Great Books on Espionage (nonfiction)
1. 
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
by:
Ben Macintyre
4.52 avg rating — 83,063 ratings 2. 
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
by:
Ben Macintyre
4.19 avg rating — 28,142 ratings 3. 
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II
by:
Liza Mundy
3.96 avg rating — 29,155 ratings 4. 
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
by:
Steve Coll
4.31 avg rating — 18,331 ratings 5. 
6. 
Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage 3.76 avg rating — 1,413 ratings
7. 
The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington
by:
Jennet Conant
3.36 avg rating — 2,455 ratings 8. 
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by:
Lawrence Wright
4.36 avg rating — 36,105 ratings 
10. 
11. 
The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive
by:
Marcus Binney
3.73 avg rating — 306 ratings 12. 
13. 
Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century
by:
James Bamford
3.91 avg rating — 1,791 ratings 14. 
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
by:
Sherry Sontag
4.23 avg rating — 10,809 ratings 15. 
16. 
Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda
by:
John Keegan
3.66 avg rating — 1,819 ratings 17. 
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
by:
David E. Hoffman
4.23 avg rating — 15,407 ratings 18. 
Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring
by:
Alexander Rose
3.82 avg rating — 6,004 ratings 19. 
A Secret Life: The Polish Officer, His Covert Mission, and the Price He Paid to Save His Country
by:
Benjamin Weiser
4.30 avg rating — 335 ratings 20. 
Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage 3.85 avg rating — 1,296 ratings
22. 
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich 3.82 avg rating — 924 ratings
23. 
The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville
by:
Clare Mulley
3.74 avg rating — 2,313 ratings 24. 
The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization
by:
James Bamford
3.90 avg rating — 1,302 ratings 25. 
Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy: Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961 3.67 avg rating — 1,798 ratings
26. 
Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016
by:
Steve Coll
4.21 avg rating — 4,312 ratings 
28. 
The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State
by:
Lawrence Wright
4.03 avg rating — 1,567 ratings 
31. 
Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris
by:
Alex Kershaw
3.97 avg rating — 3,463 ratings 33. 
Ian Fleming's Commandos: The Story of 30 Assault Unit in WWII
by:
Nicholas Rankin
3.62 avg rating — 309 ratings 
35. 
Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America
by:
Annie Jacobsen
4.14 avg rating — 9,249 ratings 36. 
Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
by:
Ben Macintyre
4.14 avg rating — 19,738 ratings 
38. 
Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics 4.01 avg rating — 438 ratings
39. 
Fetch the Devil: The Sierra Diablo Murders and Nazi Espionage in America
by:
Clint Richmond
3.61 avg rating — 196 ratings 
43. 
Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
by:
Ben Macintyre
4.03 avg rating — 22,519 ratings 
46. 
The Axmann Conspiracy: The Nazi Plan for a Fourth Reich and How the U.S. Army Defeated It 3.55 avg rating — 102 ratings
49. 
Code Warriors: NSA's Code Breakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union 3.72 avg rating — 746 ratings
51. 
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
by:
Robert B. Baer
3.94 avg rating — 5,164 ratings 52. 
Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure 3.37 avg rating — 1,569 ratings
53. 
Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl Harbor
by:
John Koster
3.34 avg rating — 331 ratings 54. 
The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
by:
Clifford Stoll
4.28 avg rating — 15,265 ratings 
54. 
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles & Their Secret World War
by:
Stephen Kinzer
4.13 avg rating — 4,061 ratings 57. 
58. 
59. 
Stalin's Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Espionage Ring
by:
Robert Whymant
4.06 avg rating — 83 ratings 60. 
Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda
by:
Thomas Powers
3.61 avg rating — 118 ratings 61. 
Maverick Spy: Stalin's Super-Agent in World War II
by:
Hamish Macgibbon
liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings 62. 
The Great War of Our Time: The CIA's Fight Against Terrorism--From al Qa'ida to ISIS
by:
Michael Morell
4.07 avg rating — 1,451 ratings 63. 
The Man Who Broke Into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II
by:
Denis Avey
3.89 avg rating — 8,802 ratings 64. 
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
by:
Karen Abbott
3.76 avg rating — 16,840 ratings 65. 
Psychic Warrior: The True Story of America's Foremost Psychic Spy and the Cover-Up of the CIA's Top-Secret Stargate Program
by:
David Morehouse
3.83 avg rating — 617 ratings 66. 
In Stalin's Secret Service: Memoirs of the First Soviet Master Spy to Defect
by:
W.G. Krivitsky
3.86 avg rating — 56 ratings 67. 
Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo
by:
Jack Cheevers
4.24 avg rating — 712 ratings 68. 
Nine Lives: My time as the MI6's top spy inside al-Qaeda
by:
Aimen Dean
4.34 avg rating — 1,469 ratings 69. 
Agents of Treachery: Never Before Published Spy Fiction from Today's Most Exciting Writers
by:
Otto Penzler
3.47 avg rating — 228 ratings 70. 
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
by:
Bryan Burrough
3.96 avg rating — 2,328 ratings 71. 
D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II
by:
Sarah Rose
3.77 avg rating — 6,236 ratings 
73. 
Desperate Sons: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, John Hancock, and the Secret Bands of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War
by:
Les Standiford
3.78 avg rating — 225 ratings 
76. 
From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War
by:
Robert M. Gates
3.99 avg rating — 395 ratings 
78. 
A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA 3.90 avg rating — 757 ratings
78. 
Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster
by:
Markus Wolf
3.96 avg rating — 463 ratings 
81. 
Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign against American "Neutrality" in World War II 3.62 avg rating — 13 ratings
83. 
Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage
by:
Philip Taubman
3.84 avg rating — 135 ratings 83. 
Craft of Intelligence: America's Legendary Spy Master On The Fundamentals Of Intelligence Gathering For A Free World
by:
Allen W. Dulles
3.77 avg rating — 907 ratings 85. 
Stalin's Man in Canada: Fred Rose and Soviet Espionage
by:
David A. Levy
2.67 avg rating — 6 ratings 86. 
The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors 3.89 avg rating — 173 ratings
87. 
Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees' First Dynasty
by:
Robert K. Fitts
3.93 avg rating — 162 ratings 88. 
Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service
by:
Mark Pendergrast
3.70 avg rating — 497 ratings 
90. 
Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
by:
Kim Zetter
4.17 avg rating — 8,047 ratings 91. 
Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton - Cia's Master Spy Hunter
by:
Tom Mangold
3.97 avg rating — 91 ratings 92. 
Spies, Patriots, and Traitors: American Intelligence in the Revolutionary War 3.85 avg rating — 142 ratings
93. 
93. 
The Emperor's Codes: The Breaking of Japan's Secret Ciphers
by:
Michael Smith
3.61 avg rating — 337 ratings 
96. 
The Last Goodnight: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure & Betrayal
by:
Howard Blum
3.54 avg rating — 3,238 ratings 97. 
Graven With Diamonds: The Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt. Courtier, Poet, Assassin, Spy
by:
Nicola Shulman
3.86 avg rating — 139 ratings 98. 
The Skripal Files: The Life and Near Death of a Russian Spy
by:
Mark Urban
3.88 avg rating — 441 ratings 99. 
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
by:
Neil Sheehan
4.24 avg rating — 12,399 ratings 