Spy fiction
Encyclopedia
Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage
, was a sub-genre derived from the novel
during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War
(1914–18), when governments established modern intelligence agencies
in the early twentieth century. As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure (The Prisoner of Zenda
, 1894, The Scarlet Pimpernel
, 1905), the thriller (such as the works of Edgar Wallace
) and the politico–military thriller (The Schirmer Inheritance, 1953, The Quiet American
, 1955).
(1894–99) contributed much to public interest in espionage
. For some twelve years (ca. 1894–1906), the Affair, which involved elements of international espionage, treason
, and anti-Semitism
, dominated French politics. The details were reported by the world press: an Imperial German penetration agent
betraying to Germany the secrets of the General Staff of the French Army
; the French counter-intelligence
riposte of sending a charwoman to rifle the trash in the German Embassy in Paris, were news that inspired successful spy fiction.
. The Bravo attacks European anti-republicanism
, by depicting Venice
as a city-state where a ruthless oligarchy
wears the mask of the "serene republic". Kim
(1901) by Rudyard Kipling
concerns the Anglo
–Russian
Great Game
of imperial and geopolitical
rivalry and strategic warfare for supremacy in Central Asia
, usually in Afghanistan
. In Continental Europe
, The Scarlet Pimpernel
(1905) by Baroness Orczy
chronicled an English aristocrat
's derring-do in rescuing French aristocrats from the Reign of Terror
of the populist French Revolution
(1789–99).
In Britain, the term "spy novel" was defined by The Riddle of the Sands
(1903) by Robert Erskine Childers
. It described amateur spies discovering a German plan to invade Britain, thus being an early example of the invasion literature
sub-genre. William Le Queux
and E. Phillips Oppenheim
became the most widely read and most successful British writers of spy fiction, especially of invasion literature. Despite having been their genre's first and second writers, their prosaic style and formulaic stories, produced voluminously from 1900 to 1914, proved of low literary merit
.
Meanwhile, the fictional detective
Sherlock Holmes
, created by Arthur Conan Doyle
, is a spyhunter for Britain in the stories "The Adventure of the Second Stain
" (1904), and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
" (1912). In "His Last Bow
" (1917), he served Crown and Country as a double agent
, transmitting false intelligence to Imperial Germany on the eve of the Great War.
The Secret Agent
(1907) by Joseph Conrad
examines the psychology and ideology
motivating the socially-marginal men and women of a revolutionary
cell determined to provoke revolution in Britain with a terrorist bombing of the Greenwich Observatory.
During the War, the propagandist
John Buchan, became the pre-eminent British spy novelist. His well-written stories portray the Great War as a "clash of civilisations" between Western civilization
and barbarism
. His notable novels are The Thirty-nine Steps
(1915), Greenmantle
(1916) and sequels, all featuring the heroic Scotsman Richard Hannay
. After the War, in France, Gaston Leroux
published the spy thriller Rouletabille chez Krupp (1917), in which a detective, Joseph Rouletabille
, engages in espionage.
enemy had won the Russian Civil War
(1917–23); thus, the inter-war spy story usually concerns combating the Red Menace, which was then perceived as another "clash of civilizations". Despite poor writing and plotting, spy fiction endured. Former Intelligence officer
s and agents began writing spy fiction from inside the trade. Examples are Ashenden or: the British Agent (1928) by W. Somerset Maugham
, about counter-revolutionary British espionage against Bolshevik Russia, and The Mystery of Tunnel 51 (1928) by Alexander Wilson
whose novels conveyed an uncanny portrait of the first head of the Secret Intelligence Service
, Mansfield Smith-Cumming
, the original 'C'.
The genre was not all about clashing civilizations; Water on the Brain (1933) by former intelligence officer Compton Mackenzie
was the first successful spy novel satire
. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/compton-mackenzie/water-on-brain.htm
Away from the professionals, Epitaph for a Spy (1938), "The Mask of Dimitrios
" (US: A Coffin for Dimitrios, 1939), and Journey into Fear (1940) by Eric Ambler
, concern the fortunes of amateurs entangled in espionage. The politics and ideology are secondary to the personal story that involved the hero or heroine. Ambler's Popular Front
–period œvre has a left-wing perspective about the personal consequences of "big picture" politics and ideology, which was notable, given spy fiction's usual right-wards
tilt in defence of the Establishment
attitudes underpinning empire
and imperialism
. Ambler's early novels Uncommon Danger (1937) and Cause for Alarm (1938), in which NKVD
spies help the amateur protagonist
survive, are especially remarkable among English-language spy fiction.
Manning Coles
published Drink to Yesterday (1940), a grim story occurring during the Great War, which introduces the hero Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon
. The next novels featuring Hambledon were lighter-toned, despite occurring either in Nazi Germany
or Britain during the Second World War
(1939–45). After the War, the Hambledon adventures fell to formula, losing critical
and popular interest.
There were also some Children's spy novels made in the 21st century about WW2 including Henderson's Boys
which was a spin off CHERUB
, the same thing but based in the present day.
(1945–91) gave impetus to spy novelists. In the 1950s, Desmond Cory
and Ian Fleming
introduced the secret agent with a licence to kill, the government-sanctioned assassin
. Former British Intelligence officer Graham Greene examined the morality
of espionage in left-wing, anti-imperialist novels such as The Heart of the Matter
(1948) set in Sierra Leone, the seriocomic Our Man in Havana
(1959) occurring in the Cuba of dictator Fulgencio Batista
before his deposition by Fidel Castro
's popular Cuban Revolution
(1953–59), and The Human Factor
(1978) about British support for the apartheid National Party
government of South Africa, against the Red Menace.
, secret agent 007 of the British Secret Service, a mixture of assassin and counter-intelligence officer introduced in Casino Royale
(1953) by Ian Fleming. Despite the commercial success of Fleming's fantastical anti-Communist
novels, other former spies, such as John le Carré
and Len Deighton
, created anti-hero
ic men protagonists who used the immoral
tatics. Their novels, which were written and structured in the genre's 1930s style, feature protagonists antithetical to James Bond. Le Carré's middle-class George Smiley
is a middle-aged spy burdened with a faithless, upper-class wife who publicly cuckolds him for sport. Deighton's anonymous spy, protagonist of The IPCRESS File
(1962), Horse Under Water
(1963), Funeral in Berlin
(1964), and others, is a working-class man. Adam Diment
's Philip McAlpine is a long-haired, hashish
-smoking fop
in the novels The Dolly Dolly Spy (1967), The Great Spy Race (1968), The Bang Bang Birds (1968) and Think, Inc. (1971).
