Every year, Spybrary asks the people who know spy books best — you , the reader— to vote for the best spy books of 2025. From meticulously researched non-fiction to pulse-pounding spy thrillers, 2025 delivered an exceptional range of spy books that captured the imagination of our global community.
In this list, we reveal the titles that rose above the rest, as chosen by the genre’s most dedicated fans. Whether you’re looking to expand your To Be Read pile or discover hidden gems, these are the best spy books that defined 2025. Spybrary is powered by readers like you, spy book enthusiasts who embody Spybrary's spirit of ‘by spy fans, for spy fans.‘
Just like our popular post highlighting the best spy books of 2024, we've invited our dedicated Spybrary Podcast listeners, viewers, subscribers and Spybrary community members from around the world to share their best spy books published this year. Read on as we unveil the most captivating and thrilling spy novels of 2025, handpicked by the true aficionados of the espionage genre, the paying punters.
Never Mind the Critics, here are the Spybrarians!
We asked our spy book readers.
Please suggest:
a) The best spy book you read that was published in 2025
b) The best spy book you read this year (any publication date)
c) The best spy non-fiction book you read in 2025 (if applicable)
Just three books — I know, it’s tough. Choose wisely, and please do share a sentence or two with each pick (more if you like) to help gift buyers pick the right present for their loved one.
So if you are looking for the best spy books of 2025 recommendations, then read on.
Warning. Spybrary does not accept any liability for bankruptcies or divorces that may occur as a result of you browsing this list of the best spy thrillers and raiding your reptile fund.
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These are the Best Spy Books of 2025 chosen by the genre's most dedicated fans
Tim Shipman's best spy books of 2025
I still have 7-8 spy books I want to read, but I’m reasonably content that my top tier of the best spy books of 2025 is fixed.
I am loath to pick a winner, but in my personal spy thriller Oscars, David McCloskey has won twice for Damascus Station and Moscow X, and if I had to plump for one, it’s time for Paul Vidich to take the big one…the Golden Mole is his. The Debut Mole goes to Sam Guthrie.
Tim Shipman
THE POET’S GAME, Paul Vidich
CLOWN TOWN, Mick Herron
Just behind come PARIAH (Dan Fesperman) and RED STAR DOWN by D.B.John
I am loath to pick a winner, but in my personal spy thriller Oscars, David McCloskey has won twice for Damascus Station and Moscow X, and if I had to plump for one, it’s time for Paul Vidich to take the big one…the Golden Mole is his. The Debut Mole goes to Sam Guthrie.
OTHER YEARS
Again four books cleared my 80% threshold, the sign of gold standard quality in plotting, writing, pace, place, character and dialogue
if you liked The Peak you will also love THE MARMALADE FILES by Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann (2012). The basis of the TV series SECRET CITY is another brilliant Australian political-espionage thriller with a dishevelled journalist as the hero. What’s not to like?!
THE EXPATS (also 2012) was my first slice of Chris Pavone and it’s a terrific propulsive character-driven spy mystery. I’ll be reading much more Pavone in 2026
DARK AMBITION by Allan Topol (2003). My favourite “unknown” author find of the year, Topol has penned a brilliant Washington political conspiracy novel in the manner of Matthew Quirk, with lashings of espionage and double crosses galore but with even minor characters drawn memorably. Like The Peak it benefits from a mystery structure.
The winner of the best book from another year, however is our own Dan Fesperman (winner of the 2022 Golden Mole for Winter Work) for his 2018 modern classic SAFE HOUSES. This is a superb slice of character-driven espionage fiction, sophisticated and exciting and there’s a reason it’s about to become a streaming TV series
Best Spy Non Fiction Books of 2025
I’ve been reading so much fiction to try to flesh out THE LIST II (expect more than 250 authors when it emerges in 2026) that I haven’t had much time for non fiction but shoutout to my old Sunday Times colleague Richard Kerbaj for a fascinating exploration of an episode of 1970s spy drama in THE DEFECTOR, which is less well known than it should be.
Steven Ritterman
Plenty of delights to choose from this past year. You can't read them all, but I got to pretty much everything on my list. The sole major exception was PARIAH by the great Dan Fesperman. I selfishly tucked this one away for a quiet end-of-year holiday read. And so, my favorites were:
Best Spy Novel Published in 2025 – THE PEAK – Sam Guthrie
This one bulls-eyed my sweet spot like no other. Sophisticated and self-assured writing. A Gordian Knot of love, loyalty and loss splashed across the lush backdrop of Hong Kong and Canberra. It's a spy story, a political narrative, a tale of love and obsession. The opening paragraph is the best I've read in years. The story felt timely and fresh. And, amazingly enough, it's Guthrie's debut novel. How can that be? This one could easily have slipped by, so many thanks to Tim Shipman for banging the drum so loudly. This was an easy call for me. THE PEAK resides at the pinnacle of 2025.
