The espionage genre runs on long-running characters. These series span decades and dozens of books, listed here with publication ranges.
Series in Reading Order
- Jack Ryan by Tom Clancy
CIA analyst turned president; the Jack Ryan universe includes spinoff series by other authors. - Gabriel Allon by Daniel Silva — 10 books · 2001–2010
Israeli art restorer and assassin; one of the longest-running contemporary spy series. - Jason Bourne by Robert Ludlum
Begun 1980 with The Bourne Identity; continued by Eric Van Lustbader and Brian Freeman. - Mitch Rapp by Vince Flynn — 20 books · 1999–2026
CIA counterterrorism operative; continued by Kyle Mills after Flynn's death in 2013. - Slough House by Mick Herron — 10 books · 2010–2020
The Slow Horses series, following sidelined MI5 agents. - Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz — 20 books · 2000–2020
Young-adult espionage series, begun 2000. - Scot Harvath by Brad Thor — 10 books · 2001–2011
Navy SEAL turned covert operative; begun 2002. - Cotton Malone by Steve Berry — 15 books · 2006–2021
Former Justice Department operative turned bookseller. - James Bond by Ian Fleming
The original series, 1953-1966, continued by many authors since. - Court Gentry / Gray Man by Mark Greaney — 10 books · 2009–2021
Freelance assassin series, adapted by Netflix in 2022.
How to read these series
Numbered entries follow the order the books were published, which is the order the story was written and the safest order for a first read. Where a series has side novels or novellas, reading them in publication order avoids spoilers from later books.
Where the numbers come from
Book counts and publication years on this page are taken from the series entries in the GoBookSeries index. Each title links to the full book list for that series.
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