Noteworthy examples of the journalistic style and successful integration of fiction
al characters with historical events were the politico–military novels The Day of the Jackal
(1971) by Frederick Forsyth
and Eye of the Needle
(1978) by Ken Follett
. Under the pseudonym "Adam Hall", Trevor Dudley-Smith
wrote the Quiller
spy novel series, beginning with The Berlin Memorandum (US: The Quiller Memorandum, 1965), a hybrid of glamour and dirt, Fleming and Le Carré. The writing is literary and the tradecraft believable. Other examples are the Peter Marlow series, beginning with The Private Sector (1971) by Joseph Hone
, which is set during Israel's Six Day War (1967) against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and William Garner
's secret agents, the fantastic Michael Jagger, in Overkill (1966), The Deep, Deep Freeze (1968), The Us or Them War (1969) and A Big Enough Wreath (1974) and the realistic John Morpurgo in Think Big, Think Dirty (1983), Rats' Alley (1984), and Zones of Silence (1986).
published Death of a Citizen
(1960) and The Wrecking Crew
(1960), beginning the series featuring Matt Helm
, a CIA assassin and counter-intelligence agent. Hamilton's novels were adult and well-written, but the cinematic interpretations were adolescent parody
. The Nick Carter-Killmaster
series of spy novels, initiated by Michael Avallone
and Valerie Moolman, but authored anonymously, ran to over 260 separate books between 1964 and the early 1990s and invariably pitted American, Soviet and Chinese spies against each other. The Scarlatti Inheritance
(1971) by Robert Ludlum
is usually considered the first American modern (glamour and dirt) spy thriller weighing action and reflection. In the 1970s, former CIA man Charles McCarry
began the Paul Christopher series with The Tears of Autumn
(1978), which was well-written, with believable tradecraft. With the proliferation of male protagonists in the spy fiction genre, writers and book packagers also started bringing out spy fiction with a female as the protagonist. One notable spy series is The Baroness, featuring a sexy female superspy, with the novels being more action-oriented, in the mold of Nick Carter-Killmaster.
The British Firefox
(1977) by Craig Thomas
, detailing the Western (Anglo–American) theft of a superior Soviet jet aeroplane, established the techno-thriller
, in which technology and its threats determine plot. The first American techno-thriller was The Hunt for Red October
(1984) by Tom Clancy
. It introduced CIA deskman (analyst) Jack Ryan
as a field agent; he reprised the role in the sequel The Cardinal of the Kremlin
(1987).
, whose range of novels and novel series featured a White Russian
spy in the USSR
; Max Otto von Stirlitz
, a Soviet mole
in the Nazi High Command, and Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka
. In his novels, Semyonov covered much Soviet intelligence history, ranging from the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), through the Great Patriotic War
(1941–45), to the Russo–American Cold War (1945–91). In 1973, his novel Seventeen Moments of Spring
(1968) was adapted to television as a twelve-part mini-series about the Soviet spy Maksim Isaev operating in wartime Nazi Germany
as Max Otto von Stirlitz, charged with preventing a separate peace between Nazi Germany and America which would exclude the USSR. The programme TASS Is Authorized to Declare...
also derives from his work.
s in the 1960s, ranging from the fantastical James Bond series to the realistic The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
(1965), and the hybrid The Quiller Memorandum
(1966).
In television, the American adaptation of Casino Royale (1954) featured Jimmy Bond in an episode of the Climax! anthology series. The narrative tone of television espionage ranged from the drama of Danger Man
(1960–68) to the sardonicism of The Man from U.N.C.L.E (1964–68) and the flippancy of I Spy (1965–68) until the exaggeration, akin to that of William Le Queux and E. Phillips Oppenheim before the First World War
(1914–18), degenerated to the parody of Get Smart
(1965–70). However, the circle closed in the late 1970s when The Sandbaggers
(1978–80) presented the grit and bureaucracy of espionage.
In the 1980s, US television featured the light espionage programmes Airwolf
(1984–87) and MacGyver
(1985–92), each rooted in the Cold War yet reflecting American citizens' distrust of their government, after the crimes of the Nixon
Government (the internal, political espionage of the Watergate Scandal
and the Vietnam War
) were exposed. The spy heroes were independent of government; MacGyver works for a non-profit, private think tank
, and aviator Hawke and two friends work free-lance adventures, although each series features an intelligence agency
, the DXS in MacGyver, and the FIRM, in Airwolf.
, the Iron Curtain
countries, and Russia
as credible enemies of democracy, espionage novelists were at a (temporary) loss for nemeses
. The US Congress even considered disestablishing the CIA, considering its chartered mission, of defeating the "International Communist
Conspiracy", had vanished. The New York Times newspaper ceased publishing a spy novel review column. Nevertheless, counting on the aficionado, publishers issued spy novels by writers popular during the Cold War proper, among them Harlots Ghost (1991) by Norman Mailer
and novels by Nelson DeMille
, W.E.B. Griffin, and David Morrell
.
In the US, the new novels Moscow Club (1991) by Joseph Finder
, Masquerade (1996) by Gayle Lynds
, and The Unlikely Spy (1996) by Daniel Silva, and in the UK, A Spy By Nature (2001) by Charles Cumming
and Remembrance Day (2000) by Henry Porter
, maintained the spy novel in the post–Cold War
world.
, reawakened interest in the peoples and politics of the world beyond its borders. Espionage genre elders such as John le Carré, Frederick Forsyth, Robert Littell
, and Charles McCarry
resumed work. At the CIA, the number of manuscripts submitted for pre-publication vetting doubled between 1998 and 2005. Some post-attack period novels are about intelligence officers and the profession of intelligence, and some are by insiders (as were W. Somerset Maughum and Graham Greene for their generations). American examples are Saigon Station (2003) by Charles Gillen, The Dream Merchant of Lisbon (2004) and No Game For Amateurs (2009) by Gene Coyle, Edge of Allegiance (2005) by Thomas F. Murphy, A Train to Potevka (2005) by Mike Ramsdell, Voices Under Berlin
(2008), by T.H.E. Hill and North from Calcutta (2009) by Duane Evans. British examples are At Risk (2004), Secret Asset (2006), Illegal Action (2007), and Dead Line (2008), by Dame Stella Rimington
(formerly the Director General of MI5 from 1992 to 1996) and The Code Snatch (2001) by Alan Stripp, formerly a cryptographer at Bletchley Park
.
In every medium, spy thrillers introduce children and adolescents to deception and espionage at earlier ages, as in the Agent Cody Banks
film, the Alex Rider
adventure novels by Anthony Horowitz
, chick lit
novels such as I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
and the CHERUB
series, by Robert Muchamore
. Ben Allsop, one of England's youngest novelists, also writes spy fiction. His titles include Sharp and The Perfect Kill. Recent television espionage programmes are La Femme Nikita (1997–2001), Alias
(2001–2006), 24
(2001-2010), NBC's Chuck
(2007-present), and Spooks
in the UK (release as MI-5 in the USA and Canada) 2002-. Recent English-language spy film
s are The Bourne Identity
(2002), Mission: Impossible
(1996); Munich
(2005), Syriana
(2005), The Constant Gardener
(2005) and Casino Royale
(2006), a relaunching of the James Bond series.
In contemporary digital video games, the player can be a vicarious spy, as in the Metal Gear
, especially in the series' third installment, Metal Gear Solid
, unlike the games of the Third-Person Shooter
genre, Syphon Filter
, and Splinter Cell
. The games feature complex stories and cinematic images. Games such as No One Lives Forever
and the sequel No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way humorously combine espionage and 1960s design. Evil Genius (game)
, contemporary to NOLF series, allows the player to be the villain and its strategy occurs real time.
The International Thriller Writers
(ITW) established themselves in 2004, and held their first conference in 2006. The Spyland espionage theme park, in the Gran Scala
pleasure dome, in Zaragoza province, Spain, will open in 20l2.
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
, was a sub-genre derived from the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
(1914–18), when governments established modern intelligence agencies
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
in the early twentieth century. As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure (The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda
The Prisoner of Zenda is an adventure novel by Anthony Hope, published in 1894. The king of the fictional country of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus unable to attend his own coronation. Political forces are such that in order for the king to retain his crown his...
