18 books like The Riddle of the Sands

What to read after The Riddle of the Sands — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

For Your Eyes Only Ian Fleming · 1959 · ★ 3.7 · 146p · ≈ 4h · Moderate "Bond watched her as she reached the edge of the tables and came up the aisle. It was hopeless. She was coming to meet someone—her lover. She was the sort of woman who always belongs to somebody else. What damnable luck! Before Bond could pull himself together, the girl had come up to his table and sat down. ‘I’m sorry I’m late. We’ve got to get moving at once. You’re wanted at the office.’ She… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, British, Great Britain

Thunderball Ian Fleming · 1961 · ★ 3.8 · 344p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "When a stranger arrives in the Bahamas, the locals barely turn their heads, seeing another ex-pat with money to burn at the casino tables. But James Bond has more than money on his mind; he's got less than a week to find two stolen atom bombs hidden among the coral reefs. While acting the playboy, Bond meets Domino, sultry plaything of secretive treasure hunter Emilio Largo. In getting close to… Shares: Secret service, British, Great Britain, Thriller

Twinkle twinkle little spy Len Deighton · 1976 · ★ 4.5 · 278p · ≈ 9h · Moderate When the unnamed British agent in this story is sent to take custody of a defecting Russian scientist, his mission takes him to the Arab world and the Sahara desert as he is consistently foiled by a US Secret Service high-up. Loyalty is tested and never certain, as it becomes unclear as the novel develops who is actually chasing whom, and where the threat is coming from. Shares: English Spy stories, Thriller

Diamonds are Forever Ian Fleming · 1956 · ★ 3.6 · 258p · ≈ 8h · Moderate "Listen, Bond," said Tiffany Case. "It’d take more than Crabmeat Ravigotte to get me into bed with a man. In any event, since it’s your check, I’m going to have caviar, and what the English call 'cutlets,' and some pink champagne. I don’t often date a good-looking Englishman and the dinner’s going to live up to the occasion." Meet Tiffany Case, a cold, gorgeous, devil-may-care blonde; the kind… Shares: English Spy stories, British, Great Britain, Thriller

For Special Services John Gardner · 1982 · ★ 3.6 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate Bond is back on secret loan to the United States Government and primed to confront an old and deadly adversary which now has a sinister new leader and a devastating operation underway. Armed with a pair of Sykes-Fairbairn commando daggers, a new Heckler & Koch VP70 handgun and a gorgeous new partner – the daughter of his old friend Felix Leiter – Bond experiences the full deadly force of… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

Brokenclaw John Gardner · 1990 · ★ 3.7 · 236p · ≈ 7h · Moderate On holiday in Victoria, British Columbia, Bond becomes by intrigued Lee Fu-Chu, a half-Blackfoot, half-Chinese philanthropist who is known as "Brokenclaw" because of a deformed hand. On his return to the UK Bond is tasked to investigate the kidnapping of several scientists who have been working on a new submarine detection system. It becomes clear that Brokenclaw is behind the kidnapping and… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

The Man from Barbarossa John Gardner · 1991 · ★ 3.9 · 303p · ≈ 10h · Moderate James Bond has been partnered with an Israeli Mossad agent, Pete Natkowitz, and assigned to work with the KGB to infiltrate a terrorist group. The group, The Scales of Justice, are demanding the trial of a suspected Nazi war criminal and each day of delay brings another death. Posing as a TV crew, Bond and the other agents attempt to discover the group's real motive. When Bond realizes that the… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

COLD John Gardner · 1996 · ★ 3.5 · 235p · ≈ 7h · Moderate James Bond is on a mission that will become an obsession. It starts the night Flight 229 is torn apart at Washington airport, killing 435 passengers. But the victim who matters to Bond is the Principessa Sukie Tempesta: once his lover, still his friend. The search for Sukie's killers will turn out to be the most complex and demanding assignment of Bond's career. Across continents and through… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

Ian Fleming's master spy James Bond in Nobody lives forever John Gardner · 1986 · ★ 3.5 · 301p · ≈ 10h · Moderate 'Take care 007. Take special care. The continent's a hotbed of villainy these days and you can never be too careful' Bond was supposed to be on leave. But SPECTRE leader Tamil Rahani, dying from injuries suffered at Bond's hand, is determined to make it the holiday to die for. With a price on his head, Bond must evade the world's greatest assassins in a ruthless game of cat-and-mouse across… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

