Six top Cold War thrillers

M.L. Huie is a writer, teacher and actor. In addition to working ten years as a features journalist he has written several plays that have been performed throughout the US and in the UK. He is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association, and teaches theatre and acting at the university-level. He is married to a brilliant woman and has two genius kids.

Huie's new novel is Spitfire.

At CrimeReads he tagged six "murky Cold war thrillers by some of the best writers in the genre," including:

Then We Take Berlin, John Lawton

Lawton is probably best known for his Inspector Troy novels, a series of historical mysteries that span the war years and beyond. Old Flames is set in 1956 and sets up Troy as de facto tour guide for Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev’s visit to Great Britain. In Friends and Traitors Troy encounters real-life British spy turned Soviet agent Guy Burgess. Then We take Berlin introduces a new protagonist, Joe Wildeness, an East London-born burglar who is sent to post-war Berlin by MI6. His job is to interrogate former Nazis, but he gets involved in a black-market operation alongside a U.S. soldier and a Russian spy. That can’t end well, can it? The action bounces around from 1941 to post-war Berlin and to 1963 on the eve of President Kennedy’s visit to Berlin. Lawton has penned two more Wilderness novels, The Unfortunate Englishman and Hammer to Fall, which will be released in March.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Then We Take Berlin.

--Marshal Zeringue