, 1894, The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro and Batman....
, 1905), the thriller (such as the works of Edgar Wallace
Edgar Wallace
Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was an English crime writer, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, who wrote 175 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles in newspapers and journals....
) and the politico–military thriller (The Schirmer Inheritance, 1953, The Quiet American
The Quiet American
The Quiet American is an anti-war novel by British author Graham Greene, first published in United Kingdom in 1955 and in the United States in 1956. It was adapted into films in 1958 and 2002. The book draws on Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French...
, 1955).
History
In nineteenth-century France, the Dreyfus AffairDreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
(1894–99) contributed much to public interest in espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
. For some twelve years (ca. 1894–1906), the Affair, which involved elements of international espionage, treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
, and anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, dominated French politics. The details were reported by the world press: an Imperial German penetration agent
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
betraying to Germany the secrets of the General Staff of the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
; the French counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
riposte of sending a charwoman to rifle the trash in the German Embassy in Paris, were news that inspired successful spy fiction.
Pre-First World War
Early examples of the espionage novel are the American stories of The Spy (1821) and The Bravo (1831), by James Fenimore CooperJames Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
. The Bravo attacks European anti-republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
, by depicting Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
as a city-state where a ruthless oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
wears the mask of the "serene republic". Kim
Kim (novel)
Kim is a picaresque novel by Rudyard Kipling. It was first published serially in McClure's Magazine from December 1900 to October 1901 as well as in Cassell's Magazine from January to November 1901, and first published in book form by Macmillan & Co. Ltd in October 1901...
(1901) by Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
concerns the Anglo
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
–Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
Great Game
The Great Game
The Great Game or Tournament of Shadows in Russia, were terms for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813...
of imperial and geopolitical
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
rivalry and strategic warfare for supremacy in Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, usually in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. In Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
, The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro and Batman....
(1905) by Baroness Orczy
Baroness Orczy
Baroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel...
chronicled an English aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
's derring-do in rescuing French aristocrats from the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
of the populist French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
(1789–99).
In Britain, the term "spy novel" was defined by The Riddle of the Sands
The Riddle of the Sands
The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. It is an early example of the espionage novel, with a strong underlying theme of militarism...
(1903) by Robert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers
Robert Erskine Childers DSC , universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish...
. It described amateur spies discovering a German plan to invade Britain, thus being an early example of the invasion literature
Invasion literature
Invasion literature was a historical literary genre most notable between 1871 and the First World War . The genre first became recognizable starting in Britain in 1871 with The Battle of Dorking, a fictional account of an invasion of England by Germany...
sub-genre. William Le Queux
William Le Queux
William Tufnell Le Queux was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat , a traveller , a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long...
and E. Phillips Oppenheim
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Edward Phillips Oppenheim , was an English novelist, in his lifetime a major and successful writer of genre fiction including thrillers.-Life:...
became the most widely read and most successful British writers of spy fiction, especially of invasion literature. Despite having been their genre's first and second writers, their prosaic style and formulaic stories, produced voluminously from 1900 to 1914, proved of low literary merit
Literary merit
Literary merit is a quality generally applied to the genre of literary fiction. A work is said to have literary merit if it is a work of quality, that is if it has some aesthetic value....
.
Meanwhile, the fictional detective
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, created by Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, is a spyhunter for Britain in the stories "The Adventure of the Second Stain
The Adventure of the Second Stain
"The Adventure of the Second Stain", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes....
" (1904), and "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
"The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It is one of eight stories in the cycle collected as His Last Bow...
" (1912). In "His Last Bow
His Last Bow (story)
"His Last Bow" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and one of seven collected in the anthology His Last Bow. Unlike most other Holmes stories which are written from the point of view of Dr...
" (1917), he served Crown and Country as a double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
, transmitting false intelligence to Imperial Germany on the eve of the Great War.
The Secret Agent
The Secret Agent
The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale is a novel by Joseph Conrad published in 1907. The story is set in London in 1886 and deals largely with the life of Mr. Verloc and his job as a spy. The Secret Agent is also notable as it is one of Conrad's later political novels, which move away from his typical...
(1907) by Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
examines the psychology and ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
motivating the socially-marginal men and women of a revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
cell determined to provoke revolution in Britain with a terrorist bombing of the Greenwich Observatory.
During the War, the propagandist
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
John Buchan, became the pre-eminent British spy novelist. His well-written stories portray the Great War as a "clash of civilisations" between Western civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
and barbarism
Barbarian
Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
. His notable novels are The Thirty-nine Steps
The Thirty-nine Steps
The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh...
(1915), Greenmantle
Greenmantle
Greenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character of Richard Hannay, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London...
(1916) and sequels, all featuring the heroic Scotsman Richard Hannay
Richard Hannay
Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is a fictional secret agent created by Scottish novelist John Buchan. In his autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer...
. After the War, in France, Gaston Leroux
Gaston Leroux
Gaston Louis Alfred Leroux was a French journalist and author of detective fiction.In the English-speaking world, he is best known for writing the novel The Phantom of the Opera , which has been made into several film and stage productions of the same name, notably the 1925 film starring Lon...
published the spy thriller Rouletabille chez Krupp (1917), in which a detective, Joseph Rouletabille
Joseph Rouletabille
Joseph Rouletabille is a fictional character created by Gaston Leroux, a French writer and journalist.-Overview:In the first novel, The Mystery of the Yellow Room, Rouletabille solves an attempted murder in a locked room mystery...
, engages in espionage.
Inter-war period
After the successful Russian Revolution (1917), the quality of spy fiction declined, because the BolshevikBolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
enemy had won the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
(1917–23); thus, the inter-war spy story usually concerns combating the Red Menace, which was then perceived as another "clash of civilizations". Despite poor writing and plotting, spy fiction endured. Former Intelligence officer
Intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile and/or analyze information which is of use to that organization...
s and agents began writing spy fiction from inside the trade. Examples are Ashenden or: the British Agent (1928) by W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
, about counter-revolutionary British espionage against Bolshevik Russia, and The Mystery of Tunnel 51 (1928) by Alexander Wilson
Alexander Wilson (writer and spy)
Alexander Wilson was an English writer who was also an officer for MI6, definitely during World War II but possibly working for Indian Political Intelligence and the Indian Intelligence Bureau as early as the late 1920s....
whose novels conveyed an uncanny portrait of the first head of the Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
, Mansfield Smith-Cumming
Mansfield Smith-Cumming
Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, KCMG, CB was the first director of what would become the Secret Intelligence Service , also known as MI6...
, the original 'C'.
The genre was not all about clashing civilizations; Water on the Brain (1933) by former intelligence officer Compton Mackenzie
Compton Mackenzie
Sir Compton Mackenzie, OBE was a writer and a Scottish nationalist.-Background:Compton Mackenzie was born in West Hartlepool, England, into a theatrical family of Mackenzies, but many of whose members used Compton as their stage surname, starting with his grandfather Henry Compton, a well-known...
was the first successful spy novel satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/compton-mackenzie/water-on-brain.htm
Away from the professionals, Epitaph for a Spy (1938), "The Mask of Dimitrios
The Mask of Dimitrios
The Mask of Dimitrios is an American film noir directed by Jean Negulesco and written by Frank Gruber, based on the 1939 novel of the same name written by Eric Ambler . Ambler is known as a major influence on writers and an inventor of the modern thriller genre...
