What's New
The last ten major changes to the site.
- 12/04/2021 - 2000 !!. That is a lot of series. I have known what some time that this incredible number would be reached and I have pondered what series I would want to add here to mark such a milestone. I have chosen one that I have been enjoying for some time and I hope that those of you who are kind enough to read these words will give a go with it. is a German spy during WWII and after. Her father is a close friend of Adolf Hitler and she is close to Eva Braun. She is a proud member of the Nazi Party, up until she learns the truth of the horrific camps and then isn't ever again. Life will cause her to become a reluctant agent for the OSS and later the CIA and along the way she will slowly build a cadre of support characters interesting enough to go out on their own but they stick with her. Twenty books there are so far in this series. The books are not perfect. Tastes vary so others will not take to her like I did. But I gave this series an A+ rating and, IMHO, she deserves this special attention.
- 12/02/2021 - Jumping back to 1980 today will have this compendium seeing the addition of a short television spy series from our cousins to the North. The CBC network presented 8 episodes about a retired Canadian agent and his former girl friend, a retired British operative, being pulled back from retirement to help Canadian Intelligence with a few things. The pair was known as , not to be confused with Mack Bolan's pals in the Phoenix Force or MacGyver's employer, the Phoenix Foundation.
- 12/01/2021 - Beginning in 1974 and producing an exciting, death-defying adventure every week for the next 12 years, amounting to over 600 missions, , Codename: Warlord provided entertainment in a magazine of the same name, Warlord. I mention in my write-up how impressed I was considering it would have normally taken a week for Flint and his boss to a) decide a mission was needed, b) plan the mission, c) get into enemy territory, d) perform the assignment, and e) get home again. All in a war that lasted, for the Brits, from 1939 to 1945, 6 years. Like I indicated - impressive!
- 11/30/2021 - As November ends, I present a sorta 2-book, sorta 5-book series from back in the 1930s. was a major support character in two of the Benbow Smith spy adventures before getting his own two stories. Then he would have his last appearance in the third Inspector Ernest Lamb mysteries. So if you see a listing of author Patricia Wentworth's works, you will likely see only 2 books listed for Garrett while in fact he is important in 5 altogether.
- 11/28/2021 - I am heading back to 1950 and radio-land for this apparently entertaining series about a foreign correspondent who is asked join the American Intelligence community as a counter-espionage agent who travels the globe. I say apparently because I have only been able to listen to one of the many episodes but I do hope to be able to afford more in the future. is one of the spellings for this series - read my write-up to understand what I mean. I was particularly amused by the fact that since this was one of the first instances of a spy using a reporter cover, albeit an authentic one in this case, the creator/writer caught some heat from both real reporters and real spies.
- 11/26/2021 - Let us slide back in time to just a few years shy of a half century and a series that was on the air while I was out-of-country so I never watched (or knew of it). is actually a crime-fighting group of four teenage boys who love to break into song (some of them actually enjoyable, if you like 70s bubble-gun music which I do). However, some of the things the fellows get involved with make the show fit this compendium.
- 11/25/2021 - Happy Thanksgiving! I write this in the late evening hours after enjoying a terrific meal prepared by my wonderful wife and two grown daughters. I have so much to be thankful for, not the least of which are oodles more series to be presenting in the days ahead, my health and the Good Lord allowing. Cheers!
- 11/24/2021 - A couple days ago I added to the compendium one of author Talbot Mundy's most famous characters. Today I add another one, a fellow who came from Mundy's imagination before Jimgrim and about whom a couple of movies have been made to join the books and novellas that exist. is an agent with the British Secret Service in colonial India largely during and just after WWI.
- 11/22/2021 - We are not going so far back in time today. Just shy of 40 years and a not-so-memorable series called about a female agent, codenamed - duh! - Foxfire, who was asked to put together a small team of females to handle missions for the President. The hook here was that Foxfire had been framed by a fellow agent and spent 4 years in prison so she was not in the best of moods.
- 11/21/2021 - After far too long, I add to the compendium a fellow who should have been a member years ago but for my desire to do a deep dive into the seemingly large number of titles about him. It turns out to be a good number though not so large due to re-titling. Whatever the case the books and stories about James Schuyler Grim, aka , are awesome reads and can take the reader back in time now just over 100 years ago. Through the words penned by Talbot Mundy the life and times of the Near and Middle East come alive, warts and all. Thanks to fellow spy-fan Bob for his push a year ago to add Jimgrim, as well as several other excellent recommendations.
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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!!