The Best Spy Books of 2026 – Ranked by Tim Shipman

Leading the way for the accolade of best spy debut in 2026 is this fairly literary but compelling novel with another great premise. It is set on the small island of Vidos, next to Corfu, which the spooks have dubbed ‘Spyland’, where retired, jaded washed up old spies and traitors live out their years obsessing over their lifetimes of plotting and betrayal and gazing across the sea at Albania, scene of many failed missions. The drunks, junkies, libertines and betrayers shacked up there make this basically Slough House in the sun for retirees. When one of them turns up dead, suspicion fractures the community.

If writing about traitors sounds like I’ve said too much, the traitorous element is revealed in the prologue. From a thriller craft perspective, I think that was a fairly serious mistake. It could have organically emerged as a reveal later and the book would have been better for it.

That said, the world building, the amazing sense of place and time, the quality of the writing and ultimately the plot – which brings together contemporary intrigue, with historic espionage missions in which Kim Philby features memorably and convincingly, redeems things in spades. Alex Preston got himself in hot water for using AI in a piece for the New York Times. There is no sign of it whatsoever here. Sentence for sentence he is one of the best writers in this list and this is an excellent book. I hope he dips his toe in the espionage waters again.

I. S. Berry, whose second book is hopefully coming in 2027, introduced me to this one and it’s another fantastic debut. Martin is a former US national security official and it shows. American journalist Dani Moreau (fresh off a personal tragedy) lands in Ghana chasing a story on corruption in the oil-industry. But when she crosses paths with James Aidoo, an idealistic young Ghanaian whose father is a local populist politician, a different story presents itself. She’s soon hanging out with an American operative with a violent past, a Ghanaian double agent, and a fight between the United States and China over under sea fiber optic cables.

This is a very timely book, since the battle over cables is increasingly one of the key strategic issues in the world. Russia spends a disturbing amount of time sending assets to lurk near those which keep the UK connected to what is the real information superhighway of the world.

But the strength of this book is that it takes us somewhere unexpected. The oppressive heat and politics of Ghana is brilliantly rendered and you know Martin has spent time in the crowded markets and steaming jungle himself. It reminded me strongly of Jeremy Dun’s books.

Despite the geopolitical backdrop, The Silver Fish is a winner because the real drama is that between the characters and the choices they make under pressure. Like a lot of debuts this is not perfect. I would like to have seen a proper tick-tock showdown at the cable site and the final twist is one which will annoy some readers. But I rather suspect that is setting us up for a sequel and a cycle of books which, if this is anything to go by, could be tremendous. I know Connor is already writing the follow up. It would not surprise me at all if, in a couple of years’ time, like Idov and Goodman, Martin is giving us a second book which is even better.

Wolff’s fourth book is in some ways his most accomplished. The narrative voice, which he describes as ‘the spirit of spying’, is a bold experiment which works and allows Wolff to adopt a detached but sardonic take on events. The premise is that Aphra Macqueen, a quirky parliamentary researcher, investigates a whistleblower complaint against MI6's aging chief, who is beginning to succumb to Alzheimer’s. This introduces an unwanted outsider into SIS with all the attendant friction that brings. The scenes in the building are greatly enhanced by the character of Susan, whose job is walking Aphra around.

The complaint concerns the handling of an operation to hunt for an Iranian assassin called CASPIAN, who has killed nine dissidents on European soil. When Aphra disappears, the ageing chief decides to return to the field in pursuit, seeking one last connection to his younger self.

This is another book rooted in recent events. Wolff got the idea for a whistleblower service after reading a report by the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, the rather toothless watchdog of the intelligence agencies, in which the MPs complained that MI6 had repeatedly refused to set up such a service. Iran is indeed killing dissidents across Europe.

But readers will keep returning to Wolff not because of his timely plots but thanks to the quality of his writing and characterisation. On balance, I still think THE MAN IN THE CORDUROY SUIT (2023) [80.05%] is his best book, driven by two totally unique lead characters. But Wolff is here to stay and this has helped him zoom up the list of spy writers working today.

This is one of the great revelations of the year for me. K. B. Brodsky is the pseudonym for the husband and wife team of Karen and Bill Brodsky. They are the latest thriller writers given a deal by Emily Bestler, the best thriller talent spotter in American publishing, who has her own imprint at Atria Books, part of Simon & Schuster. Bestler discovered Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, Jack Carr and Connor Sullivan.

I was expecting a straightforward action thriller but this is actually much more than that, combining deeper than usual characters, some excellent tradecraft, as well as a frontline operator who does the kinetic stuff. He is paramilitary man Kevin Rhoads, who sees his team wiped out thanks to a mole and is then recruited for a solo extraction mission deep inside Siberia. The cold mossy tundra is very effectively rendered and the operational detail adds, rather than detracts, from the excitement.