" (US: A Coffin for Dimitrios, 1939), and Journey into Fear (1940) by Eric Ambler
Eric Ambler
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.-Life:...
, concern the fortunes of amateurs entangled in espionage. The politics and ideology are secondary to the personal story that involved the hero or heroine. Ambler's Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
–period œvre has a left-wing perspective about the personal consequences of "big picture" politics and ideology, which was notable, given spy fiction's usual right-wards
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
tilt in defence of the Establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
attitudes underpinning empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
and imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
. Ambler's early novels Uncommon Danger (1937) and Cause for Alarm (1938), in which NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
spies help the amateur protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
survive, are especially remarkable among English-language spy fiction.
Second World War
Above Suspicion (1939) by Helen MacInnes, about an anti-Nazi husband and wife spy team, features literate writing and fast-paced, intricate, and suspenseful stories occurring against contemporary historical backgrounds. MacInnes's other spy novels include Assignment in Brittany (1942), Decision at Delphi (1961), and Ride a Pale Horse (1984).Manning Coles
Manning Coles
Manning Coles is the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles , who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 40s through the early 60s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for the Foreign...
published Drink to Yesterday (1940), a grim story occurring during the Great War, which introduces the hero Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon
Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon
Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon is the fictional protagonist of many spy novels written by the British author "Manning Coles" from 1940 through 1963...
. The next novels featuring Hambledon were lighter-toned, despite occurring either in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
or Britain during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(1939–45). After the War, the Hambledon adventures fell to formula, losing critical
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
and popular interest.
There were also some Children's spy novels made in the 21st century about WW2 including Henderson's Boys
Henderson's Boys
Henderson's Boys is a series of young adult spy novels written by English author Robert Muchamore. The series follows Charles Henderson, the creator of the fictitious CHERUB organisation...
which was a spin off CHERUB
CHERUB
CHERUB is a series of young adult spy novels, written by the English author Robert Muchamore, focusing around a division of the British Security Service named CHERUB, which employs minors, predominantly orphans, as intelligence officers...
, the same thing but based in the present day.
Cold War
The metamorphosis of the Second World War (1939–45) into the Soviet–American Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
(1945–91) gave impetus to spy novelists. In the 1950s, Desmond Cory
Desmond Cory
Desmond Cory is a pseudonym used by British mystery/thriller writer Shaun Lloyd McCarthy...
and Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
introduced the secret agent with a licence to kill, the government-sanctioned assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
. Former British Intelligence officer Graham Greene examined the morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
of espionage in left-wing, anti-imperialist novels such as The Heart of the Matter
The Heart of the Matter
The Heart of the Matter , a novel by the English author Graham Greene, won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. During World War II, Greene worked for the Secret Intelligence Service in Sierra Leone, the setting for his novel...
(1948) set in Sierra Leone, the seriocomic Our Man in Havana
Our Man in Havana
Our Man In Havana is a novel by British author Graham Greene, where he makes fun of intelligence services, especially the British MI6, and their willingness to believe reports from their local informants....
(1959) occurring in the Cuba of dictator Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
before his deposition by Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
's popular Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
(1953–59), and The Human Factor
The Human Factor
The Human Factor is an espionage novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1978 and adapted into a 1979 film, directed by Otto Preminger using a screenplay by Tom Stoppard.-Plot summary:...
(1978) about British support for the apartheid National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
government of South Africa, against the Red Menace.
British
A noteworthy Cold War spy is the heroic, upper-class James BondJames Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, secret agent 007 of the British Secret Service, a mixture of assassin and counter-intelligence officer introduced in Casino Royale
Casino Royale (novel)
Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. It paved the way for a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in addition to two short story collections, followed by many "continuation" Bond novels by other authors....
(1953) by Ian Fleming. Despite the commercial success of Fleming's fantastical anti-Communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
novels, other former spies, such as John le Carré
John le Carré
David John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
and Len Deighton
Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
, created anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
ic men protagonists who used the immoral
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
tatics. Their novels, which were written and structured in the genre's 1930s style, feature protagonists antithetical to James Bond. Le Carré's middle-class George Smiley
George Smiley
George Smiley is a fictional character created by John le Carré. Smiley is an intelligence officer working for MI6 , the British overseas intelligence agency...
is a middle-aged spy burdened with a faithless, upper-class wife who publicly cuckolds him for sport. Deighton's anonymous spy, protagonist of The IPCRESS File
The Ipcress File
The IPCRESS File was the first spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1962.It was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman and directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Michael Caine as the protagonist....
(1962), Horse Under Water
Horse Under Water
Horse Under Water is the second of Len Deighton's spy novels featuring an anonymous British agent protagonist . It was followed by Funeral in Berlin.- Background :...
(1963), Funeral in Berlin
Funeral in Berlin
Funeral in Berlin is a spy novel by Len Deighton.- Plot :The protagonist, who is unnamed, travels to Berlin to arrange the defection of a Soviet scientist named Semitsa, this being brokered by Johnny Vulkan of the Berlin intelligence community...
(1964), and others, is a working-class man. Adam Diment
Adam Diment
Frederick Adam Diment is a spy novelist who published four novels between 1967 and 1971. All four are about the adventures of Philip McAlpine whom critic Anthony Boucher described as an agent who smokes hashish, leads a highly active sex life, kills vividly, uses the latest London slang and still...
's Philip McAlpine is a long-haired, hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
-smoking fop
Fop
Fop became a pejorative term for a foolish man over-concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th century England. Some of the very many similar alternative terms are: "coxcomb", fribble, "popinjay" , fashion-monger, and "ninny"...
in the novels The Dolly Dolly Spy (1967), The Great Spy Race (1968), The Bang Bang Birds (1968) and Think, Inc. (1971).
Noteworthy examples of the journalistic style and successful integration of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al characters with historical events were the politico–military novels The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal is a thriller novel by English writer Frederick Forsyth, about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French terrorist group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France....
(1971) by Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
and Eye of the Needle
Eye of the Needle
Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group titled Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the...
(1978) by Ken Follett
Ken Follett
Ken Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...
. Under the pseudonym "Adam Hall", Trevor Dudley-Smith
Elleston Trevor
Elleston Trevor was the pseudonym, and eventually legal name, of the British novelist Trevor Dudley-Smith , who also wrote as Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Howard North, Roger Fitzalan, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith and Lesley Stone...
wrote the Quiller
Quiller
Quiller is the alias of a fictional spy created by English novelist Elleston Trevor and featured in a series of Cold War thrillers written under the pseudonym "Adam Hall".The series focuses on a solitary, highly capable spy...
spy novel series, beginning with The Berlin Memorandum (US: The Quiller Memorandum, 1965), a hybrid of glamour and dirt, Fleming and Le Carré. The writing is literary and the tradecraft believable. Other examples are the Peter Marlow series, beginning with The Private Sector (1971) by Joseph Hone
Joseph Hone
Joseph Hone is a writer of the Spy Novel. His most famous novels featured a British spy called Peter Marlow. The first of the series was The Private Sector , set in the Six Day War. Marlow's story continues in The Sixth Directorate , The Flowers of the Forest , and The Valley of the Fox...
