Espionage authors you (and I) should read

[SlowRain]

I only read the first one, The Quiller Memorandum. Although it wasn't my kind of espionage novel, it did have one of the most enigmatic and mysterious opening set-pieces I've ever read. I remember being completely drawn in by the first couple of chapters.

[robert cotie]

W.E.B. Griffin

[Apache]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Does anyone have an opinion of Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm series?

I've never read one, but I remember the Dean Martin movies from the 60s. I've no idea how true to the books the movies were.

The Matt Helm books do not resemble the Dean Martin Movies at all. Thank God. The studio decided to play it as a comedy.
The Matt Helm Books are great. Matt Helm is smart and tough. He is a government assassin than a spy. He is sent in to fix things that have gone wrong.
If you like Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm Series you should also try his western novels.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/donald-hamilton/
Apache

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by Apache

The Matt Helm books do not resemble the Dean Martin Movies at all. Thank God.....

the 'thank god'!! i read one years ago and they on my current tbr list.

[GA Russell]

Thanks, Apache! Last week I bought a set of the four Matt Helm movies at Amazon. I saw one back when it was new, and I'm sure that I will enjoy them all. But I will take them for what they were, and read a book or two with a different frame of mind.

[dieselnutjob]

I have also read all of the Le Carre and the entire Gabriel Allon series and loved them all. What should I read next? I need a about three or four books for the summer holidays.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

.................At some pint he stopped writing spy novels and started writing literature (as in, why use 5 words instead of 500).............................................

Surely you're not suggesting a few drops of the old 'ow's yer father made him change literary course ?
I wouldn't have him down as a beer man, more your malt, or cognac, I'd of thought.......

[tompe]

Originally Posted by dieselnutjob

I have also read all of the Le Carre and the entire Gabriel Allon series and loved them all. What should I read next? I need a about three or four books for the summer holidays.

Anthony Price if you have not read him.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/02/his...-audley-series

[jbcohen]

Personally I like to root through the bargin basement bins and see what great espionage and thriller novels I can come up with. In the time I have been doing this I have come up with some really great ones such as ENJ Carter's The Other President. About a US President who is caught in a terrorist attach on the White House and is presumed dead, however he is quite alive and is replaced with the Speaker of the House. The president is given extensive face reconstruction surgery and his jaw is rewired so he does not look and/or sound the same. While the speaker and his men seek out the president for killing the president fights his way back to his position in the White House.

[richard5832]

I've heard of a Follett/Graham Greene/Ambler/other novel in which the Chinese government out-negotiates its arch-capitalist adversaries in a large (natural resources?) transaction.

Does anyone know this book?

[Smoke286]

I quite enjoyed some of Deighton earlier works Spy Story being my favourite

[dieselnutjob]

Originally Posted by tompe

For me Anthony Price is the best spy story writer. Second is probably Le Carré and third is Len Deighton.

I read Labyrinth Makers last weekend and enjoyed it very much.

Now I'm looked for the second book The Alamut Ambush and I can't find it for sale as an ebook. Damn and blast.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by dieselnutjob

I read Labyrinth Makers last weekend and enjoyed it very much.

Now I'm looked for the second book The Alamut Ambush and I can't find it for sale as an ebook. Damn and blast.

Yes, this is very annoying. I bought the ones available as ebooks since I am re-reading the series. But that was only a couple of them. I have the rest as paper books but that is not as convenient to read.

But they are definitely worth trying to find second hand if they are not available as new paper books.

[JeremyR]

Of free/PD stuff, I've really enjoyed E. Phillips Oppenheim's novels. He was one of the first authors to really write spy or intrigue novels, mostly revolving around WW1 (either the run up to it or during it).

[bearymore]

Olen Steinhauer's Milo Weaver novels are excellent as is Philip Kerr. I second the several recommendations for Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole books.