series about a group of British intelligence operatives who have wrecked their own careers and been exiled to Slough House, MI5’s dumping ground for “failed” agents.
What makes the series stand out isn’t glamorous espionage so much as its messy, brilliant characters.
The tone is equal parts dry British humor and taut suspense, with each plot turning bureaucratic missteps into high‑stakes intelligence work that often spirals into crises far bigger than anybody expected. If you love this series, the story has also been adapted into an Apple TV+ series.
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
This story follows a legendary intelligence agent known only as “Pilgrim” as he races to stop a meticulously planned terrorist attack that could reshape the world.
Hayes grounds the novel in realistic intelligence operations, surveillance techniques, and forensic detail, giving it the weight of a procedural while maintaining the tension of a classic thriller over its 900 pages.
Please note, this novel has been controversial for its portrayal of geopolitics reflected through post-9/11 intelligence anxieties by readers. Keep this in mind if you decide to pick this story up!
