“What are the best books for fans of James Bond?” We looked at 276 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 24 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best For Fans Of James Bond” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 200+ books, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

You can also take a look at our Best Spy & Espionage book list for some additional titles.

Happy Scrolling!

Top 24 Books Similar To James Bond

24 .) A Clean Kill in Tokyo by Barry Eisler

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Huffington Post

Previously published as Rain Fall Name John Rain Vocation Assassin Specialty Natural Causes Base of operations Tokyo Availability Worldwide Half American half Japanese expert in both worlds but at home in neither John Rain is the best killer money can buy You tell him who You tell him where He doesn t care about why Until he gets involved with Midori Kawamura a beautiful jazz pianist and the daughter of his latest kill Eisler provides a cracklingly good yarn well written deftly plotted and surprisingly appealing

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23 .) Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene

Lists It Appears On:

• Culture trip
• Goodreads

MI6’s man in Havana is Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true…

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22 .) Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Huffington Post

“He was one the best Marine snipers in Vietnam. Today, twenty years later, disgruntled hero of an unheroic war, all Bob Lee Swagger wants to be left alone and to leave the killing behind.

But with consummate psychological skill, a shadowy military organization seduces Bob into leaving his beloved Arkansas hills for one last mission for his country, unaware until too late that the game is rigged.

The assassination plot is executed to perfection—until Bob Lee Swagger, alleged lone gunman, comes out of the operation alive, the target of a nationwide manhunt, his only allies a woman he just met and a discredited FBI agent.
“

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21 .) Solo by William Boyd

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Riot
• About Great Books

just having celebrated his 45th birthday. British agent James Bond – 007 – is summoned to headquarters to receive an unusual mission Zanzarim.. a troubled West African nation. is being wracked by a bitter civil war. and M directs Bond to squash the rebel forces threatening the established regime. Bond senses that he’s not getting the full story about Britain’s interest in the outcome.His landing in Zanzarim begins a feverish mission to discover the forces behind this brutal war – and Bond realizes the situation is far from straightforward The beautiful and brilliant Ellie Ogilvy-Grant.

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20 .) The Camel Club (Camel Club, #1) by David Baldacci

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Goodreads

David Baldacci takes readers inside the nation’s most elite power club and shows how far its members will go to protect their darkest secrets.

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19 .) The Ipcress File (Secret File, #1) by Len Deighton

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Goodreads

When a number of scientists mysteriously disappear in Berlin, a seemingly straightforward case rapidly becomes a journey to the heart of a deadly conspiracy–a conspiracy that will test Deighton’s working-class hero to the limits of his ingenuity and resolve. To come out alive, he’ll have to prove himself a spy at the very top of his game.

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18 .) The Kill Artist (Gabriel Allon, #1) by Daniel Silva

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Goodreads

“Immersed in the quiet, meticulous life of an art restorer, former Israeli intelligence operative Gabriel Allon keeps his past well behind him. But now he is being called back into the game—and teamed with an agent who hides behind her own mask…as a beautiful fashion model.

Their target: a cunning terrorist on one last killing spree, a Palestinian zealot who played a dark part in Gabriel’s past. And what begins as a manhunt turns into a globe-spanning duel fueled by both political intrigue and deep personal passions…”

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17 .) The Mark of the Assassin by Daniel Silva

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Huffington Post

“When a commercial airliner is blown out of the sky off the east coast, the CIA scrambles to find the perpetrators. A body is discovered near the crash site with three bullets to the face: the calling card of a shadowy international assassin. Only agent Michael Osbourne has seen the markings before—on a woman he once loved.

Now, it’s personal for Osbourne. Consumed by his dark obsession with the assassin, he’s willing to risk his family, his career, and his life—to settle a score…”

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16 .) The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Huffington Post

An international circle of killers, the Matarese will undoubtedly take over the world within just two years. Only two rival spies have the power to stop them: Scofield, CIA, and Talaniekov, KGB. They share a genius for espionage and a life of explosive terror and violence. But though these sworn enemies once vowed to terminate each other, they must now become allies. Because only they possess the brutal skills and ice-cold nerves vital to their mission: destroy the Matarese.