, which is set during Israel's Six Day War (1967) against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and William Garner
William Garner (novelist)
William Garner is an English thriller writer.-Life and work:He graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1941 with a BSc...
's secret agents, the fantastic Michael Jagger, in Overkill (1966), The Deep, Deep Freeze (1968), The Us or Them War (1969) and A Big Enough Wreath (1974) and the realistic John Morpurgo in Think Big, Think Dirty (1983), Rats' Alley (1984), and Zones of Silence (1986).
American
In time, US spy novelists achieved a measure of parity in a genre dominated by British writers. In 1955, Edward S. Aarons began publishing the Sam Durell CIA "Assignment — " series, which began with Assignment to Disaster (1955). Donald HamiltonDonald Hamilton
Donald Bengtsson Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country...
published Death of a Citizen
Death of a Citizen
Death of a Citizen is a 1960 spy novel by Donald Hamilton, and was the first in a long-running series of books featuring the adventures of assassin Matt Helm...
(1960) and The Wrecking Crew
The Wrecking Crew (novel)
The Wrecking Crew is a spy novel by Donald Hamilton first published in 1960. It was the second novel featuring Hamilton's ongoing protagonist, counter-agent and assassin Matt Helm. In this book Hamilton continued the hard-headed and gritty realism he had built up around Helm in the first novel of...
(1960), beginning the series featuring Matt Helm
Matt Helm
Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He is a U.S. government counter-agent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in spy thrillers.-The character and the series:The...
, a CIA assassin and counter-intelligence agent. Hamilton's novels were adult and well-written, but the cinematic interpretations were adolescent parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
. The Nick Carter-Killmaster
Nick Carter-Killmaster
Nick Carter-Killmaster is a series of spy adventures published from 1964 until the late 1990s, first by Award Books, then by Ace Books, and finally by Jove Books. At least 261 novels were published....
series of spy novels, initiated by Michael Avallone
Michael Avallone
Michael Avallone was a prolific American author of mystery and secret agent fiction, as well as many novels based upon various television series and films...
and Valerie Moolman, but authored anonymously, ran to over 260 separate books between 1964 and the early 1990s and invariably pitted American, Soviet and Chinese spies against each other. The Scarlatti Inheritance
The Scarlatti Inheritance
The Scarlatti Inheritance is the first of 25 thriller novels published by American author Robert Ludlum.-Plot summary:In Washington during World War II, word is received that an elite member of the Nazi High Command is willing to defect and divulge information that will shorten the war.But his...
(1971) by Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...
is usually considered the first American modern (glamour and dirt) spy thriller weighing action and reflection. In the 1970s, former CIA man Charles McCarry
Charles McCarry
Charles McCarry is an American writer primarily of spy fiction.-Life:McCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, has been a small-town newspaperman, and was a speechwriter in the Eisenhower administration. From 1958 to 1967 he worked for the CIA,...
began the Paul Christopher series with The Tears of Autumn
The Tears of Autumn
The Tears of Autumn is American author Charles McCarry's second novel, and the second novel in the Paul Christopher series.- Plot :...
(1978), which was well-written, with believable tradecraft. With the proliferation of male protagonists in the spy fiction genre, writers and book packagers also started bringing out spy fiction with a female as the protagonist. One notable spy series is The Baroness, featuring a sexy female superspy, with the novels being more action-oriented, in the mold of Nick Carter-Killmaster.
The British Firefox
Firefox (novel)
Firefox is a thriller novel written by Craig Thomas and published in 1977. The Cold War plot involves an attempt by the CIA and MI5 to steal a highly advanced experimental Soviet fighter aircraft. The chief protagonist is fighter pilot turned spy Mitchell Gant...
(1977) by Craig Thomas
Craig Thomas (author)
David Craig Owen Thomas was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant series.-Background:...
, detailing the Western (Anglo–American) theft of a superior Soviet jet aeroplane, established the techno-thriller
Techno-thriller
Techno-thrillers are a hybrid genre, drawing subject matter generally from spy/action thrillers, fantasy/war novels, and science fiction...
, in which technology and its threats determine plot. The first American techno-thriller was The Hunt for Red October
The Hunt for Red October
The Hunt for Red October is a 1984 novel by Tom Clancy. The story follows the intertwined adventures of Soviet submarine captain Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius and CIA analyst Jack Ryan.The novel was originally published by the U.S...
(1984) by Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
. It introduced CIA deskman (analyst) Jack Ryan
Jack Ryan (Tom Clancy)
John Patrick "Jack" Ryan, Sr. is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of his novels.-Backstory:Born in 1950, Ryan's background is established in Patriot Games and Red Rabbit. His father was Emmet William Ryan , a police homicide lieutenant in Baltimore, and World War II...
as a field agent; he reprised the role in the sequel The Cardinal of the Kremlin
The Cardinal of the Kremlin
The Cardinal of the Kremlin is a novel by Tom Clancy, featuring his character Jack Ryan. It is a sequel to The Hunt for Red October, based on the development of the Strategic Defense Initiative and its Soviet equivalent, covering themes including intelligence gathering and counterintelligence,...
(1987).
Russian
Julian Semyonov was an influential spy novelist, writing in the Eastern BlocEastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
, whose range of novels and novel series featured a White Russian
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
spy in the USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; Max Otto von Stirlitz
Stirlitz
Max Otto von Stierlitz is the lead character in a popular Russian book series written in the 1960s by novelist Julian Semyonov and of the television adaptation Seventeen Moments of Spring, starring Vyacheslav Tikhonov, as well as in feature films, produced in the Soviet era, and in a number of...
, a Soviet mole
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
in the Nazi High Command, and Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
. In his novels, Semyonov covered much Soviet intelligence history, ranging from the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), through the Great Patriotic War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(1941–45), to the Russo–American Cold War (1945–91). In 1973, his novel Seventeen Moments of Spring
Seventeen Moments of Spring
Seventeen Moments of Spring is a 1973 Soviet TV miniseries. It was filmed at Gorky Film Studio, directed by Tatyana Lioznova and based on the book of the same title by the novelist Yulian Semyonov. The series comprises 12 episodes of 70 minutes each...
(1968) was adapted to television as a twelve-part mini-series about the Soviet spy Maksim Isaev operating in wartime Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
as Max Otto von Stirlitz, charged with preventing a separate peace between Nazi Germany and America which would exclude the USSR. The programme TASS Is Authorized to Declare...
TASS Is Authorized to Declare...
TASS Is Authorized to Declare... is a 1984 Soviet film directed by Vladimir Fokin based on a novel with the same name by Yulian Semyonov, also the author of Seventeen Moments of Spring. '17 Moments' star Vyacheslav Tikhonov played the central role of the KGB General in the film.Runtime - 700 min...
also derives from his work.
Cinema and television
Much spy fiction was adapted as spy filmSpy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
s in the 1960s, ranging from the fantastical James Bond series to the realistic The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (film)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1965 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by John le Carré. It was adapted by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper. The film stars Richard Burton as Alec Leamas, along with Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter van Eyck, Sam Wanamaker, Rupert Davies and Cyril Cusack...
(1965), and the hybrid The Quiller Memorandum
The Quiller Memorandum
The Quiller Memorandum is a film adaptation of the 1965 spy novel The Berlin Memorandum, by Trevor Dudley-Smith under the name "Adam Hall", screenplay by Harold Pinter, directed by Michael Anderson, featuring George Segal, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger and Alec Guinness. The film was shot on...