Best Spy Book I Read This Year – A QUIET FLAME – Philip Kerr
I've been slowly re-reading Kerr's epic Bernie Gunther series and A QUIET FLAME is so good, it could easily be the best spy (adjacent) book of any year. This is quintessential Kerr. The year is 1950 and we sail off with Bernie on the SS Giovanni bound for Buenos Aires. Here, he's tasked to investigate a brutal murder and along the way encounters suspect politicos, rat-line Nazis, meets Juan Peron, ogles Evita and then, of course…there's a girl. It's like reading your favorite black & white ‘war-time' movie. It's as good as it gets in every possible way.
Best Non-Fiction Spy Book
Truth be told, I didn't read any. So, in the hope that Shane Whaley really wants 3 titles from us all, I'll bend the rules a bit and simply mention that my 2nd favorite Spy Book of the Year was THE PERSIAN by David McCloskey. Universally acclaimed, it's all that and more. I think it's his best work yet…and, that's really saying something.
Shane Whaley
As another year draws to a close (all too quickly), it's clear from these Spybrary recommendations and my own reading that we have been spoiled by spy thriller writers once again and I am not complaining, though my bank manager won't be happy!
My best spy book of 2025 is The Persian by David McCloskey, an unusual choice for a Cold Warrior like me because it's a modern-day spy novel set primarily in Israel, Iran, and Sweden. When it comes to my love of spy fiction, my favourite spy novels tend to focus on agent handlers and the relationships with their assets. Talented authors like McCloskey create a realistic yet tense relationship between two parties with different aims, both of whom need each other. In this case, our protagonist is a Persian Jew, a dentist living in Sweden who dreams of giving up his practice and moving to sunny California.
This is the agent handler Glitzman, who for me will go down as one of the greats in agent handlerdom, ruthless and cunning.
‘”Glitzman. What to say of Arik Glitzman, the man who recruited me? By then I’d come to learn that he was Chief of Mossad’s Caesarea Division, the group responsible for sowing chaos and mayhem in Iran. Glitzman was rather Napoleonic, short and paunchy with a thatch of black hair and a round face bright with a wide smile. There was fun in his eyes and if they had not belonged to a secret servant of the State of Israel, they might have belonged to a magician, or a kindergarten teacher. Nothing in his mouth was really straight; his front teeth, the implants, were blazing white, while the rest were quite stained. I had assumed the implants to be the result of an accident, perhaps a tumble down the stairs, and only later would I learn I was half right: it had been stairs, but he’d been pushed. Also the stairs had been in Dubai.” (David McCloskey, The Persian)'
Glitzman is a fascinating character and a spy I would love to read more about, but sadly alas, McCloskey tells us that The Persian is a standalone spy novel.
But what is very interesting in The Persian is that the agent also becomes the agent handler and is tasked with recruiting an Iranian target: Roya, the wife of a talented Iranian scientist. At the risk of veering into Spoilertown I shall say no more.
‘”In our frenetic preparations, Glitzman had insisted that Roya should experience an “ abundance of realness” in our first hours together. My words were critical. They would be an invitation to betray her country under the blissful ignorance that she was actually serving it. But there also had to be cold hard facts.'
I am delighted that David McCloskey has flexed his writing muscles, showing us what he can do when he swims away from the safe waters of his wildly successful Artemis Proctor series into the choppier seas of writing a standalone spy thriller. Bravo David!
Honourable shout-outs go to The Poet's Game by Paul Vidich, Dan Fesperman's Pariah, debut novelist Sam Guthrie's The Peak, D.B. John's Red Star Down and Merle Nygate's The Protocols of Spying, who were narrowly pipped by McCloskey but make for thrilling spy reads. Buy them and read them today.
Best Spy Book I read in 2025 – I finally got around to reading Agents of Innocence by David Ignatius. Probably in one of the top three spy novels featuring assets and their handlers.
Agents of Innocence is the story of how the CIA spied on the PLO in the 1970s through their relationship with a senior figure in Fatah and Black September. The word from those in the know is that this is a true account of the recruitment of Ali Hassan Salameh, known as “The Red Prince”, the most notorious Playboy terrorist in 1970s Beirut. Salameh’s handler was Robert Ames (Tom Rogers in the novel), subject of the brilliant biography The Good Spy by Kai Bird. I must read this one soon!
