What's New
The last ten major changes to the site.
- 01/17/2025 - Most of the first of the three adventures of today's entrant into the compendium does not qualify for membership because it deals with the main character, going after nasty but non-espionage-ish bad guys. Still a fascinating story and well worth reading but not spy-fi. The second and third adventures, however, richly penned by Richard Paolinelli, absolutely qualify him for a position here and so, please welcome this dedicated FBI agent to the group. I was especially impressed with the times that Del Rio spent on the Navaho Reservation - I learned a lot.
- 01/16/2025 - There is one constant sequence to the Eurospy series about shown on movie screens all over the world starting in 1965 - that is "Love a lady, fight a goon, rinse and repeat". Malloy, Agent 077, is always doing one or the other, it seems in the three - possibly four movies starring Ken Clark.
- 01/15/2025 - We (and by that I mean 'me' and hopefully 'you') welcome to the compendium , two agents of the British Nobility, as I put it in my page devoted to this three-book series by Steven Veerapen. The Coles are active in their clandestine work in the second half of the 1560s. I postulate in My Comments that Jack Cole does not like his profession - he certainly does not like having to do some of the things he is forced to do. Amy, on the other hand, loves danger and adventure and intrigue. This makes for some very interesting conversations in a series that I quite enjoyed.
- 01/14/2025 - I named today's two-book series by Barry Broad from 2008-2012 the series. Hannah and Ivana, if I can get a bit more personal, are operatives, the former for Mossad and the latter for the CIA. They are not partners in any real official sense but they will find they both have need of the other to solve a couple of very interesting, exciting, and quite deadly problems. The two books are worth reading. Also intriguing to me is the choice of the title of the first book, written by one chap named Barry, which was the name of a protest song in 1965 by another chap named Barry.
- 01/13/2025 - I am traveling back to 1955 for a very short, silly, two-adventure comicbook series produced by Dell comics by writer/artist Marv Levy. is the name of the operative though he is found in the pages of Winky Dink comics. Winky Dink was a CBS television show for young (and I mean very young) kids and the comicbooks were put out to extend the merchandising of that brand. Had he been released a decade later, the idea of Winky Dink going up against a spy would have seemed normal, considering the Bond craze and that of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. This being 1955, though, having a spy such as Elmo as the antagonist was unique enough to warrant my interest.
- 01/12/2025 - The official name for this series is Shenandoah Shadows but I list these nine highly entertaining novellas under the label of after the two main characters, Olivia Santos and Trent Mann, even though there are several others who are also key participants. The tales are crafted superbly by Melissa F. Miller. I enjoyed the shorter size as well as the terrific writing.
- 01/11/2025 - Taking a page from over-the-top adventure thrillers, especially serials from a couple of decades before with their exciting cliff-hangers, and throwing it all into the immensely popular at the time spy genre, we have an unusual series about Larry, . Insanely crafted and drawn by the exceptional talents of Leo Baxendale, these started out with the unusual style of just showing us a cliff-hanger situation with no explanation as to what led up to Larry being in that each particular OMG moment, and then asking us to figure out a way to survive. Quite unusual!
- 01/10/2025 - When you read one of the four books and one short story about part-time CIA agent , penned by John Pearce, do not pay much attention to Grant's insistence that he does not like adventure. I mean, he does not come out say it exactly like that but that is what he means. But don't believe it. I have read these tales and the man ... he has to love adventure because he certainly gets involved in a lot of them.
- 01/09/2025 - "If I were of that age group, I would have been scrounging for any money I could get to buy the next installment." That is part of My Comments for , a four-adventure series by Peter Lerangis meant for young readers 9-12 years old or grades 4-6. There is not just one Spy X, though. There are two, Evie and Andrew Wall, siblings who band together when trouble comes and bicker like, well, siblings, otherwise. Enjoyable.
- 01/08/2025 - Entering the compendium is a "delightful two-book series [set] during the Napoleonic period". is the name of the series written by Anna Elliott and from that it is plain to see that Susanna is not a spy. She is a governess but she does meet up with and starts to assist a spy. I found "the writing style is very smooth and easy and before you know it, you have reached the end of the first adventure and are ready for more."
More
What's New!
SPY FICTION!
Say the word SPY to most people and they will respond with James Bond,
with good reason as he is the best known of all fictional spies. With 20+ blockbuster movies over the last 40+ years,
along with the standard movie hype, virtually the entire world knows about 007 and his License To Kill.
Of course, James Bond is by no means the only spy in the world of fiction, just the best known. Who are the rest?
Who has his or her own license to kill, thrill, or chill. How do these agents stack up against each other? Who would
you want beside you in a car chase, in a knife fight, in a dark alley, or beneath the covers?
This site is dedicated to the many, many men and women who, at least in fiction, have defended our freedoms against all forms of enemies, foreign and domestic. Well, granted a few of them were just in it for the money and many were only after the excitement, and sex played a huge role in the motivation of more than a few. But still, their actions helped not only preserve our way of life (on paper) but also brought us, the readers, many hours of escapism and vicarious pleasure.
So, who are these people that I have slaved so diligently to present to you? They are the men and women of spy-fi about whom there is a series. Single-book characters need not apply. There has to be at least two books. Two's the minimum but the more the merrier.
Moreover, I have confined membership to the English language. If it wasn't put into English so I can read it, I haven't worried about it.
Each spy has his or her own page. Click on the "Characters" button to go to a listing page. Click on the letter the
character's last name starts with (or a more common moniker like "Death Merchant" if appropriate). That will take one
step further into the labrynth. Finally, select the character's name from the list and, voila!
Have fun!!