Cold War book series in reading order

by William F. Buckley, Jr.

John Le Carre

30 books• 5 series

John le Carré was the pen name of David John Moore Cornwell, an English novelist of espionage who lived from 19 October 1931 to 12 December 2020. During the 1950s and 1960s Cornwell worked for MI5 and MI6, and late in life took Irish citizenship. The catalogue counts 30 books, from Call for the Dead (1961) to A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré (2022). The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), the third novel, was an international bestseller and an award-winning film. George Smiley is the recurring figure, with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) and Smiley's People (1979) in the list. Subjects include the Cold War, spies and intelligence officers.

Ben Macintyre

17 books

Ben Macintyre writes narrative history and biography, much of it about spies and the two world wars. 17 catalogued titles run from Forgotten Fatherland (1992) through The Napoleon of Crime (1997), A Foreign Field (2001), The Englishman's Daughter (2001) and Agent Zigzag (2007). Prisoners of war, missing soldiers and wartime deception recur across the work, which reaches Redwood in 2026.

H.W. Brands writes history and biography centred on American presidents, the Cold War and United States foreign relations. The catalogue lists 48 books from Cold Warriors (1988) to American Patriarch (2026), and includes the series Foreign Relations and the Presidency. Early titles are India and the United States, The Specter of Neutralism, Inside the Cold War, Bound to Empire, The Devil We Knew and The Reckless Decade. Brands is still publishing.

William H. Keith writes military fiction and science fiction. Naval warfare supplies much of the subject matter, from Navy SEALs and aircraft carriers to submarines, naval battles and the Vietnam War, with men's adventure and espionage alongside. The catalogue runs to 116 titles dated between 1985 and 2021, and the 1990s are its busiest decade. SEAL Team Seven, Carrier, Warstrider, Silent Service, Freedom's Rangers, Cybernarc and Renegade Legion are among the series. The listing also carries tabletop game material, sourcebooks and CD-ROM game guides under Keith's name, including Twilight: 2000 titles. No book is listed after 2021.

William F. Buckley, Jr.

55 books• 1 series

William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) was an American conservative writer, commentator and novelist. God and Man at Yale (1951) opens the catalogue, a year after Buckley graduated from Yale with honours; two years at the Central Intelligence Agency followed. Espionage and the Central Intelligence Agency sit among the recorded subjects, carried by the Blackford Oakes novels, the one recorded series. Politics, conservatism and journalism fill the rest. 55 titles are catalogued through to A Torch Kept Lit (2016), averaging 295 pages.

Clive Cussler

104 books• 9 series

Clive Cussler (July 15, 1931 – February 24, 2020) was an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. Cussler founded and chaired the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), which has located more than 60 shipwreck sites. Cussler's thrillers, many of them featuring Dirk Pitt, reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. The catalogue lists 105 books under Cussler's name, beginning with The Mediterranean Caper (1973), with The Serpent's Eye due in 2027. Robin Burcell shares credit on 6 of them, Jack Du Brul on 5 and Grant Blackwood on 3. Series include Dirk Pitt, NUMA Files, Oregon Files and Sea Hunters.

Ken Follett is a Welsh writer of thrillers and historical novels, born on 5 June 1949. The catalogue holds 39 books running from The Big Black (1974) to Circle of Days (2025). The Pillars of the Earth (1989) opened the Kingsbridge series and moved Follett from spy fiction into historical fiction; the earlier commercial breakthrough was the spy thriller Eye of the Needle (1978). Other headings include Piers Roper, the Apples Carstairs books published as Simon Myles, and a non-fiction list. Ken Follett is still publishing.

Espionage, terrorism and the Second World War supply Jack Higgins with his material. Higgins published the earliest of 76 catalogued books as Harry Patterson, among them Sad Wind from the Sea (1959), Cry of the Hunter (1960) and Hell Is Too Crowded (1962). Sean Dillon, Paul Chavasse, Liam Devlin and Martin Fallon head series of their own, alongside standalone thrillers. The Midnight Bell, published in 2016, closes the catalogue.

