Recommend espionage fiction?

Hey, I'm craving to read some stories of espionage, be it spying, assasinations, intrigue, hidden agenda etc... I particularly love stories of cold war espionage, but anything else will be equally cool. Any suggestions?

Robert Ludlum

I guess Ian Fleming's James Bond novels are rudimentary.

The Company by Robert Littell is outstanding. Lots of discussion about tradecraft, etc. in it as well as the backroom deals and meetings. Very interesting stuff!

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth is excellent reading.

I don't like Fred Forsyth. His characters tend to have too much of a superhero complex and i hate taht. Thats why I preferred the recent casino royale movies over previous james bond movies.

Might as well read non fiction spy memoirs, much of it reads like fiction to us laymen anyhow.

The Last Patriot. http://www.amazon.com/Last-Patriot-T.../dp/141654383X

Haven't read it, but I saw a half hour long interview with the author, and it peaked (piqued?) my interest. He apparently has a good amount of connections to the spy world, and his previous books led to numerous people within various agencies both in the US and abroad to write him and suggest the portrayals in his books mirrored actual events known only to these government agencies.

Its a bit too Hollywood for me, but I really don't read much non fiction to begin with, let alone spy novels.

This book is essentially about a true to life theory. That the Koran is actually missing a chapter or chapters. In this case, they were taken to sell the idea that it is in fact the unadulterated word of god. This suggests that the missing chapters were revelations of Muhammad's in his final days, that were less than flattering and would destroy Islam if ever realized. In the book, someone finds them.


This exact idea exists in many intelligence agencies, and has been written about by a good amount of scholars, both Muslim and otherwise.