(1966).
In television, the American adaptation of Casino Royale (1954) featured Jimmy Bond in an episode of the Climax! anthology series. The narrative tone of television espionage ranged from the drama of Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
(1960–68) to the sardonicism of The Man from U.N.C.L.E (1964–68) and the flippancy of I Spy (1965–68) until the exaggeration, akin to that of William Le Queux and E. Phillips Oppenheim before the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
(1914–18), degenerated to the parody of Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
(1965–70). However, the circle closed in the late 1970s when The Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers
The Sandbaggers is a British television drama series about men and women on the front lines of the Cold War. Set contemporaneously with its original broadcast on ITV in 1978 and 1980, The Sandbaggers examines the effect of the espionage game on the personal and professional lives of British and...
(1978–80) presented the grit and bureaucracy of espionage.
In the 1980s, US television featured the light espionage programmes Airwolf
Airwolf
Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....
(1984–87) and MacGyver
MacGyver
MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
(1985–92), each rooted in the Cold War yet reflecting American citizens' distrust of their government, after the crimes of the Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
Government (the internal, political espionage of the Watergate Scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
and the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
) were exposed. The spy heroes were independent of government; MacGyver works for a non-profit, private think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
, and aviator Hawke and two friends work free-lance adventures, although each series features an intelligence agency
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
, the DXS in MacGyver, and the FIRM, in Airwolf.
Post–Cold War
Because the end of the Cold War in 1991, mooted the USSRSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
countries, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
as credible enemies of democracy, espionage novelists were at a (temporary) loss for nemeses
Archenemy
An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy .- Etymology :The word archenemy or arch-enemy originated...
. The US Congress even considered disestablishing the CIA, considering its chartered mission, of defeating the "International Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
Conspiracy", had vanished. The New York Times newspaper ceased publishing a spy novel review column. Nevertheless, counting on the aficionado, publishers issued spy novels by writers popular during the Cold War proper, among them Harlots Ghost (1991) by Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
and novels by Nelson DeMille
Nelson DeMille
Nelson Richard DeMille is an American author of thriller novels. His works include Word of Honor , The Charm School, The Gold Coast, Plum Island, and The General's Daughter .DeMille has also written under the pen names Jack Cannon, Kurt...
, W.E.B. Griffin, and David Morrell
David Morrell
David Morrell is a Canadian-American novelist, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become the successful Rambo film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 26 languages...
.
In the US, the new novels Moscow Club (1991) by Joseph Finder
Joseph Finder
Joseph Finder is an American writer of several thrillers set in a business environment. His books include Paranoia, Company Man, Killer Instinct and Power Play...
, Masquerade (1996) by Gayle Lynds
Gayle Lynds
Gayle Lynds is an American author. A member of the U.S. Association for Intelligence Officers, she is known for being a bestselling novelist in the male-dominated genre of spy fiction or spy thrillers...
, and The Unlikely Spy (1996) by Daniel Silva, and in the UK, A Spy By Nature (2001) by Charles Cumming
Charles Cumming
Charles Cumming is a British writer of spy fiction. The son of Ian Cumming and Caroline Pilkington , he was educated at Ludgrove School , Eton College and the University of Edinburgh , where he graduated with 1st Class Honours in English Literature...
and Remembrance Day (2000) by Henry Porter
Henry Porter (journalist)
Henry Porter is an English author and journalist. He is a writer of thrillers and a regular columnist for The Observer newspaper. He is also the British editor of Vanity Fair....
, maintained the spy novel in the post–Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
world.
Post–9/11
The terrorist attacks against the US on 11 September 2001, and the subsequent War on TerrorWar on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
, reawakened interest in the peoples and politics of the world beyond its borders. Espionage genre elders such as John le Carré, Frederick Forsyth, Robert Littell
Robert Littell (author)
Robert Littell is an American novelist and journalist residing part of the time in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union....
, and Charles McCarry
Charles McCarry
Charles McCarry is an American writer primarily of spy fiction.-Life:McCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, has been a small-town newspaperman, and was a speechwriter in the Eisenhower administration. From 1958 to 1967 he worked for the CIA,...
resumed work. At the CIA, the number of manuscripts submitted for pre-publication vetting doubled between 1998 and 2005. Some post-attack period novels are about intelligence officers and the profession of intelligence, and some are by insiders (as were W. Somerset Maughum and Graham Greene for their generations). American examples are Saigon Station (2003) by Charles Gillen, The Dream Merchant of Lisbon (2004) and No Game For Amateurs (2009) by Gene Coyle, Edge of Allegiance (2005) by Thomas F. Murphy, A Train to Potevka (2005) by Mike Ramsdell, Voices Under Berlin
Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary (novel)
Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary is a 2008 novel by an American Author writing under the pen name of T.H.E. Hill. The action of the novel takes place in Berlin in the mid-1950s, at the beginning of the Cold War, before the construction of the Berlin Wall...
(2008), by T.H.E. Hill and North from Calcutta (2009) by Duane Evans. British examples are At Risk (2004), Secret Asset (2006), Illegal Action (2007), and Dead Line (2008), by Dame Stella Rimington
Stella Rimington
Dame Stella Rimington, DCB is a British author, who was the Director General of MI5 from 1992 to 1996. She was the first female DG of MI5, and the first DG whose name was publicised on appointment...
(formerly the Director General of MI5 from 1992 to 1996) and The Code Snatch (2001) by Alan Stripp, formerly a cryptographer at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
.
In every medium, spy thrillers introduce children and adolescents to deception and espionage at earlier ages, as in the Agent Cody Banks
Agent Cody Banks
Agent Cody Banks is an American action comedy film directed by Harald Zwart. Its story follows the adventures of the 15-year-old title character, played by Frankie Muniz, who has to finish his chores, avoid getting grounded, and save the world by going undercover for the CIA as a James Bond type...
film, the Alex Rider
Alex Rider
Alex Rider is a series of spy novels by British author Anthony Horowitz about a 14-15 year old spy named Alex Rider. The series is aimed primarily at young adults. Nine novels have been published to date, as well as three graphic novels, three short stories and a supplementary book...
adventure novels by Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Craig Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's...
, chick lit
Chick lit
Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit...
novels such as I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You is a young-adult fiction novel written by Ally Carter and is the first book in the Gallagher Girls series. It was optioned for film by Disney and the option sold to Walden Media. In June 2009 the movie option expired...
and the CHERUB
CHERUB
CHERUB is a series of young adult spy novels, written by the English author Robert Muchamore, focusing around a division of the British Security Service named CHERUB, which employs minors, predominantly orphans, as intelligence officers...
series, by Robert Muchamore
Robert Muchamore
Robert Kilgore Muchamore is an English author, most notable for writing the CHERUB and Henderson's Boys novels.-Prior to writing:...
. Ben Allsop, one of England's youngest novelists, also writes spy fiction. His titles include Sharp and The Perfect Kill. Recent television espionage programmes are La Femme Nikita (1997–2001), Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
(2001–2006), 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
(2001-2010), NBC's Chuck
Chuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
(2007-present), and Spooks
Spooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...
in the UK (release as MI-5 in the USA and Canada) 2002-. Recent English-language spy film
Spy film
The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
s are The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity (2002 film)
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, an amnesiac attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency . The film also stars Franka...