Best Non Fiction Espionage Book of 2025
Full disclosure, I have not read enough spy non-fiction in 2025, and I plan to rectify that in 2026. Out of the books I read, I highly recommend The Defector by Richard Kerbaj, my best spy non-fiction book of 2025.
Billed as ‘the untold account of how, in 1971, the defection of a KGB saboteur in London led to the rescue of MI5 after a series of disastrous intelligence failures.' The Defector tells the story of Oleg Lyalin and how his defection. Not only do we learn more about the Soviet defector Oleg Lyalin, Kerbaj drawing on recently declassified documents reveals how ‘during the darkest moments of the Cold War one of the West's greatest achievements transpired as a result of MI5's break with the CIA.'
But this is not just about Lyalin, Kerbaj does a great job giving us the background to other defectors, the paranoia of the CIA's Angleton and the shift in British policy towards the Soviet Unions following Edward Heath's victory over Harold Wilson. The book gives us more detail into Operation Foot which saw the UK boot out over 100 Soviet ‘diplomats' in 1971. Much of espionage history is aimed at academics, I commend Kerbaj for writing The Defector in a style that is accessible to all readers.
I need to give an honourable shout-out to Gordon Corera's The Spy in the Archive: How One Man Tried to Kill the KGB and also to Adam LeBor for The Last Days of Budapest, which includes plenty of espionage and spy skulduggery. Been warned, though, this can be a harrowing read, though it serves as another reminder of the evil carried out by the Nazis.
‘Adam LeBor has brilliantly recreated life and death in wartime Budapest.'
My next suggestion is not an espionage history novel, though it is a non-fiction spy book, Think Like A Spy by Julian Fisher. I agree with spy thriller author Charles Cumming's blurb:
‘If I was a young graduate looking to gain an advantage in the workplace, this is the first book I would turn to. Part memoir, part tutorial, Think Like A Spy is as close as readers are likely to get to the secrets of intelligence recruitment. A fascinating and instructive guide'
This is one of those books, right up there with Dale Carnegie, that I wish someone had slipped into my 18-year-old hand and said, “Study this and prosper.” Julian Fisher has lived and worked in the shadows, and the nine skills he shares are as useful in modern life as they are in the field. Think Like A Spy is also a goldmine for writers who want to craft believable spy fiction. Highly recommended.
Jeff Popple
Murder, Mayhem and Long Dogs Book Reviews
Best Spy Book of 2025 – The Poet's Game by Paul Vidich
Best Spy Book I read in 2025 – The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey
Joe Modezelewski
I am putting two at the top of the heap this year: PARIAH by Dan Fesperman, with a fresh, new twist on espionage, and THE POET’S GAME by Paul Vidich, with a more conventional but equally fantastic spy story. 5 STARS each!
The best spy book not published in 2025 is the superb A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS by Eric Ambler. For the record, this 1939 offering is one of my all-time favorite spy books. Truly 5 STARS!
I have yet to read THE PERSIAN by David McCloskey and I just ordered MIDNIGHT IN VIENNA by Jane Thynne, KALEIDOSCOPE: PARTS 1-3 by Michael Beckner, and A SPY AT WAR by Charles Beaumont.
Graham Roberts
Red Star Down by D B John was this years find. Honourable shout-outs to Poet's Game by Paul Vidich and A Spy at War by Charles Beaumont. Not got to Pariah or the Persian yet
Daniel Anderson
Best Spy Book of 2025
The Poet’s Game by Paul Vidich – In my humble opinion, Paul Vidich may be the best spy novelist writing today. Beirut Station blew me away, and The Poet’s Game is just as good—smart, sophisticated, and completely authentic. His vibrant sense of place makes you feel like you’re right there. Superb. I still have a few 2025 releases to read, but I already know nothing else will beat Poet’s Game.
Best Spy Book Read in 2025
The Translator by Harriet Crawley –
This one really surprised me. Using a translator as the spy was a clever twist and worked better than I anticipated. You can tell she lived in Moscow for years. Not just because of the way she places you there but also because of the way she writes her characters. You can tell she knows and understands the Russian people and culture. Truly a brilliant read.
