Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five --Espionage Noir-- Novels of espionage aren’t always of the James Bond variety. In the post-war years and throughout the Cold War, several great writers of spy stories emerged and made their very distinctive marks on the hardboiled/noir school. Many of them were British, but it wasn’t long before the Americans got into the game as well. Here are some of the best espionage noir writers of the last seventy years: Graham Greene’s high tension stories were excellent examples of international noir, filled with intrigue, double-crossing, and central characters in way over their heads. Orient Express This Gun for Hire Confidential Agent Ministry of Fear The Third Man Our Man in Havana Eric Ambler’s work was atmospheric and tense, with protagonists that would find themselves unwittingly involved in events bigger than themselves, and struggling to get free—or at least figure out what the hell was going on. Epitaph For a Spy A Coffin for Dimitrios Cause for Alarm Journey Into Fear Geoffrey Household wrote what is now considered the classic man-on-the-run story. Rogue Male John le Carre. Some readers and critics consider him as perhaps the greatest espionage novelist of all time (debatable). But le Carre did indeed write bold, cynical and compelling stories that rang with an authenticity lacking in Fleming’s work. The George Smiley cycle of novels is well worth reading, but le Carre's greatest novel is this stand-alone... The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Adam Hall straddled the line between the stark realism of le Carre and the outrageous adventure of Fleming. His novels about British secret agent Quiller are fast-paced, cynical in the best noir tradition, and wildly unpredictable. The Quiller Memorandum The Ninth Directive The Striker Portfolio The Warsaw Document The Tango Briefing The Mandarin Cypher The Sinkiang Executive Len Deighton has been called the “anti-Fleming”, because his protagonists are so diametrically opposed to Bond. The nameless narrator of Deighton’s earliest thrillers (called ‘Harry Palmer’ in the film adaptations) is a bitter, burnt-out ex-criminal forced into working for the British government. Terrific international noir. The Ipcress File Funeral in Berlin The Billion Dollar Brain Donald Hamilton. Forget the goofy movies with Dean Martin; the Matt Helm series of espionage novels were top-notch, exciting and remarkably well-written. Death of a Citizen The Wrecking Crew The Removers The Silencers Murderer’s Row Edward S. Aarons wrote straight noir crime stories in the early ‘50’s before turning his attention to espionage with the classic “Assignment” series featuring Cajun secret agent Sam Durrell. Highly believable, action-packed. Here are just a handful: Assignment to Disaster Assignment: Suicide Assignment: Treason Assignment: Stella Marni Alan Furst is every bit in the best tradition of Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, writing moody and evocative spy stories invariably set against the backdrop of WWII-era Europe. Beautifully written, fog-shrouded, and as purely noir as anything going today. Night Soldiers Dark Star The World at Night Dark Voyage Red Gold Kingdom of Shadows The Polish Officer Spies of Warsaw Spies of the Balkans Furst is a modern writer, which leads us very nicely into the world of modern noir… next time. go to Part Seven

In this post, we share American author, Dashiell Hammett's 24 rules for detective writers.

philsp.com December 1931 issue cover art by J.W. Schlaikjer ~ Ramon Decolta (Raoul Whitfield), “The Javanese Mask”, 1st of 2 stories in this issue by RFW, Jo Gar, 17th of 24 Gar stories in BM,...

Dashiell Hammett, born today in 1894, found a home for a lot of his fiction in Black Mask, one of America’s great bygone pulp magazines. Raymond Chandler, Carroll John Daly, and other masters of detective fiction all placed their work in Black Mask, which first published Hammett in 1922, and which serialized The Maltese Falcon […]

Killer's Choice, by Ed McBain Permabook M-4267, 1962 Cover art by Robert McGinnis

The Best Of The Worst

The Best Of The Worst

A bed spring across the cheek? That's gonna leave a mark ...