(2002), Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible (film)
Mission: Impossible is a 1996 action thriller directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise. Following on from the television series of the same name, the plot follows a new agent, Ethan Hunt and his mission to uncover the mole within the CIA who has framed him for the murders of his entire...
(1996); Munich
Munich (film)
Munich is a 2005 historical fiction film about the Israeli government's secret retaliation attacks after the massacre of Israeli athletes by the Black September terrorist group during the 1972 Summer Olympics. The film stars Eric Bana and was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg...
(2005), Syriana
Syriana
Syriana is a 2005 geopolitical thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, and executive produced by George Clooney, who also stars in the film with an ensemble cast. Gaghan's screenplay is loosely adapted from Robert Baer's memoir See No Evil...
(2005), The Constant Gardener
The Constant Gardener (film)
The Constant Gardener is a 2005 drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles. The screenplay by Jeffrey Caine is based on the John le Carré novel of the same name. It tells the story of Justin Quayle, a man who seeks to find the motivating forces behind his wife's murder.The film stars Ralph Fiennes,...
(2005) and Casino Royale
Casino Royale (2006 film)
Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond...
(2006), a relaunching of the James Bond series.
In contemporary digital video games, the player can be a vicarious spy, as in the Metal Gear
Metal Gear (series)
is a series of stealth video games created by Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for the MSX2. The player takes control of a special forces operative Solid Snake who is assigned to find the eponymous superweapon "Metal Gear", a...
, especially in the series' third installment, Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
, unlike the games of the Third-Person Shooter
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
genre, Syphon Filter
Syphon Filter
Syphon Filter is a stealth-based third-person shooter video game for the PlayStation released in 1999. It is the first game in the Syphon Filter series. It was re-released on December 4, 2006, on the PlayStation Network for use on the PSP...
, and Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a series of stealth video games, the first of which was released in 2002, and their tie-in novels. The protagonist, Sam Fisher, is presented as a highly-trained agent of a fictional black-ops sub-division within the NSA, dubbed "Third Echelon"...
. The games feature complex stories and cinematic images. Games such as No One Lives Forever
No One Lives Forever
The Operative: No One Lives Forever is a first-person shooter video game with stealth gameplay elements, developed by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive, released for Windows in 2000. The game was also ported later to the PlayStation 2 and Mac OS X...
and the sequel No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way humorously combine espionage and 1960s design. Evil Genius (game)
Evil Genius (game)
Evil Genius is a single player real-time strategy and simulation video game developed by Elixir Studios and published by Sierra Entertainment, released on 28 September 2004. The game is inspired by the spy thriller genre...
, contemporary to NOLF series, allows the player to be the villain and its strategy occurs real time.
The International Thriller Writers
International Thriller Writers
International Thriller Writers, Inc., was founded October 9, 2004, at a meeting at Bouchercon World Mystery and Suspense Conference in Toronto, Canada. Six months later, some 150 authors with more than one billion books sold worldwide had joined the organization as founding members.Co-founders...
(ITW) established themselves in 2004, and held their first conference in 2006. The Spyland espionage theme park, in the Gran Scala
Gran Scala
Gran Scala is a huge European project to build a "destination city of leisure for all ages" on a site in the desert of Los Monegros, near Ontiñena, in the province of Huesca, Spain. The project includes the construction of 32 casinos, 70 hotels, five theme parks and a town of 100,000 inhabitants...
pleasure dome, in Zaragoza province, Spain, will open in 20l2.
Sub-genres
- Spy-fiSpy-fi-Definition and characteristics:It often uses a secret agent or superspy whose mission is a showcase of science fiction elements such as technology and ideas used for extortion, plots for world domination or world destruction, futuristic weapons, gadgets and fast vehicles that can travel on land,...
: espionage and science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
are integral to glamorous escapist fantasiesFantasyFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
emphasising derring-do, rather than detection and investigation, in thwarting either world domination or world destruction, et cetera. - Spy comedy: usually parodyParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
the clichéClichéA cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...
s and campCamp (style)Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
elements characteristic to the espionage genre. - Spy horror: spy fiction with horror fictionHorror fictionHorror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
.
Notable writers
- Eric AmblerEric AmblerEric Clifford Ambler OBE was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.-Life:...
- Desmond BagleyDesmond BagleyDesmond Bagley , was a British journalist and novelist principally known for a series of best-selling thrillers...
- Ted BellTed BellTed Bell is an American author of suspense novels such as Hawke and Assassin, Pirate, and Spy. He is best known for his New York Times Bestselling series of spy thriller novels featuring the character Alex Hawke. Before becoming a novelist, he was President and Chief Creative Officer of the Leo...
- Raymond BensonRaymond BensonRaymond Benson is an American author best known for being the official author of the adult James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973...
- John Buchan
- William F. Buckley Jr.
- A.J. Butcher
- John le CarréJohn le CarréDavid John Moore Cornwell , who writes under the name John le Carré, is an author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and the 1960s, Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and began writing novels under the pseudonym "John le Carré"...
- Ally CarterAlly CarterAlly Carter is an American author of young-adult fiction and adult-fiction novels.-Pen name:...
- Robert Erskine ChildersRobert Erskine ChildersRobert Erskine Childers DSC , universally known as Erskine Childers, was the author of the influential novel Riddle of the Sands and an Irish nationalist who smuggled guns to Ireland in his sailing yacht Asgard. He was executed by the authorities of the nascent Irish Free State during the Irish...
- Tom ClancyTom ClancyThomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
- Brian CleeveBrian CleeveBrian Brendon Talbot Cleeve was a prolific writer, whose published works include twenty-one novels and over a hundred short stories. He was also an award-winning broadcaster on RTÉ television. Son of an Irish father and English mother, he was born and raised in England...
- Manning ColesManning ColesManning Coles is the pseudonym of two British writers, Adelaide Frances Oke Manning and Cyril Henry Coles , who wrote many spy thrillers from the early 40s through the early 60s. The fictional protagonist in 26 of their books was Thomas Elphinstone Hambledon, who works for the Foreign...
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Stephen CoontsStephen CoontsStephen Coonts is an American thriller and suspense novelist.Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town and earned an B.A. degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968...
- Desmond CoryDesmond CoryDesmond Cory is a pseudonym used by British mystery/thriller writer Shaun Lloyd McCarthy...
- Joe CraigJoe CraigJoe Craig is an English writer, children's novelist and musician.He is best known for the Jimmy Coates series of books, which is sometimes compared to the work of Jack Heath or Anthony Horowitz , and described in several reviews as 'The Bourne Identity for kids'.-Biography:Craig was born and grew...
- Charles CummingCharles CummingCharles Cumming is a British writer of spy fiction. The son of Ian Cumming and Caroline Pilkington , he was educated at Ludgrove School , Eton College and the University of Edinburgh , where he graduated with 1st Class Honours in English Literature...
- Len DeightonLen DeightonLeonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
- Joseph FinderJoseph FinderJoseph Finder is an American writer of several thrillers set in a business environment. His books include Paranoia, Company Man, Killer Instinct and Power Play...
- Ian FlemingIan FlemingIan Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
- Vince FlynnVince FlynnVince Flynn is a best-selling American author of political thriller novels. He lives with his wife and three children in the Twin Cities. He was a frequent guest on the Glenn Beck program on the Fox News Channel...