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15 .) The Moneypenny Diaries by Kate Westbrook

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Reader’s Advice

“My heart breaks for James—so begin the explosive, true, private diaries of Miss Jane Moneypenny, personal secretary to Secret Service chief M and colleague and confidante of James Bond. Bound by the Offcial Secrets Act not to reveal anything about her work, Miss Moneypenny is forced to lead a secretive, clandestine life. But, contrary to popular belief, she was not simply a bystander while James Bond saw all the action.

Miss Moneypenny’s experience with mystery stretches all the way back to her childhood in Africa, when her father inexplicably disappeared in action during World War II. Now, as a young woman in 1960s London, Miss Moneypenny unknowingly stumbles upon her father’s trail. In a position like hers, there’s no file she can’t access, and no document she can’t read. Yet Miss Moneypenny is forced to decide whether it’s worth risking everything—her job, her safety, and even international security—for the possibility of finding her father alive.”

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14 .) The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

Lists It Appears On:

• Culture trip
• Goodreads

In a corrupt London underworld of criminals, terrorists, and fanatics, Mr. Verloc is assigned to plant a bomb. The tragic repercussions for his family show how Conrad’s ironic voice is concerned not with politics but with the terrible fates of ordinary people.

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13 .) American Assassin by Vince Flynn

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Huffington Post
• Goodreads

“Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world…and then tragedy struck. Terrorists attacked innocent American citizens, and Rapp’s girlfriend was among the murdered. Two hundred and seventy souls perished on that cold December night, and thousands of family and friends were left searching for comfort. Mitch Rapp was one of them, but he was not interested in comfort. Now he wants retribution.

Two decades of cutthroat partisan politics have left the CIA and the country in an increasingly vulnerable position. Cold War veteran CIA Operations Director Thomas Stansfield knows he must prepare his people for the next war. America must confront Islamic terrorism with full force. Stansfield directs his protégée, Irene Kennedy, and his old Cold War colleague, Stan Hurley, to form a new group of clandestine operatives who will work outside the normal chain of command—men who do not exist.”

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12 .) Berlin Game (Bernard Samson, #1) by Len Deighton

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Culture trip
• Goodreads

When a valuable agent behind the Iron Curtain signals he wants out, it’s up to Bernard Samson, once active in the field but now anchored to a London desk, to undertake the crucial rescue. But soon, Samson is confronted with evidence that there is a traitor among his colleagues. And to find out who it is, he must sift through layers of lies and follow a web of treachery from London to Berlin until hero and traitor collide.

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11 .) Death of a Citizen by Donald Hamilton

Lists It Appears On:

• Huffington Post
• Culture trip
• About Great Books

Matt Helm, one-time special agent for the American government during the Second World War, has left behind his violent past to raise a family in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When a former colleague turns rogue and kidnaps his daughter, Helm is forced to return to his former life as a deadly and relentless assassin.

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10 .) Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Culture trip
• Goodreads

“His code name was “The Needle.” He was a German aristocrat of extraordinary intelligence—a master spy with a legacy of violence in his blood, and the object of the most desperate manhunt in history. . . .

But his fate lay in the hands of a young and vulnerable English woman, whose loyalty, if swayed, would assure his freedom—and win the war for the Nazis. . . . “

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9 .) Hawke by Ted Bell

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Reader’s Advice
• Huffington Post

“While sailing in the Caribbean, young Alex Hawke witnesses an act of unspeakable horror as modern-day pirates brutally murder his parents. It is a tragedy that will haunt him forever, and shape his destiny….
As a direct descendant of a legendary English privateer, Lord Alexander Hawke is skilled in the ways of sea combat — and one of England’s most decorated naval heroes. Now, Hawke returns to the Caribbean on a secret mission for the American government. A highly experimental stealth submarine is missing. She carries forty nuclear warheads, and is believed to be in the hands of an unstable government just ninety miles from the American mainland. In a race against time, Hawke must locate the sub before a strike can be launched against the U.S. — and, after a lifetime of nightmares, finally avenge himself upon the men who slaughtered his family…. “

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8 .) Killing Floor by Lee Child

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Huffington Post
• Goodreads

Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone. Not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.