Mohammad Zahinual Islam
Best Spy Thriller of 2025
The Poet's Game by Paul Vidich
Best Spy Thriller Read in 2025
The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry
Ken Chetwynd
BEST 2025 PUBLISHED BOOK: “THE POET’S GAME” BY PAUL VIDICH, TIED WITH DAN FESPERMAN’S “PARIAH”
– a very experienced spy in the former, a totally inexperienced spy in the latter, each trying to, in different ways, redeem himself
BEST SPY BOOK READ IN 2025: “GABRIEL’S MOON” BY WILLIAM BOYD
– the closest writing style to John Le Carré that I have read – enough said
BEST NON FICTION SPY BOOK READ IN 2025: “BEYOND THE WALL” BY KATJA HOYER
– maybe I’m colouring outside the lines with this pick, but while it isn’t “spy-centric” it gave me a much greater understanding of that country so often portrayed as the “other” side in the Cold War spying world.
Eagerly looking forward to other peoples’ picks. What a great group the Spybrary Community is!
Andrew Forsey
a) it’s a three-way tie (or am I just being greedy?) between D.B. John’s Red Star Down, Paul Vidich’s The Poet’s Game, and David McCloskey’s The Seventh Floor
b) John le Carre, A Perfect Spy
Chris Connor
I'm going to go with Clown Town by Mick Herron for the best 2025 Spy book. In terms of best I've read this year, The Quiet American, Moscow X and The Peacock and The Sparrow would be up there.
Mark Lambert
For me it is easily David McCloskey’s The Persian. A great story told by a great writer.
For an older book, I’d probably go with Ted Allbeury’s Seeds of Treason – which is an old school classic Cold War story.
William Tyminski
Best Spy Thriller of 2025 – The Second Traitor by Alex Gerlis. This is book #2 in a 4 book series set in pre WW2 and during WW2. I recommend anything by this author.
B) Cry Havoc by Jack Carr. A very interesting and involved book. It takes place in Vietnam during the war in the 1960s. It has everything: military action, spy craft, and romance.
Martin Paul
I'm going for the latest Rory Clements book A COLD WIND FROM MOSCOW. It's the latest in the Tom Wilde series and successfully takes our hero from the WW2 years to the early days of the Cold War. As usual, the period detail is spot-on and the research sound. It's not a hard read, but has all the elements I look for in a spy thriller.
My best reread this year has been Free Agent by Jeremy Duns. A classic tale told well.
I'm not a big non-fiction reader but I enjoyed Counterfeit Spies by Oliver Buckton. Who knew so many spy writers had a background in espionage?
Nick Quantril
a) ‘Clown Town’ (Mick Herron) – funny, astute and endlessly readable, we all know the drill by now. It’s Slough Horse and its spies ramping up for another chaotic adventure, this time taking us back to the days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
b) ‘Paul Samson’ trilogy (Henry Porter) – epic and global in scope, Porter’s trilogy takes in all too timely topics like human trafficking, but also calls back to the days of the Cold War. Fast and thrilling, Porter’s books are the perfect blend of brains and brawn.
Clare Mulley
Best spy novel I read in 2025… possibly Jane Thynne’s Midnight in Vienna, which is great fun.
Best non-fiction – can I say my own book, Agent Zo, of which I’m immensely proud?!
Nancy Bilyeau
Best Spy Book of 2025
Gabriel Valjan's ‘Eyes to Deceit: The Company Files‘
Chris Rawlings
Two books that I really enjoyed this year but not published in ‘25: Agent in Berlin, and Every Spy a Traitor, both by ‘our’ Alex Gerlis.
Anik Lapointe
Hi everyone, of the spy books I’ve read this year…
Best spy novel of the year: The Persian, David McCloskey
Best spy novel I’ve read: my rereading of The Mask of Dimitrios, Eric Ambler
Best Non Fiction espionage of 2025: The Illegals, Shaun Walker
Stephen England (Spy ThrillerAuthor)
My 2025 Best Spy Book of the Year is David McCloskey's The Persian. For my reasons, see my review: https://spybrary.com/the-persian-by-david-mccloskey-review/
Best Spy Book I Read This Year (any publication date) goes to Michael Beckner's KALEIDOSCOPE (taking the serial, which began last year, as a whole): It's going to be one of the rare books I sit down to re-read now that it's finished and I can read it all at one go–I'm neck-deep in the finale at the moment and am loving it, as I have each of the previous episodes.
Best Non-fiction Spy Book I Read in 2025 goes to Steve Coll's Directorate S, a magisterial history of the cloak-and-dagger side of American and Pakistani involvement in Afghanistan over the last two decades, and a lengthy testament to fact being far stranger than fiction.
