Books like The Persian — picked by fans

I have always loved Vidich’s portrayals of the Cold War between the USSR (now Russia) and the West, and his newest novel appealed to me because of its modern-day version of this struggle.

I liked the plot and characters, especially the protagonist Alex Mathews, a former CIA officer who has served in Moscow for many years, and the physical, emotional, and psychological toll that Moscow – a city which “has drawn him to her warm bosom” – leaves him with.

I loved the novel’s settings and place, and I found myself rooting for Alex as he struggles to adapt to the ‘Moscow Rules’ and ‘getting off the X.’  At the novel’s conclusion, I realized, like Alex, that the Cold War had never really ended.

Lawler, as a former CIA case officer, brings tremendous authenticity and verve to his spy novels, and The Traitor’s Tale is no different. 

I loved the fast-moving, vibrant plot, and I appreciated the characters, both the protagonists (especially Ambrose, Shawnee Chasing Hawk, and Gary Trichter). I enjoyed the intricate plot of espionage, recruitment, betrayal, a love story, and its finale. 

Lawler’s book appealed to me because it reveals the very human side of espionage, which, in the end, is about relationships between human beings—between intelligence officers and their agents/spies.

I loved Yariv Inbar’s tale, one of the best that I have read in years.

As a Mossad officer and novelist, he brilliantly captures the intricacies and nuances of espionage in a tale involving Irit, a Mossad officer, and her protagonist Noor, the wife of a Syrian WMD expert whom Irit hopes to recruit. I enjoyed how Inbar captured the intimacy of espionage, and the different stages of its life cycle, and how such things often end tragically, with multiple sorrows and traumas.

My other favorite character was Menachem, a former Mossad officer turned psychotherapist, who advises Mossad and Irit along the way, bringing an additional human touch to this singular novel.

I loved this book by Shaun Walker.

While not a novel, this tale reads like one and is a marvelous account of the training, development, and deployment of the USSR’s and Russia’s greatest illegals, many of whom could easily inhabit the finest spy novels ever written. Walker writes about the early inter-war illegals, as well as the later World War II and Cold War illegals, and their colorful lives and personalities, as well as those of their ruthless masters.

I appreciated Walker’s ability to explore the psychological and hidden costs of such work, and the toll which it takes upon the illegal officers and their families. Like me, lovers of the series The Americans will enjoy this fine book and appreciate the late Yuri Shevchenko’s comment (he was a legendary Russian illegal, for many years overseas): “All of us on this earth get just one life.  But not illegals.  They… show more.

David Crist is the historian of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff—and the son of former CENTCOM Commander, General George B. Crist.  He knows this subject backwards and forwards and brings to light any number of topics that I had only ever seen discussed in the classified world. But he does so with the perspicacity of a military historian and the insight of a superb military analyst. Most people simply do not know about the many close calls and bloody clashes there were between the U.S. and Iran during this era, and Crist’s book fills that important gap. Moreover, this is a fascinating example of a protracted, low-intensity or “hybrid” conflict with a canny and determined foe and so it has no end of lessons to teach. 

Another experienced intelligence officer, M.P. Woodward has created a terrific cast of characters for his series that begins with The Handler.

Once again, there’s a healthy dose of authenticity drawn from Woodward’s background that helps drive the plot forward.

A CIA operative, Meredith Morris-Dale, is assigned to extract an Iranian nuclear scientist with vital intelligence. The scientist, however, will only agree to the extraction if Meredith's ex-husband and former disgraced CIA paramilitary, John, carries out the operation.

Throw in internal CIA politics, Russian and Iranian spies, and the strained relationship of the divorced couple now working together and you have a terrific plot that races along.

I love thrillers with in-depth character development and realistic situations involving clandestine operations, and this book hits both of those marks.

This is the first book in a three-book series featuring the Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence service. I’ve always been fascinated by books that give me a behind-the-scenes look at how an intel agency operates and the tech gadgets that make the business of spying possible, and these authors describe both extremely well while giving me insights into how a Messianic Jew lives out his faith. 

This is a sort of origin story for Breuer's characters, centered more tightly on a mid-1930s Nazi ring uncovered by the FBI's best investigator, Leon Turrou, and splashed across American newspapers’ front pages in 1938. Jeffreys-Jones' book, released in 2020, also shows why multi-stranded nonfiction has become a popular form.

An amazing storyteller and unrivalled expert on World War II, Sir Max is best in class when it comes to combining the big and little pictures. He renders pithy judgments on thorny subjects. This may be the best overview of intelligence from east to west, north to south in World War II. Again like David Kahn and Christopher Andrew, Sir Max is generous to fellow writers and gracious to readers. I remember a talk at a Washington, DC bookstore to which a reader brought a stack of Hastings books—perhaps 10 or so—for his autograph. Sir Max did not hesitate, cheerfully reaching for his pen.

How did governments spy on their own citizens in the age of quill pens and candlelight? Although Londoners lustily sang “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves,” the reality was that few men could vote, and some were in danger of being dragged off the street and impressed into the Navy. The struggle for democratic reform, however, was met with suspicion by government leaders who feared a revolution like the one in France that toppled the monarchy. Regency Spies uncovers the hidden world of espionage and agents provocateurs who kept an eye on populist reformers like Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt and deluded fanatics like Arthur Thistlewood. While learning about the Peterloo Massacre and the Cato Street Conspiracy, I was also intrigued by the parallels to our own times.