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7 .) Modesty Blaise by Peter O’Donnell

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Reader’s Advice
• Huffington Post

In her first adventure for British Intelligence Modesty Blaise with her loyal lieutenant, Willie Garvin, must foil a multi-million pound diamond heist. They travel from London to the South of France, across the Mediterranean to Cairo before battling, against impossible odds, a private army of professional killers.

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6 .) The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Culture trip
• Goodreads

“The Jackal. A tall, blond Englishman with opaque, gray eyes. A killer at the top of his profession. A man unknown to any secret service in the world. An assassin with a contract to kill the world’s most heavily guarded man.

One man with a rifle who can change the course of history. One man whose mission is so secretive not even his employers know his name. And as the minutes count down to the final act of execution, it seems that there is no power on earth that can stop the Jackal.”

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5 .) The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Huffington Post
• Goodreads

“Somewhere under the freezing Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. The chase for the highly advanced nuclear submarine is on—and there’s only one man who can find her…

Brilliant CIA analyst Jack Ryan has little interest in fieldwork, but when covert photographs of Red October land on his desk, Ryan soon finds himself in the middle of a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek played by two world powers—a game that could end in all-out war.”

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4 .) The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers

Lists It Appears On:

• Culture trip
• About Great Books
• Goodreads

“Regarded as one of the best spy stories ever written, this is the classic Secret Service novel. More like fact than fiction, it holds a special place in the affections of spy-novel fans for its richness of technical detail about inshore sailing, its highly sympathetic characters, an unsurpassed narrative style, and a setting and plot that recapture the European political scene on the eve of World War I.
Two young Englishmen, Davies and Carruthers, head for the Baltic Sea in the late 1890s for a holiday of sailing and duck-shooting. The mood gradually darkens as Davies discloses his suspicions of espionage in the North Frisian Islands, and Carruthers joins in an investigation that develops into a series of increasingly dangerous intrigues. Norman Donaldson, an expert on detective and suspense fiction, offers an Introduction with details about the author as well as the novel’s background and its place in the history of the spy-novel genre.”

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3 .) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John LeCarre

Lists It Appears On:

• About Great Books
• Culture trip
• Goodreads

In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse—a desk job—Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. Assuming the guise of an embittered and dissolute ex-agent, Leamas is set up to trap Mundt, the deputy director of the East German Intelligence Service—with himself as the bait. In the background is George Smiley, ready to make the game play out just as Control wants.

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2 .) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

Lists It Appears On:

• Culture trip
• About Great Books
• Goodreads

The man he knew as “Control” is dead, and the young Turks who forced him out now run the Circus. But George Smiley isn’t quite ready for retirement—especially when a pretty, would-be defector surfaces with a shocking accusation: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence. Relying only on his wits and a small, loyal cadre, Smiley recognizes the hand of Karla—his Moscow Centre nemesis—and sets a trap to catch the traitor.

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1 .) The Bourne Trilogy (Jason Bourne, #1-3) by Robert Ludlum

Lists It Appears On:

• Culture trip
• About Great Books
• Huffington Post
• Goodreads

THE BOURNE IDENTITY: He has no past. And he may have no future. His memory is blank. He only knows that he was fished out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets. There are a few clues: evidence that plastic surgery has altered his face, a Swiss bank account containing four million dollars, and a name: Jason Bourne. But he is marked for death, racing for survival through the layers of his buried past into a world of murderous conspirators – led by the world’s most dangerous assassin, Carlos. And no one can help Bourne but the woman who once wanted to escape him. THE BOURNE SUPREMACY: In a Kowloon Cabaret, scrawled in a pool of blood, is a name the world wanted to forget: Jason Bourne. The Chinese vice-premier has been slain by a legendary assassin. World leaders ask the same fearful questions: Why has Jason Bourne come back? Who is the next to die? But US officials know the truth: there is no Jason Bourne. The name was created as cover for David Webb on his search for the notorious killer Carlos.

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The 250+ Additional Best Books For Fans Of James Bond

6 Best Books Similar To James Bond Sources/Lists