Good spy novel?

[Coffee]

I'm looking for a good Cold-War era spy novel. I want espionage, dead drops, men smoking cigarettes in trenchcoats, double crosses, meeting in cold European cities, the whole she-bang. I know the names of some spy writers(Le Carre, for instance), but I'd like to have a good book to start with. Thanks.

[fyodor]

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

[Dominic]

check out Len Deighton's Game, Set and Match trilogy.

[JPinAZ]

I haven't read it in a while, but I enjoyed Tom Clancy's Cardinal of the Kremlin. Lots of what you're looking for.

[diebitter]

Casino Royale is pretty damn good.

[jfk]

Look at some of the Graham Greene novels.

"The Quiet American" and "the Human Factor" are both very good and the latter fits all the criteria you've listed.

[youtalkfunny]

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Tom Clancy's Cardinal of the Kremlin. Lots of what you're looking for.

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[chocaholic]

Not exactly cold war, but Eric Ambler is good. A Coffin for Dimitrios, Epitaph for a spy, Cause for Alarm . . .

[Rick Nebiolo]

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I'm looking for a good Cold-War era spy novel. I want espionage, dead drops, men smoking cigarettes in trenchcoats, double crosses, meeting in cold European cities, the whole she-bang. I know the names of some spy writers(Le Carre, for instance), but I'd like to have a good book to start with. Thanks.

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I strongly second "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" mentioned previously. It's a great introduction to Le Carre and was his breakthrough book.

I't's been a long while since I read it but I'm pretty sure it has "espionage, dead drops, men smoking cigarettes in trenchcoats, double crosses, meeting in cold European cities, the whole she-bang". It sort of freaks me out to think that most of my opponents in poker weren't even in kindergarten when the Berlin Wall came down.

If anyone mentions books by Robert Ludlum I'll argue against it. Le Carre writes on a much higher and satisfying level.


~ Rick

PS Naturally, if you like TSWCIFTC then read the LeCarre trilogy starting with "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy".

PPS The wike entry on Le Carre does a good job.

[Mickey Brausch]

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I'm looking for a good Cold-War era spy novel.

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Here's a rather small paperback - 160 pages: Algis Budrys' "Who".

There's an explosion in West Berlin, very near the wall. An accident in a lab conducting military research. Rescue teams rush to the scene to save the survivors and the Russian "medical" unit gets there first. They whisk away the survivors. Among them is a top American scientist, who possesses extremely important knowledge and information about western military programs.

The U.S. immediately lodge a protest and demand that their man is handed back immediately. The Russians fret and delay, offering various "medical" reasons. In the end, they release their patient/prisoner to the Americans. But is it really him? The face is so severely damaged that it is practically a mask. In those pre-DNA days, the fingertips match but what does that prove? And even if the body is his, what happened to the man himself, his identity and his soul?

Can he really be allowed back? To do everything he did in his previous life?

A man from the U.S. government is assigned to make sure the man really is who he -and the Russians- claim he is.

We cut back to the day a young American, a brilliant high school student full of hopes, leaves home to work his way through college. The book begins.


Mickey Brausch