Bummed out I finished the gray man series of books from Mark greany, fiction hasnt been a go to on my list but these kicked ars. Seems to be there are some readers on the forums here and looking for recommendations on other spy fiction. Jack ryan series comes highly recommended from the google but looking to keep it more present day with a different style of writing from another author.
Any recommendations?
You want to look up Vince Flynn. MN author who wrote some great books.
You want to look up Vince Flynn. MN author who wrote some great books.
Definitely Flynn. I’ve read or listened to most Tom Clancy books. While good, they are very long, very detailed books. If this is your jamb, they are great. Some of them are more spy-like, but more are world conflict based.
I also really like the Jason Kasper series. There is a spy element to these, but more centered around black ops. These are free with Kindle Unlimited so I’ve been burning through them pretty quickly.
Vince Flynn definitely. Good points by jake47 in the Clancy books are good but very detailed and wordy. I understand you have to fill a book and give the reader an idea of what’s happening, but I personally am not one that enjoys starting a chapter with “the coffee was piping hot. He had been trying to cut back on the amount of cups he drank each day, but with the problems in the city not going away he knew that wasn’t happening anytime soon. His khaki tactical work pants smelled of the fabric softener he had used recently….” Again, good books that eventually become page-turners, but sometimes can be a slow build.
If you like the spy type of stuff or books dealing with tactical, sneaky, classified-type matters the last 20+ years of the war on terror have produced some great reads. An author that goes by Dalton Fury has had some great real-life true story books as well as some fiction. He was part of the Delta Force elements trying to track down Bin Laden in late 2001. I’ve met him a few times through my previous employer and he’s a great guy that unfortunately passed away a few years ago.
Try American Sniper by Chris Kyle if you haven’t. That and Lone Survivor from Marcus Luttrell are unbelievable reads especially knowing these events actually happened. Zero Dark Thirty (the book) is outstanding to get a look into all the details that had to come together to ultimately locate Bin Laden. Blackhawk Down is also 100% worth the read.
I find it very interesting reading books by former Secret Service as well. There’s a real good one I read written by a career Secret Service guy who’s career culminated in working President Reagan’s personal protective detail. One interesting part of that was the need to rehearse and drill for worst-case scenarios while the President was riding horseback on his ranch in California.
x10000 on the Flynn books, even the ones that have been ghost written by Kyle Mills after Flynn passed are very solid and barely notice the change in author imo. Dan’s recommendations on American Sniper, Lone Survivor, Zero Dark Thirty and Blackhawk Down are all excellent as well. Those should get you a few years of reading material! 
The jason Kasper seriers is included in my Amazon benefits, queued up.
Will get Flynn rolling after these. Thanks fellas.
Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva
Nowhere Man series by Gregg Hurwitz
While I love the Spy/Military genre- Like others have pointed out I’ve always have had a hard time getting into fiction as there’s so much that’s actually happened in our own history that has since been written about and I want to immerse myself in that.
Hampton Sides has written some great books going deep on the US raid of a Japanese Prison Camp in the Philipines to liberate Batan survivors (Ghost Soldiers) and the battle of the Chosin Reservoir in N. Korea (on Desperate Ground). Read these back-to-back last year and had to take a break from war books to actually try and regain some shred of hope for human civility. Fantastic books, Fantastic author!
I’ll throw out another author I would recommend – Nelson de Mille writes some really good books with a variety of topics, but fit the spy novel theme. “Nightfall” has been my favorite so far.
Flynn and Clancy for sure.
Lee Child’s Teacher series, while not a spy theme, are definitely page turners.
Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva
^^^ This.
Also try:
John le Carré – The godfather of the genre. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy are classics.
Also, the real story can be every bit as good or better than fiction. Try these for the REAL spy thrillers:
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre. The unbelievable tale of how Germany’s own spies were used against them to conceal the D-Day attacks.
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War also by Ben Macintyre.
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell. The greatest spy story you’ve never heard of.
The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park: The Secret Intelligence Station That Helped Defeat the Nazis by Dermot Turing
I love Term Limits by Vince Flynn! Great recommendation!
Vince Flynn for sure.
Jack Carr if you’re into more military than spy novel. Dalton Fury wrote books along the same genre as Jack Carr.
Is also try John Sandfords different series of books. Not spy but cop thrillers and he’s local so all the books are based in MN.
David Baldacci is another one. He has a few series that are worth a try.
Check out the series by C.J. Box about a Wyoming Game Warden.Joe Pickett
Once you open them you can’t put ’em down.
Im a huge Jack Carr fan. Highly recommend his books. The terminal list is the first of the series.
The first Kasper book was good, really enjoyed the details of the “simple” things like checking equipment and prep, certainly not so simple. I’ll be revisiting these.
Went to the Rapp series by Flynn, they’re great. Last two have been excellent(books 7 and 8), lil slow after the first few books and was ready to jump ship once they got more about the politics but glad I stuck w em.
Also a DeMille fan. Like his John Corey series. Add a lot of humor to the books and are an interesting too. Brad Thor is also a very good read. The books are in a series, so some of the books follow what the previous book ended up on. Lions of Lucerne is the first book in the series.
I like the David Balducci books.
Im a huge Jack Carr fan. Highly recommend his books. The terminal list is the first of the series.
Brad Thor is also a very good read. The books are in a series, so some of the books follow what the previous book ended up on. Lions of Lucerne is the first book in the series.
I read Terminal List after your recommendation and agree!
Interesting coincidence. I just started the Lions of Lucerne yesterday and it is a real page turner so far!
Not current, but another classic Cold War spy author is Len Deighton.
Not a spy novel but Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch series) books are good.
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