But the best bits of the book, for me, involve Whitley Skyler, a young CIA analyst whose investigation into a Russian-backed bank on American soil leads all the way to the White House. The moment that lifts the book from the usual fare comes when Skyler’s mentor – the glorious walking stick wielding veteran spy chief Cynthia King – works with the CIA director to manipulate the mole. Rhoads, who is by now involved with Skyler (quelle surprise!) has to use him as the unwitting tip of their spear.

This is an exciting, clever, engaging work, with good characters and a nice blend of institutional intrigue and frontline action which is nicely set up for a series. The publisher bills this as ‘Jason Matthews’s Red Sparrow meets Jack Carr’s The Terminal List’ and, for once, that is an elevator pitch which contains the essence of the book.

This is a sophisticated well-written book with a clever premise and highly accomplished execution by the thriller reviewer for the Spectator magazine, where I work. However, we’ve never met and I came to this cold.

In Stockholm for a G20 summit, the interpreter Thomas Weaver is summoned by the White House Chief of Staff to an off-the-record meeting with a Russian general. There he gets a chilling glimpse into a secret arrangement between Washington and the Kremlin. Warned never to divulge what has been said, Weaver discovers he has accidentally recorded the meeting – the only evidence that it took place.

Cue a manhunt through the country homes of the home counties, where Weaver is hosted by an old friend who has come into money and the Airbnbs of London. Weaver, who seems sometimes a little behind the reader, gets help from the enigmatic Lily Churchill, who is very much ahead of the reader and of Weaver. She’s one of my favourite characters of the year and the tension of the book comes, in part, from the mystery of where her true loyalties lie.

If you like this one, Rosenheim also wrote a very well regarded trilogy of American historical spy yarns, which begin with FEAR ITSELF (2010).

Conway is one of the best British spy writers of the last 20 years and it is great to see him back in print again. In this one he takes on the mantle of Freddie Forsyth, crafting a pacey international thriller around the passage of a consignment of Starstrike missiles which are stolen in Ukraine and are smuggled halfway around the world to a militia group in the US plotting an atrocity in Washington. The British Agent is a lone woman, known as Chuff, who goes under cover to try to prevent the attack. She’s resourceful and tough as nails.

Conway, as a former Army officer who has travelled widely in his day job with the Halo Trust and can really write, has always combined great textural and tradecraft realism and pumps his books full of pace as well as fully formed characters. This is something of a departure from the vibes of his most recent trilogy, which pitched Jude Lyon against one of the great modern villains, the terrorist Guy Fowle.

Given that it is clearly aimed at US publishers, I perhaps expected more of an explosive showdown at the end, but Conway knows how to pace a book and his depiction of life with the militias is exceedingly well done and nerve-shatteringly tense. If this is his new direction, I’m fully on board.

This is a re-issue from 2021, but I’ll allow it for the purposes of this list and because a sequel (ONE BERLIN DAY) is coming hot on its heels this year. Humphreys was on the same panel as Goodman at Capital Crime and I knew immediately from listening to him that I was going to like his work. This is a delicious slice of North London noir which introduces Mr Phipps, one of the best drawn hitmen I’ve ever come across. He’s the wet work man for a renegade group of Oxford-educated spies and businessmen who met at university, run by the deliciously vile MI6 man Sebastian. Mr Phipps is hired to retrieve account books from the group, who call themselves The Shadows, and eliminate Joe Severin, their bookkeeper, just as he is holding his daughter’s bat mitzvah and starting an affair. Their lives collide with a Russian high class call girl, an actress and There are spies, actresses, double crosses and deaths. And through it all Mr Phipps is the coolest dude in town, until a session on the scotch sends things spiralling further out of control.

Hands down the best title of the year, this is also both a very well written book, but also a clever one. It tells the story of a 32-year-old sex worker who has killed a far-right politician nicknamed "Meat Neck". She recounts three contradictory versions of her recruitment by a cabal posing as government agents, the first of which is a series of confessional emails to a feminist true-crime podcast. I’m not giving away too much to say that "Murder Bimbo" is a highly unreliable narrator and each account gives progressively more insights into what happened and generates a corresponding level of concern about the level of sympathy we should extend to her.

This is psychological thriller as much as it is a spy or conspiracy novel but there are plenty of those elements and it’s beautifully done. Novak has given us a literary thriller of the same quality as Lea Carpenter’s ILIUM (2024) [71.90%]. It might have been called GONE VIOLENT GIRL.