No Deals, Mr. Bond John Gardner · 1960 · ★ 3.7 · 312p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Two female agents of Operation Cream Cake - double agents and honey traps against the KGB - are murdered. Bond must find the others and conduct them to safety before they meet a similar fate. In a race against time, Bond travels to Ireland and the KGB is soon on the scene. But all is not as it seems and soon Bond finds he needs all his wits to negotiate a labyrinth of double-crossing that is to… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

Icebreaker John Gardner · 1983 · ★ 4.0 · 250p · ≈ 8h · Moderate In Icebreaker, as indestructible as ever, Bond is back in another mission—a deadly assignment undertaken in cohort with Bond’s opposite numbers from the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel in the desolate Arctic wastes of Lapland. Yet if resurgent fascism is the common enemy, who is really to be feared? Is it the breezy American or the voluptuous Israeli who is acting as a double agent?… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

Ian Fleming's James Bond in John Gardner's Never Send Flowers John Gardner · 1993 · ★ 3.0 · 293p · ≈ 9h · Moderate In different corners of the world, four high-profile figures are assassinated in less than a week. Nobody claims responsibility, and nobody links the deaths. But one thing is certain: each victim has been stalked, sought out and killed with care and preparation. Then a sinister connection is established: a single, blood-tipped rose is sent to each funeral. When MI5 come to MI6 to ask for help M… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

Our Game John le Carré · 1995 · ★ 3.7 · 328p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Tim Cranmer, retired secret servant and Larry Pettifer, bored radical don, philanderer and for 20 years Tim's mercurial double agent against the now vanished Communist threat, have an unresolved rivalry that dates back decades. They follow each other to Moscow and then Southern Russia. Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service

Seafire John Gardner · 1994 · ★ 3.8 · 287p · ≈ 9h · Moderate James Bond is back in action, with Flicka von Grusse at his side and his licence to kill renewed once more. His target is Sir Maxwell Tarn: a businessman whose legitimate empire spans the globe, whose wealth is uncountable . . . and who appears to deal in illegal weapons on a breathtaking scale. But even Bond is unprepared for the speed of events, as a sting operation in a Cambridge hotel leads… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Great Britain, Thriller

Casino Royale Ian Fleming · 1953 · ★ 3.7 · 180p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Introducing James Bond: charming, sophisticated, handsome, chillingly ruthless and licensed to kill. This, the first of Ian Fleming's tales of secret agent 007, finds Bond on a mission to neutralize a lethal, high-rolling Russian operative called simply "le Chiffre" -- by ruining him at the Baccarat table and forcing his Soviet spymasters to "retire" him. It seems that lady luck is taken with 007… Shares: Secret service, British, Great Britain, Thriller

Doctor No Ian Fleming · 1958 · ★ 3.8 · 194p · ≈ 6h · Moderate The sixth James Bond thriller from Ian Fleming’s typewriter. Dispatched by M to investigate the mysterious disappearance of MI6’s Jamaica station chief, Bond was expecting a holiday in the sun. But when he discovers a deadly centipede placed in his hotel room, the vacation is over. On this island, all suspicious activity leads inexorably to Dr Julius No, a reclusive megalomaniac with steel… Shares: English Spy stories, British, Great Britain, Thriller

With a Mind to Kill Anthony Horowitz · 2022 · ★ 4.4 · 368p · ≈ 12h · Moderate It is M's funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M's murder—James Bond. Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion's den—but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when… Shares: English Spy stories, Secret service, Thriller, Mystery

The Dragon and the Raven G. A. Henty · 1800 · ★ 3.9 · 216p · ≈ 7h · Challenging For many years England was assailed by Danish hordes whose barbarians reduced the Saxons to pitiable legions of disconnected and ravished communities. In the later 800's A.D. a man named Alfred emerged from the darkened European scene and by his wisdom and knowledge and bravery, he gathered together an army of valorous warriors who banished the Vikings back to the North. This true historic tale… Shares: Great Britain, History

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