Peter Schweizer writes non-fiction about political corruption, espionage and power in the United States. 20 catalogued titles run from Friendly Spies (1993) through Victory (1994), Disney: The Mouse Betrayed (1998), The Fall of the Berlin Wall (2000), Reagan's War (2002) and The Bushes (2004), reaching The Invisible Coup. Cold War history, business intelligence and government conduct are the recurring subjects.

Harry Turtledove

141 books• 28 series

Harry Turtledove, born June 14, 1949, is an American historian and novelist of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and mystery, based in Southern California. The catalogue counts 142 books, starting with Wereblood and Werenight (1979), published as Eric G. Iverson, and listing The Succulent Succubus for 2027. Other pen names are H. N. Turteltaub, Dan Chernenko and Mark Gordian. The Videssos Cycle, Southern Victory / Timeline-191, Worldwar, Colonization, Crosstime Traffic, The War That Came Early and Gerin the Fox are among the series. World War II and the American Civil War are frequent subjects.

The Second World War and the Cold War frame John Lawton's thrillers, set in London and built on police work and espionage. Frederick Troy heads the Inspector Troy series, Joe Wilderness leads a second, and standalone novels and short fiction sit beside them. Seventeen catalogued books run from Black Out (1995) through Old Flames (1996), A Little White Death (1998) and A Lily of the Field (2010) to Smoke and Embers in 2025.

Joseph Kanon writes espionage novels set in the years around the Second World War and the early Cold War. Los Alamos (1997) opens a catalogue of 11 titles that reaches Shanghai (2024), taking in The Good German (2001), Istanbul Passage (2012), Leaving Berlin (2014) and Defectors (2017). The atomic bomb, New Mexico and Americans abroad appear in the subject tags.

Cold War espionage is Paul Vidich's subject, written around the Central Intelligence Agency and its operations from Korea to Cuba. Seven books are catalogued: An Honorable Man (2016), The Good Assassin (2017), The Coldest Warrior (2020), The Mercenary (2021), The Matchmaker (2022), Beirut Station (2023) and The Poet's Game. George Mueller and Alex Matthews head the two series.

Ian McEwan

33 books• 2 series

Ian McEwan writes British literary fiction, alongside drama, librettos and short stories. Thirty-nine catalogued titles start with the story collection First Love, Last Rites (1975) and run through The Cement Garden (1978), In Between the Sheets (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981) as far as 2025. England, man-woman relationships and social life recur as subjects, at a median length of 193 pages.

Dan Fesperman

14 books• 2 series

Espionage and crime drive Dan Fesperman's fiction. A former Baltimore Sun reporter whose assignments took him to Germany, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, Fesperman turns that reporting into thrillers about journalists, investigators and intelligence services. The catalogue holds 14 books published between 1999 and 2025, from Lie in the Dark (1999) through Pariah (2025). Two series run inside it, Vlado Petric and Claire Saylor, and Fesperman is still publishing.

Robert Littell, born 8 January 1935 in Brooklyn to a family of Russian Jewish origin, writes spy fiction. Littell's novels turn on the CIA and the Soviet Union, drawing on a working life that took in a 1956 degree from Alfred University, four years in the US Navy as navigator, antisubmarine warfare officer and communications officer, and years at Newsweek during the Cold War, including a posting as foreign correspondent from 1965 to 1970. Littell lives in France. The catalogue holds 26 books, from If Israel Lost the War (1969) to Bronshtein in the Bronx (2025).

Ross Thomas (1926-1995) wrote American crime fiction, best known for witty thrillers that lay bare the machinery of professional politics. Five of his novels appeared under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck and feature Philip St. Ives, a professional go-between. Mac McCorkle and Arthur Case Wu head his other series. Twenty-seven books run from The Cold War Swap (1966) to Ah, Treachery! (1994), with Washington and the Cold War recurring as settings.

A former Catholic priest, James Carroll (born January 22, 1943) is an American novelist, historian and journalist. Carroll writes about efforts to reform the Catholic Church, and his books cover religion and history as well as fiction. He holds nine honorary doctorates and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His 23 catalogued books run from Madonna Red (1976) to The Truth at the Heart of the Lie (2021), including An American Requiem (1996).