Where the Spies Are

Frustrated that spy fiction seemed to be getting “short shrift” in recent “best books of the year” rosters, George Easter, the editor of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine , recruited a couple of his quarterly’s contributors (Steele Curry and Jeff Popple) to help make up the following “Best Espionage Fiction of 2023” list:

Best Espionage Novels:
• The Scarlet Papers , by Matthew Richardson (Michael Joseph UK)
• The Secret Hours , by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)
• Moscow Exile , by John Lawton (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• The Peacock and the Sparrow , by I.S. Berry (Atria)
• Beirut Station , by Paul Vidich (Pegasus Crime)
• Kennedy 35 , by Charles Cumming (Mysterious Press)

Honorable Mention:
• Traitor , by Ava Glass (Bantam)
• Moscow X , by David Mccloskey (Norton)
• The Collector , by Daniel Silva (HarperCollins)
• Black Wolf , by Kathleen Kent (Mulholland)
• The Spy Coast , by Tess Gerritsen (Thomas & Mercer)
• The Helsinki Affair , by Anna Pitoniak (Simon & Schuster)
• The Year of the Locust , by Terry Hayes (Bantam UK)
• Second Shot , by Cindy Dees (Kensington)
• Chameleon , by Remi Adeleke (Morrow)
• Red London , by Alma Katsu (Putnam)
• The Man in the Corduroy Suit , by James Wolff (Bitter Lemon Press)
• White Fox , by Owen Matthews (Doubleday)
• The Partisan , by Patrick Worrall (Union Square)

To read more about these works, click here .