by Jonathan Hale | Sep 11, 2026 | The Fiction Desk
Ask readers to name the greatest fictional spies and the conversation quickly becomes an argument. James Bond? George Smiley? Jason Bourne? Carrie Mathison? Jackson Lamb? The problem is partly the question. “Spy” is an extraordinarily broad description. Espionage...
by Jonathan Hale | Sep 3, 2026 | The Fiction Desk
There is no definitive list of the 25 greatest spy novels. That is worth admitting at the outset. Espionage fiction has been evolving for more than a century, and its best books are remarkably different from one another. Some celebrate adventure. Others dismantle it....
