TCTTS said:

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Awesome, thanks. Will definitely look into this one.

And btw, I only meant "series" in terms of the TV format. It can totally be a single book that can be adapted into multiple episodes.

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"I am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes is an excellent spy thriller.....big story. Flawed protagonist, suspenseful. if you haven't considered, I think it would make an awesome mini-series.

Ken Follett had some good novels in that vein. He also did Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, which were both phenomenal, though not what you're looking for. His century series was good and might lend itself to a limited series. It follows characters and arcs through the 20th century.

ETA It isn't all spying, but several of the characters end up in different intelligence services and political movements. The first novel explores the beginnings of WWI, the war, the aftermath, and the rise of fascism. The second one picks up with many of the same characters and their children and goes through the 30's and WWII to the brings of the cold war. The third does the same with the children of the characters from the second book, but it goes through The end of the cold war. All of them explore the politics of major world events through interaction with leaders, political figures, and intelligence agencies.

It could easily be like The Crown in its scope, but with a wider breadth of characters and more action/suspense with some of what they end up doing

I loved Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, but I could not finish the 3rd one.

Speaking of Follet, has anyone read "Eye of the Needle" yet?

I haven't, but it's on my list

MW03 said:

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I loved Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, but I could not finish the 3rd one.

Speaking of Follet, has anyone read "Eye of the Needle" yet?

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Yea, amazing book but they did make a movie out of it already.

I recommend reaching out to book publishers to see what they have that is 6-9 months out from release from their best seller authors in the genre. Get a net galley login and start reading. Or hire a development assistant to start reading for you.

Max Power said:

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Dekker_Lentz said:

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Alistair MacLean Dark Crusader or The Black Shrike (same book titled twice).

It has the benefit of having a large female lead role.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Crusader

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Is the movie Spy starring Melissa McCarthy based on this novel?

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I don't think so. The book isn't a comedy and I haven't seen the movie.

Dekker_Lentz said:

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Max Power said:

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Dekker_Lentz said:

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Alistair MacLean Dark Crusader or The Black Shrike (same book titled twice).

It has the benefit of having a large female lead role.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Crusader

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Is the movie Spy starring Melissa McCarthy based on this novel?

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I don't think so. The book isn't a comedy and I haven't seen the movie.

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Doesn't mean it isn't. Die Hard was based off of a detective novel, but it ended up being much different in tone

ABATTBQ11 said:

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Dekker_Lentz said:

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Max Power said:

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Dekker_Lentz said:

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Alistair MacLean Dark Crusader or The Black Shrike (same book titled twice).

It has the benefit of having a large female lead role.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Crusader

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Is the movie Spy starring Melissa McCarthy based on this novel?

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I don't think so. The book isn't a comedy and I haven't seen the movie.

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Doesn't mean it isn't. Die Hard was based off of a detective novel, but it ended up being much different in tone

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Everything I can find about the Spy shows it to be an original work by Paul Feig where if a movie is adapted/based off of a book it credited. The plots and premise aren't similar based on what I read, the characters aren't the same, and Feig promoted it as an original work because he couldn't get a James Bond movie done.

It seems the Spy is a general parody/spoof/comedy about spy so it has similarities to a lot of what is mentioned on this thread.

I am inclined to think the two aren't related, I assume you have a reason to believe the way that you do?

Thanks for the continued recommendations, everyone. Very much appreciated.

uujm said:

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I recommend reaching out to book publishers to see what they have that is 6-9 months out from release from their best seller authors in the genre. Get a net galley login and start reading. Or hire a development assistant to start reading for you.

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Yeah, we're doing all that as well, have assistants who can read/filter for us, etc. Figured hitting up TexAgs in addition couldn't hurt.

Less action-y, more explosive-y, a series on the Manhattan project might be fantastic. I don't know how much this would overlap with Nolan's upcoming movie, but there was a lot of cloak and dagger secrecy around setting that up.

You could even frame it early on as a race with the Nazi's and include the raid on Germany's heavy water facility in Norway.

Dekker_Lentz said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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Dekker_Lentz said:

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Max Power said:

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Dekker_Lentz said:

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Alistair MacLean Dark Crusader or The Black Shrike (same book titled twice).

It has the benefit of having a large female lead role.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Crusader

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Is the movie Spy starring Melissa McCarthy based on this novel?

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I don't think so. The book isn't a comedy and I haven't seen the movie.

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Doesn't mean it isn't. Die Hard was based off of a detective novel, but it ended up being much different in tone

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Everything I can find about the Spy shows it to be an original work by Paul Feig where if a movie is adapted/based off of a book it credited. The plots and premise aren't similar based on what I read, the characters aren't the same, and Feig promoted it as an original work because he couldn't get a James Bond movie done.

It seems the Spy is a general parody/spoof/comedy about spy so it has similarities to a lot of what is mentioned on this thread.

I am inclined to think the two aren't related, I assume you have a reason to believe the way that you do?

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No. Just saying that just because two stories have a lot of differences and differing tone doesn't mean one isn't based on the other or didn't borrow from the other.

Probably not quite in your wheelhouse, but you could look at Tower of Secrets, the memoir of a Soviet KGB agent, Victor Sheymov, who defected to the West in the early 1980s. Has a tenuous A&M connection, too, as one of Sheymov's CIA contacts was a dude named Jim Olson, who wound up teaching at A&M for years (I took a class from him).

Outside of a little sketchy gadget science, the aforementioned "I Am Pilgrim" is an excellent read.

Did TC catch a ban?

Kind of a spy series but I really really love the John Rain novels by Barry Eisler.