Another very promising debut introduces ageing spy Mark Wolf, once MI6’s top field man, now bound to a desk as head of recruitment at Vauxhall Cross. When his daughter Jody secretly joins the Service and then vanishes on a mission the agency disowns, the ageing spy is thrust back into modern espionage, from London to the Hindu Kush.

Overall, I preferred the first half of the book, where Wolf is navigating the politics of SIS in London, more than the second half, where he goes rogue and chases his daughter to Afghanistan. The dust and the danger is well rendered but there is a lot of waiting around and I’m honestly pretty bored of Islamist terror as a backdrop. That said, Warner nails one of the most exciting gut punch endings I’ve read for many years. The second Mark Wolf book, FUNERAL FOR A SPY is out in January 2027.

Another author proving that there is nothing to fear from second book syndrome. Ezra’s A STING IN HER TALE (2025) [74.80%] was one of the best surprises of last year and the only spy thriller to be shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.

This brings the main character, ageing spy Felicity Jardine, back to join a mole hunt for the person who betrayed MI6 during an operation in Greece in the 1980s. It’s a classic dual timeline structure which Ezra carries off with aplomb. Jardine is recruited by former colleague Matthew along with a roster of ageing spooks who were all present at the key moment in Athens. In effect, they are all investigating each other.

What ensues is a good solid slice of spy-fi, with the requisite double dealing, all told from Felicity’s world-weary but shrewd perspective. I didn’t love it quite as much as the opener but this is shaping up to be an excellent series.

The Hunt for Red October meets Ice Station Zebra. The best action thriller I’ve read this year brings together two of the best kinetic writers in the world for a slice of espionage adjacent hokum in the Arctic which put me firmly in mind of MacLean’s best book.

An advanced jetliner is sabotaged and crash-lands at the North Pole, hiding a revolutionary technology prototype. As Washington, Moscow, and Beijing race to the wreckage, CIA operative Kasey Sheridan and a former fighter pilot must survive both the Arctic and rival special forces. This is soon to be a blockbuster Netflix series and it’s easy to see why. It’s fast-moving, exciting and the cockpit scenes in particular (Larsen was a pilot) are very realistic. This pairing is doing more work together and I’ll be first in the queue.

This is the ultimate espionage popcorn plane read. It’s the book I read the quickest this year and the best page turner.

Mark, traumatised by his parents' death in a Helsinki bombing, boards the Eurostar with his daughters. His four-year-old spots a ‘Bad Man’ during a game of Eye Spy — and the man, with a suspicious case, sits ominously close. A claustrophobic real-time thriller unspooling over the three-hour journey, with family secrets at its core. Like all commercial thrillers, where plot is king, you sometimes feel you’re in a clever construct, rather than a compelling novel, but the resolution is actually, to some degree, character-driven.

Give it a go when you want something light but propulsive. Afterwards, like a Chinese meal, it may evaporate in your memory and you might think it less good than this rating, but while you are reading/eating it will grab you like a book much higher.

This very promising debut features a young MI5 trainee, Jo Batten, who is about to pass her probation, who finds herself at the sharp end when a wave of terrorist attacks begin in London. It’s got some well drawn characters but is also very fast moving.

Jo is teamed up with a retired spy who reminded me a lot of a Bill Nighy-style figure, ageing but clever but whose priorities don’t always seem to be the same as Jo’s, as well as a wayward hacker.

Dylan has penned a host of crime thrillers which have sold well on Amazon, but this is his first foray into spying and it’s terrific. The New Spy is hugely propulsive, with a gutsy lead, a genuine sense of peril, and a punchy conclusion. I believe there’s a second Jo Batten book coming next year.

Another great premise from the man behind THE NIGHT AGENT (2019) [79.45%] and RED WARNING (2023) [77.80%] which will make another fabulous Netflix series when it inevitably transfers to our screens.

Actress Anna Vaughn — skilled at playing tough but doomed brunettes on screen but who lives a quiet life caring for her sister — goes undercover for real when her best friend disappears after a night out with a new man. Anna must use all the tricks (fighting, shooting and driving) she’s learned for her roles to hunt for her missing friend. She soon crosses paths with Kevin Matthews, an FBI agent on the trail of a Manhattan spy ring. He becomes her handler as she goes under cover to penetrate a sinister clique of oligarchs.

Quirk is a high concept writer whose books have great energy and tension and this is a cracking idea. I expected to absolutely love this one but in the end I merely liked it a lot and admired the execution a little less than the books ahead. If you know and love Quirk, you’ll enjoy it, if you want to see what he can do, I would try one of the others mentioned above first.