What is the best espionage novel you've read lately?

[M. Charles]

What is the best espionage novel you've read lately? This summer I read Daniel Silva's _The Rembrandt Affair_ and found it to be a page-turner, but would like something a bit more complex and realistic.

 

[Sherlockian]

Len Deighton's Game, Set and Match trilogy.

 

[ter1413]

Need some ideas also...

 

[ohm]

tinker, tailor, soldier, spy

 

[TheIdler]

Dark Star by Alan Furst.

 

[Gutman]

Yes, please some recs. I don't like the action-thriller type (Ludlum, Grisham) - works for movies, but not so good for reading - although for some reason I find Cussler an OK sort of tosh

Anything LeCarre-like out there? They're my favs.

 

[burningbright]

The Bob and Earl Lee Swagger series by Stephen Hunter is an interesting genre-bending one. For those who saw the movie Sniper with Mark Wahlberg, the movie is very loosely based on the character of Bob Lee Swagger, an ex-Marine sniper from the Vietnam Era.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hunter

 

[itsstillmatt]

Not new, but Charles McCarry's books are great.

 

[Ritchee]

I enjoyed reading The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer.

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Sherlockian

Len Deighton's Game, Set and Match trilogy.

+1

 

[AldenPyle]

Originally Posted by TheIdler

Dark Star by Alan Furst.

This is right. Furst is definitely the best going now. Writes about spies in the forgotten corners of WWII, usually Eastern Europe.

Originally Posted by iammatt

Not new, but Charles McCarry's books are great.
Just finished Tears of Autumn. It was fine and McCarry is good at conveying a flavor or atmosphere of reality. Characters bear only coincidental resemblance to actual human beings and plots are implausible. Couldn't make it through Old Boys, just got too silly.

 

[w.mj]

by John Le Carre:
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
and of course the whole Smiley Series:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley's People

A bit unorthodox, but you might also try "Noble House" by James Clavell

 

[Harold falcon]

Originally Posted by TheIdler

Dark Star by Alan Furst.

Just finished Night Soldiers, Furst is awesome.

 

[Zachgranstrom]

Originally Posted by TheIdler

Dark Star by Alan Furst.

+1

 

[clockwise]

I never found anything as good as Le Carre but I have recently kind of enjoyed William Gibson's latest trilogy:

Pattern Recognition (2003)
Spook Country (2007)
Zero History (2010)

Not your traditional espionage stuff but worthwhile to check out.

Agree with the Len Deighton recommendation, the Bernard Samson novels were great early on but became a bit repetitive towards the end of that long series.

I like to revist even older stuff and Eric Ambler is a personal favourite. The Mask of Dimitrios (1939) is the must-read classic.