Follow Stephen England Author
Michael H Clezie
Best Spy Book of 2025 – The Persian – David McCloskey
Non-2025 spy book –Ilium – Lea Carpenter
Fiona Smith
I think A Spy at War is the only 2025 spy book I have read, but I did thoroughly enjoy it.
Bruce Dravis
A) Best Spy books Of 2025: A Spy At War and Poet's Game, for speaking so well to the moment we are in, and Kaleidoscope, for providing all the pleasures of reading an espionage book while also being an audacious, sweeping rock opera of a family saga.
B) Non-2025 Spy novel read this year: The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Also the Miernik Dossier, for the scene with the German tourists with the dog
C) Non-fiction Espionage: Mission Iran: Special Forces Berlin & Operation Eagle Claw, JTF 1-79, by James Stejskal (great discussion of the interaction between military and intelligence forces) and THE MISSION: The CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner (dominated by post-9/11 but still good).
Jim Reicker
Best Spy Fiction Thriller of 2025. The Persian by David McCloskey — clever, original concept and execution with real people.
Graham Roberts
Best Spy Thriller of 2025 – The Poet's Game by Paul Vidich
B) My find of the year D.B. John both books back to back
C Best Spy Non Fiction read in 2025 – Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming.
Charlotte B
Best Spy Novel of 2025. A Spy at War and A Spy Alone by Charles Beaumont. Read in close succession. Felt “classic” and very current at the same time
B- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold– John Le Carré at his dark best.
C – Best Spy Non Fiction read in 2025 – Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre
Brandon England
Best Spy Thrillers of 2025 The Persian by David McCloskey and The Poet’s Game by Paul Vidich. Too tough for me to choose. Both brilliant writing.
Best spy book I read in 2025 other than the two spy thrillers above: Hopscotch by Brian Garfield. (Thank you Shane Whaley for the recommendation. Btw, do you think Kendig had the 4th Queen? Ha).
C. Most of my non-fiction reading was WW1. I did read Russians Among Us by Gordon Corera and found it interesting.
The best spy book series I read in 2025…All the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr. They were all fantastic.
Cory Hazlehurst
The best spy novel published in 2025 is The Peak by Sam Guthrie. It completely gripped me from start to finish. I particularly enjoyed the political angle, so if you like your espionage to have a political edge then this is a must. It's set in Australia but you don't need to know anything about the country's politics to get stuck in to it. I don't want to say too much about the plot because I don't want to spoil it, but the fact that I read this while the UK media was consumed with recent cyberattacks plus the collapse of a Chinese spy case meant that The Peak felt even more relevant. A book for all fans of thrillers, not just spy fiction.
My favourite reading experience was reading The Good German while on holiday in Berlin. I love Joseph Kanon‘s books, and this is one of his best. Definitely an author to get into if you like atmospheric novels with betrayal, characters from across Europe and have read all of Alan Furst's novels. But the best spy novel I read in 2025 was I.S. Berry's The Peacock and the Sparrow. Like The Peak, I enjoyed reading a novel set in a novel location (Bahrain this time), liked the main characters despite all their flaws and did not see the ending coming.
I haven't read much non-fiction spy material this year. I did enjoy To Catch A Spy by Tim Tate, a readable account of the catastrophic handling by the Thatcher government of The Spycatcher affair. Having said that, the best non-fiction book I read this year is Wifedom by Anna Funder. She wrote Stasiland which Spybrarians might be familiar with. And while I can't really make much of a case for her account of Eileen Blair's life being a proper spy book, it does have several KGB agents with walk-on parts in Catalonia who play a major part of the book.
If I can make one final recommendation, I really enjoyed playing Vienna Connection with family this year. If you have friends who are interested in board games and spying I'd heartily recommend this, as this really makes you feel like you're in one of those spy films from the 1970s. Perfect for a Boxing Day game! https://portalgames.pl/en/vienna-connection/
Matthew McGuinness
My best spy book of 2025 is The Poet's Game by Paul Vidich. I think what did it do me was the sure quality of the writing. Sober in a way that suited Alex Matthews. If I am honest I was not completely surprised with the twist of betrayal at the end, but it held together for me. As always with Paul, the writing is measured and assured.
The best spy book I read in 2025 was Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd. It bobs along in a way that you don’t need to take too seriously. I rather like the unlikely spy.
What were the best spy books you read in 2025?
What spy books are you excited to read in 2026?
Let us know over in our Spybrary community
