I Spy

If I hadn't decided to be a bartender, lawyer, bookseller and librarian, I might have approached the CIA about a job.  Maybe it's not too late......who would ever suspect me?  All I need is a trench coat, a fedora and a better poker face.  While I am contemplating this career change, I spend a lot of time reading books about espionage.  Here are some favorites:

The Spanish Game by Charles Cumming - I just read this one for my Mystery Book Club at the library. It takes place in Madrid and focuses on the Basque people and the ongoing tensions between the Spanish and the Basque. Every time I thought I had this one figured out it would swerve in another direction, completely surprising me. I liked that the main character is a bit of an antihero - paranoid and somewhat amoral.  This is the second Alec Milius novel, the first, A Spy By Nature, introduces Alec and provides an explanation for his actions in this second novel.

Stella Rimington used to be the Director General of MI5.  After her retirement she began to write novels. Her first, At Risk, features Liz Carlyle a 34 year old MI5 intelligence officer.  I enjoyed this book because spy novels rarely have female main characters.  While trying to stop terrorists, Liz has to deal with the issues of being a woman in a traditionally male world.  Rimington's novels are tightly plotted and the you will not be able to put this one down.

One of my favorite American writers of espionage is Daniel Silva.  Silva's main character, Gabriel Allon is an art restorer that keeps getting pulled back into the world of a semi-official Israeli intelligence agency.  I love these books because they take place in so many different parts of the world and are filled with action.  The English Assassin is one of my favorites. Gabriel travels from Switzerland to Portugal to a variety of other European capitals trying to solve the mystery of missing masterpieces, looted during World War II.  Smart and intense and exciting.......pick up a Daniel Silva for a great read.

So if you want to disappear into a world of secret codes, safe houses and intrigue, give one of the books a try.  And, as always, keep those pages turning.......