004 | Recommended Spy-Themed Books, Movies, TV Shows and More

‘Tis the season to curl up with a book or enjoy a movie or some TV time, (if you’re not hosting family and wow’ing them with a Spyher espionage-themed tour or event). On tour, we often refer to books, movies, TV shows, podcasts, news outlets etc…as we tell the stories of intelligence figures and relevant espionage cases.  Guests are often spotted taking notes to capture these references and we’re quick to advise that a reading and watch list will be distributed post-tour.  One of our resolutions for 2025 is to do a better job of getting this constantly evolving list out and conquer the technology to create an automated email send.  As those of you reading this might know already, intelligence officers are woefully deficient when it comes to leveraging technology as we’ve spent a great deal of time and effort during our professional careers not leaving footprints.

So, to end 2024 we’re publishing the list in this blogpost.  It is not all-inclusive, and we’ve included a segment with recommendations from our guests.  Some of these we hope to tackle over the end-of-year holiday and graduate to the main list. We always enjoy hearing from our guests, keeping in touch, and making new acquaintances.  So, don’t be shy about reaching out and sharing your favorites! 

Looking ahead to 2025, we aim to learn more about Harriet Tubman, Belle, Boyd, Mary Myers (and James Jesus Angelton), and Elizabeth Thorpe (code name CYNTHIA), amongst others, and continue to treat guests to spy history and real-life spy stories.

In the meantime, from the Spyher family to yours, happy holidays!

Books

• “The Billion Dollar Spy", David Hoffman
• “Best of Enemies: The Last Great Spy Story of the Cold War”, Gus Russo and Eric Dezenhall
• "Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed", Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille
• "Into the Whirlwind", Eugenia Ginzburg
• "Gray Day", Eric O'Neill
• "Spymaster", Tennent Bagley
• “Queen of Cuba”, Peter Lapp
• “A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean”, Roland Philipps
• “The Good Spy, The Life and Death of Robert Ames”, Kai Bird
• “A Very Principled Boy”, Mark Bradley
• “The Mitrokhin Archive”, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin
• “Book of Honor”, Ted Gup

TV

• The Bureau (French show)
• Looming Tower
• The Americans
• Homeland
• Tehran
• Chernobyl
• Fauda
• A Spy Among Friends

Movies

• Anthropoid
• Argo
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (the original)
• Spies Like Us
• The Catcher Was a Spy
• The Good Shepherd
• Zero Dark Thirty
• Mincemeat
• The Imitation Game
• Fair Game
• All the President’s Men

BOOK, TV & MOVIE Recommendations from Tour Participants

• “The Company”, Robert Littell
• “Courting Danger”, Alice Marble
• “The Spy who Came in From the Cold”, John le Carre
• Slow Horses [TV series]
• The Lioness [TV series]
• Gloria [Portuguese TV series]
• 13 Rue Madelaine [movie]
• The Spy [movie]
• Reacher [movie]
• 39 Steps and Notorious [movie]
• The Lives of Others [movie]
• Soundtrack of a Coup D’etat [documentary]
• Reacher [movie]
• Reacher [movie]
• Alan Furst [author]

Podcasts:

• The Cult of the CIA
• Who Killed JFK

Investigative Journalism and News:

•  Bellingcat
• The Island Intelligencer, J.P. Atwell (substack)

Russian Language Viewing:

• Tass is authorized to declare...(1984)
• Tehran-43 (Teheran 43) (1981)
• The Secret Agent's Blunder (1968)
• Secret Agent's Destiny (1970)
• Resident Return (1982)
• Konets operatsii Rezident (1986)