- Ken FollettKen FollettKen Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...
- Frederick ForsythFrederick ForsythFrederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
- Alan FurstAlan FurstAlan Furst is an American author of historical spy novels set just prior to and during the Second World War.-Biography:...
- John GardnerJohn Gardner (thriller writer)John Edmund Gardner was an English spy novelist, most notably for the James Bond series.-Early life:Gardner was born in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland. He graduated from St John's College, Cambridge and did postgraduate study at Oxford...
- Michael GilbertMichael GilbertMichael Francis Gilbert, CBE was a British writer of both fictional mysteries and thrillers who wrote as Michael Gilbert.-Life and work:...
- Tony GilroyTony GilroyAnthony Joseph "Tony" Gilroy is an American screenwriter and filmmaker. He wrote the screenplays for the Bourne series starring Matt Damon, among other successful films. He has been nominated for Academy Awards for his direction and script for Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney...
- Graham Greene
- John GriffithsJohn GriffithsJohn Griffiths AM is a Welsh Labour Co-operative politician and the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development...
- Jan GuillouJan GuillouJan Oskar Sverre Lucien Henri Guillou is a Swedish author and journalist. Among his books are a series of spy fiction novels about a spy named Carl Hamilton, and a trilogy of historical fiction novels about a Knight Templar, Arn Magnusson...
- Adam HallElleston TrevorElleston Trevor was the pseudonym, and eventually legal name, of the British novelist Trevor Dudley-Smith , who also wrote as Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Howard North, Roger Fitzalan, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith and Lesley Stone...
- Donald HamiltonDonald HamiltonDonald Bengtsson Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country...
- Robert HarrisRobert Harris (novelist)Robert Dennis Harris is an English novelist. He is a former journalist and BBC television reporter.-Early life:Born in Nottingham, Harris spent his childhood in a small rented house on a Nottingham council estate. His ambition to become a writer arose at an early age, from visits to the local...
- Jack HigginsJack HigginsJack Higgins is the principal pseudonym of UK novelist Harry Patterson. Patterson is the author of more than 60 novels. As Higgins, most have been thrillers of various types and, since his breakthrough novel The Eagle Has Landed in 1975, nearly all have been bestsellers...
- Charlie HigsonCharlie HigsonCharles Murray Higson , more commonly known as Charlie Higson - also Switch - is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer...
- R J Hillhouse
- Anthony HorowitzAnthony HorowitzAnthony Craig Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's...
- E. Howard HuntE. Howard HuntEverette Howard Hunt, Jr. was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G...
- David IgnatiusDavid IgnatiusDavid R. Ignatius , is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He also co-hosts PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues at Washingtonpost.com, with Newsweek 's Fareed Zakaria...
- Robert LittellRobert Littell (author)Robert Littell is an American novelist and journalist residing part of the time in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union....
- Robert LudlumRobert LudlumRobert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...
- Gayle LyndsGayle LyndsGayle Lynds is an American author. A member of the U.S. Association for Intelligence Officers, she is known for being a bestselling novelist in the male-dominated genre of spy fiction or spy thrillers...
- Helen MacInnes
- Ian MackintoshIan MackintoshIan Mackintosh, MBE, was a Scottish naval officer, a writer of thriller novels, and a screenwriter for British television.His first novel, A Slaying in September, was published in 1967...
- Alistair MacLeanAlistair MacLeanAlistair Stuart MacLean was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers or adventure stories, the best known of which are perhaps The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare, all three having been made into successful films...
- Norman MailerNorman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
- Somerset Maugham
- Charles McCarryCharles McCarryCharles McCarry is an American writer primarily of spy fiction.-Life:McCarry served in the United States Army, where he was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, has been a small-town newspaperman, and was a speechwriter in the Eisenhower administration. From 1958 to 1967 he worked for the CIA,...
- Andy McNabAndy McNabSergeant ‘Andy McNab’ DCM MM is the pseudonym of an English novelist and former SAS operative and soldier.McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed Special Air Service patrol, Bravo Two Zero for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in...
- Kyle MillsKyle Mills (author)Kyle Mills is an American writer of thriller novels including Rising Phoenix, Fade, and The Second Horseman. Several of his books include a character Mark Beamon, an FBI special agent...
- David MorrellDavid MorrellDavid Morrell is a Canadian-American novelist, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become the successful Rambo film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 26 languages...
- Robert MuchamoreRobert MuchamoreRobert Kilgore Muchamore is an English author, most notable for writing the CHERUB and Henderson's Boys novels.-Prior to writing:...
- James MunroJames Munro (British author)James William Mitchell was a British writer of crime fiction and spy thrillers. Mr. Mitchell also wrote under the pseudonyms James Munro and Patrick O. McGuire...
- Manning O'BrineManning O'BrinePadraig Manning O'Brine was an Irish thriller writer and television screenplay writer.Throughout his writing career, all of his novels have concerned fictional secret agents, and his works could therefore be considered spy fiction....
- E. Phillips OppenheimE. Phillips OppenheimEdward Phillips Oppenheim , was an English novelist, in his lifetime a major and successful writer of genre fiction including thrillers.-Life:...
- Baroness OrczyBaroness OrczyBaroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orczi was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel...
- James PhelanJames Clancy PhelanJames Clancy Phelan is an Australian author, published as James Phelan. His first fiction novel, Fox Hunt, went into reprint in its first month.-Biography:Phelan was born in Victoria, Australia...
- Anthony PriceAnthony PriceAnthony Price is an author of espionage thrillers.-Life and work:Price attended The King's School, Canterbury and served in the British Army from 1947 to 1949, reaching the rank of Captain. He then studied at Merton College, Oxford until 1952, earning the MA degree...
- William le QueuxWilliam Le QueuxWilliam Tufnell Le Queux was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat , a traveller , a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long...
- Daniel Silva
- Desmond SkirrowDesmond SkirrowDesmond Skirrow was a British advertising executive and writer of thrillers.-Career:In the late 1960s he wrote three outstanding spy novels about a fictional British agent named John Brock. Like his creator, Brock works in advertising in London, but is also a part-time agent for an undercover...
- Ross Thomas
- Brad ThorBrad ThorBrad Thor is a #1 New York Times bestselling thriller novelist and author of The Lions of Lucerne, Path of the Assassin, State of the Union, Blowback, Takedown, The First Commandment, The Last Patriot, The Apostle, Foreign Influence, The Athena Project and Full Black. His novels have been...
- Leon UrisLeon UrisLeon Marcus Uris was an American novelist, known for his historical fiction and the deep research that went into his novels. His two bestselling books were Exodus, published in 1958, and Trinity, in 1976.-Life:...
- Dennis WheatleyDennis WheatleyDennis Yates Wheatley was an English author. His prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:...
See also
- Spy-fiSpy-fi-Definition and characteristics:It often uses a secret agent or superspy whose mission is a showcase of science fiction elements such as technology and ideas used for extortion, plots for world domination or world destruction, futuristic weapons, gadgets and fast vehicles that can travel on land,...
- Spy filmSpy filmThe spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way or as a basis for fantasy . Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton...
- List of fictional secret agents
- List of thriller authors
- Thriller fiction
- Thriller film
- List of genres
External links
- Spy-Wise is a spy fiction website.
- Spy Fiction Iliad, Henry V, The Spy, The Riddle of the Sands, The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle