Books like 'A Legacy of Spies'
Readers who enjoyed A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical 20th century action / adventure military, war & conflict thriller espionage historical-fiction crime cold-war suspense
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Red Winter by Marc Cameron
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn this previously untold adventure, a young Jack Ryan goes behind the Iron Curtain to seek the truth about a potential Soviet defector in the most shocking entry in Tom Clancy's #1 New York Times bestselling series. 1985A top secret F117 aircraft crashes into the Nevada desert...Categorized as:
cold-war espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue politics suspense war -
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth, Фредерик Форсайт
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsLibrarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world's most heavily guarded man.One man with a rifle who can change the course of history... -
The Lieutenants by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsThey were the young ones, the bright ones, the ones with the dreams. From the Nazi-prowled wastes of North Africa to the bloody corridors of Europe, they answered the call gladly. It was their duty, their job, their life. They marched off as boys, and they came back--those who made it--as soldiers and professionals forged in the heat of battle..Categorized as:
espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war thriller 20th-century -
The Berets by W.E.B. Griffin, Eric G. Dove
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsThey were the chosen ones—and the ones who chose to be the best. Never before had the United States given so select a group of fighting men such punishing preparation...Categorized as:
cold-war espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue war thriller 20th-century -
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The Girls from the Beach by Andie Newton
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"We'd heard stories about the nurses in tent seven. A secret mission, stolen money, and spies..."In 1944, four American nurses disappeared for five days. No one knew what happened to them. Until now.When Kit and Red set foot on French soil during the Normandy landings, they know they have to rely on each other. As they head for the battlefield, their aim is simple: save lives... -
In Danger's Path by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsDesperate to find someone to unite the warring interests of General MacArthur, Admiral Nimitz, and OSS chief Donovan, FDR puts Fleming Pickering in charge of the OSS's Pacific operations...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war thriller -
Charm School by Nelson DeMille
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsRead by James NaughtonSomething very strange -- and sinister -- is going on in the Russian woods at Borodino. In a place called Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School, young KGB agents are being taught by American POW's how to be model citizens of the USA. The Soviet goal -- to infiltrate the United States undetected...Categorized as:
cold-war crime drama espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue -
The Prisoner by Robert Muchamore
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOne of Henderson's best agents is being held captive in Frankfurt. A set of forged record cards could be his ticket to freedom, but might just as easily become his death warrant. A vital mission awaits him in France—if he can find a way to escape...Categorized as:
espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue war thriller 20th-century -
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsOne enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies' greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin -- code name: "The Needle" -- who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life...Categorized as:
classics crime drama espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue -
Retreat, Hell! by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is the fall of 1950. The Marines have made a pivotal breakthrough at Inchon, but a roller coaster awaits them. While Douglas MacArthur chomps at the bit, intent on surging across the 38th parallel, Brigadier General Fleming Pickering works desperately to mediate the escalating battle between MacArthur and President Harry Truman...Categorized as:
cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war -
Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom New York Times–bestselling author Philip Kerr, the much-anticipated return of Bernie Gunther, our compromised former Berlin bull and unwilling SS officer. With his cover blown, he is waiting for the next move in the cat-and-mouse game that, even a decade after Germany’s defeat, continues to shadow his life...Categorized as:
cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military noir political-intrigue -
Counterattack by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor to America's first bold counterstrike against the Japanese on the beaches of Guadalcanal, this compelling novel takes readers to the front lines of victory and defeat...Categorized as:
classics espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war thriller -
Black Cross by Greg Iles
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIt is January 1944 — and as Allied troops prepare for D-day, Nazi scientists develop a toxic nerve gas that will repel and wipe out any invasion force. To salvage the planned assault, two vastly different but equally determined men are sent to infiltrate the secret concentration camp where the poison gas is being perfected on human subjects...Categorized as:
crime drama espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue suspense -
The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratings"In wartime," Winston Churchill wrote, "truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."For Britain's counterintelligence operations, this meant finding the unlikeliest agent imaginable-a history professor named Alfred Vicary, handpicked by Churchill himself to expose a highly dangerous, but unknown, traitor...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue politics suspense -
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Snow Wolf by Glenn Meade
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn the heart of the Cold War, they sent him to plot the ultimate assassination. Now they want him dead...It is 1953. Joseph Stalin, the world's most tyrannical dictator, is teetering on the edge of insanity, and about to plunge the world into nuclear chaos. Only one man and one woman can penetrate the Iron Curtain and stop this madman, before it's too late.But someone inside the Kremlin knows... -
Special Ops by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsW.E.B. Griffin returns to the series that launched his phenomenal career-- in an explosive new novel that pits a team of Special Forces warriors against the legendary revolutionary Che Guevara...Categorized as:
cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue suspense -
Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 58 ratings"Allah!"With that shrill cry, three Muslim terrorists blow up a key Soviet oil complex, creating a critical oil shortage that threatens the stability of the USSR...Categorized as:
cold-war crime drama espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue politics -
The Company by Robert Littell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Barnes & Noble ReviewSince the publication of his 1973 debut thriller, The Defection of A. J. Lewinter, Robert Littell has evolved into one of the most credible, consistently interesting espionage novelists of the modern era...Categorized as:
cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue politics suspense -
Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille, Brian Murray
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHe is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam. There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity--and together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue politics suspense -
The New Breed by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the blistering jungles of Vietnam to the far-flung battlefields of the African Congo, they faced the turmoil of a new era. It was a different kind of war. But the courage and skill of these young fighting men were an American tradition. Like their fathers before them, they rose up to the ultimate challenge of military valor, holding their own in a storm of clashing cultures...Categorized as:
cold-war crime historical-fiction military suspense war 20th-century action-adventure -
The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins, Maria Luisa Bocchino
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsIn November of 1943, an elite team of Nazi paratroopers descends on British soil with a diabolical goal: to abduct Winston Churchill and cripple the Allied war effort. The mission, ordered by Hitler himself and planned by Heinrich Himmler, is led by ace agent Kurt Steiner and aided on the ground by IRA gunman Liam Devlin...Categorized as:
classics crime espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue politics suspense -
The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe suicide of an elderly German Jew explodes into revelation after revelation: a Mafia-like organization called Odessa, a real-life fugitive known at the "Butcher of Riga", a young German journalist turned obsessed avenger...and ultimately, of a brilliant, ruthless plot to reestablish the worldwide power of SS mass murders and to carry out Hitler's chilling "Final Solution... -
Blood and Honor by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIf you enjoyed W. E. B. Griffin's Honor Bound, you should segue with pleasure into this involving sequel. Set in Buenos Aires in 1943, it follows the adventures of three American soldiers as they think and fight their way through a complex story about Nazi sympathizers, dedicated supporters of the Allied cause, and other people just trying to stay alive...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war thriller -
Secret Honor by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe crackling new novel in the bestselling Honor Bound series, by the master of the military thriller. As with his other enormously popular series, the first two novels in W. E .B. Griffin’s saga of World War II espionage in Germany and Argentina – Honor Bound and Blood and Honor – became immediate bestsellers and were hailed as “immensely entertaining adventures” (Kirkus Reviews)...Categorized as:
espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war thriller 20th-century -
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Grey Wolves by Robert Muchamore
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAPRIL 1941With no European allies, Britain has to ship fuel, weapons and more than half of its food across the Atlantic from Canada and the United States. But slow moving cargo vessels make easy prey for packs of German submarines.Henderson and a team of young agents must go undercover to sabotage German U-Boat operations. If they dont succeed, the British people face starvation...Categorized as:
espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue war thriller 20th-century -
Secret Army by Robert Muchamore
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBritain, 1941. The government is building a secret army of intelligence agents to work undercover, gathering information and planning sabotage operations. Henderson's boys are part of that network: kids cut adrift by the war, training for the fight of their lives. They'll have to parachute into unknown territory, travel cross-country and outsmart a bunch of adults in a daredevil exercise...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue war thriller -
Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSomething has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination—Moscow.In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev...Categorized as:
classics cold-war espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue politics suspense -
A Quiet Flame by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPhilip Kerr returns with his best-loved character, Bernie Gunther, in the fifth novel in what is now a series: a tight, twisting, compelling thriller that is firmly rooted in history.A Quiet Flame opens in 1950...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement noir political-intrigue suspense war -
Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSeptember 1941: Reinhard Heydrich is hosting a gathering to celebrate his appointment as Reichsprotector of Czechoslovakia. He has chosen his guests with care. All are high-ranking Party members and each is a suspect in a crime as yet to be committed: the murder of Heydrich himself...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military noir political-intrigue politics -
Field Gray by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPhilip Kerr delivers a novel with the noir sensibility of Raymond Chandler, the realpolitik of vintage John le Carré, and the dark moral vision of Graham Greene...Categorized as:
cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military noir political-intrigue -
The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn entire navy had tried to silence the guns of Navarone and failed. Full-scale attacks had been driven back. Now they were sending in just five men, each one a specialist in dealing death...Categorized as:
classics crime drama espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense -
Qb VII by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn Queen’s Bench Courtroom Number Seven, famous author Abraham Cady stands trial. In his book The Holocaust—born of the terrible revelation that the Jadwiga Concentration Camp was the site of his family’s extermination—Cady shook the consciousness of the human race. He also named eminent surgeon Sir Adam Kelno as one of Jadwiga’s most sadistic inmate/doctors...Categorized as:
classics crime drama espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement political-intrigue politics -
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsMGB officer Leo is a man who never questions the Party Line. He arrests whomever he is told to arrest. He dismisses the horrific death of a young boy because he is told to, because he believes the Party stance that there can be no murder in Communist Russia. Leo is the perfect soldier of the regime. But suddenly his confidence that everything he does serves a great good is shaken...Categorized as:
cold-war crime drama espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue -
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsIn this classic, John le Carre's third novel and the first to earn him international acclaim, he created a world unlike any previously experienced in suspense fiction... -
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Spoils of Victory: A Mason Collins Novel by John A. Connell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the author of Ruins of War comes an electrifying novel featuring U.S. Army criminal investigator Mason Collins, set in the chaos of post-World War II Germany. When the Third Reich collapsed, the small town Garmisch-Partenkirchen became the home of fleeing war criminals, making it the final depository for the Nazis’ stolen riches. There are fortunes to be made on the black market...Categorized as:
cold-war crime historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue suspense war -
Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 45 ratingsForbidding peaks, resourceful commandos, beautiful spies, nonstop action, and neck-snapping plot twists make this the classic adventure thriller—the kind of page-turner that readers actually will find impossible to put down...Categorized as:
classics crime drama espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense -
While Still We Live by Helen MacInnes
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEnglish girl Sheila Matthews’ innocent holiday to Poland becomes a nightmare when the German Army invade in the summer of 1939. Working for the Polish underground as a double-agent, she plays a dangerous game, and is soon suspected by the Germans. Forced to flee to the forest and hunted by a ruthless German officer, she must rely on the dashing Captain Adam Wisniewski to help her home...Categorized as:
classics espionage historical-fiction political-intrigue politics suspense war thriller -
Seven Days in May by Fletcher Knebel, Charles W. Bailey II
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Gentleman Jim" Scott was a brilliant magnetic general. Like a lot of people, he believed the President was ruining the country. Unlike anyone else, he had the power to do something about it, something unprecedented and terrifying. Colonel "Jiggs" Casey was the Marine who accidentally stumbled onto the plot...Categorized as:
classics cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue politics -
The Assassination Option by W.E.B. Griffin, William E. Butterworth IV
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJames Cronley’s first successful mission for the new Central Intelligence Directorate has drawn all kinds of attention, some welcome, some not, including from the Soviets, his own Pentagon, and a seething J. Edgar Hoover...Categorized as:
cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue politics suspense -
The 13th Valley by John M. Del Vecchio
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPraise for "The 13th Valley," a Finalist for the American Book Award: "There have been a number of excellent books about Vietnam...but none has managed to communicate in such detail the day-to-day pain, discomfort, frustration and exhilaration of the American military experience in Vietnam." --Joe Klein, "The New York Times Book Review"" "The" novel about the Vietnam War..Categorized as:
classics historical-fiction military politics war 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Honor Bound by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt's 1942. A Marine aviator, an Army paratrooper and demolitions expert, and a non-com radio man are on an impossible mission for the OSS - sabotaging the resupply of German ships and submarines - by any means necessary! First Lieutenant Cletus Frade is fresh from Guadalcanal...Categorized as:
espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war thriller 20th-century -
Eagle Day by Robert Muchamore
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLate summer, 1940.Hitler has conquered France. Now he intends to cross the Channel and defeat Britain before winter arrives.A group of young refugees led by British spy Charles Henderson faces a stark choice. To head south into the safety of neutral Spain, or go north on a risky mission to sabotage the German invasion plans.For official purposes, these children do not exist...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military political-intrigue war thriller -
The Fighting Agents by W.E.B. Griffin, Stephen Lang
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBest of the Best. The fourth volume of Men at War follows the electrifying saga of the OSS during World War II as the story moves from the Philippines to Budapest to Cairo. Abridged...Categorized as:
espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue suspense war thriller 20th-century -
The One from the Other by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPhilip Kerr’s Berlin Noir trilogy—featuring the tough, fast-talking, noirish detective Bernie Gunther—is a publishing phenomenon that continues to win new fans more than fifteen years after its initial publication. Kerr has brought Bernie back in a highly anticipated thriller that will delight fans of the original books and attract new attention to the backlist...Categorized as:
cold-war crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military noir political-intrigue -
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Dark Star by Alan Furst
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe acclaimed author of Night Soldiers offers a dramatic and exciting spy thriller of Eastern Europe on the brink of World War II. In the back alleys and glittering salons of Europe, there is a thin line between survival and betrayal, as Soviet NKVD agents and the Nazi Gestapo confront each other in a brilliant duel of espionage. Like watching Casablanca for the first time.--Time...Categorized as:
crime espionage historical-fiction law-enforcement military noir political-intrigue politics -
Mr Einstein's Secretary by Matthew Reilly
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA SECRETARY LIKE NO OTHERIN AN EPIC SPANNING 40 YEARSAll Hanna Fischer ever wanted to do was to study physics under the great Albert Einstein.But when, as a teenager in 1919, her life is suddenly turned upside-down, she is catapulted into a new and extraordinary life - as a secretary, a scientist, a sister and a spy...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war crime espionage suspense thriller military political-intrigue -
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsA triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and New York police as he performs the impossible--and tries to stay alive doing it... -
The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAs compelling and disturbing as when it was first published in the midst of the Cold War, The Manchurian Candidate continues to enthrall readers with its electrifying action and shocking climax....Sgt. Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator..Categorized as:
classics cold-war crime drama espionage historical-fiction military political-intrigue -
Stalin's Hammer: Paris by John Birmingham
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe future vs the past. History is at war with itself in this popular alternate history. The Soviet Union controls half of Europe and supreme dictator Joseph Stalin wants the rest. Only Prince Harry can stop him and the super weapon he has developed... -
Daddy by Loup Durand
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWho has the key to a $350 million fortune the Nazis have sent their most brilliant operative to find? Thomas, an 11-year old boy with the mind of a genius, the cunning of a fox, and the chance of a snowball in Hell to escape...unless he is helped by one man. An American who doesn't even know he exists. A man he calls Daddy...Categorized as:
crime drama espionage historical-fiction political-intrigue suspense war 20th-century
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