Spy Masters Books in Order

The Spy Masters novels follow British intelligence officer Major Edgar through the later years of the Second World War and into the Cold War, often paired with or pitted against his Soviet counterpart, Viktor Krasotkin. Together they give a panoramic view of how the alliance against Nazi Germany slowly curdles into a new, more complicated rivalry.

The series opens with The Best of Our Spies, built around the intricate deception plans that helped shield the D-Day landings. In northern France, Special Operations Executive agent Nathalie Mercier works with the Resistance in the Pas de Calais until she disappears on the eve of the invasion. Her husband, Royal Navy intelligence officer Owen Quinn, discovers how deeply she is embedded in the Allies’ efforts to convince the Germans that the real invasion will come elsewhere, and his search for her forces him to weigh personal loyalty against the wider war.

In The Swiss Spy the focus shifts to Henry Hunter, a man with more than his share of secrets. Stopped by British intelligence at Croydon Airport just before war breaks out, he is drawn into undercover work based in neutral Switzerland. From there he makes repeated, increasingly risky trips into Nazi Germany against the backdrop of Hitler’s plans to invade the Soviet Union, juggling false identities and rival bosses while trying to outrun a dark episode from his past.

Vienna Spies moves the timeline forward to the closing months of the war as the great powers start carving up what will come after. Major Edgar sends two agents, Rolf Eder and Katharina Hoch, into a devastated Vienna to track down a respected Austrian politician before the Soviets can claim him. Viktor Krasotkin is already in the city with exactly the same goal, and the ruined streets become the board for a quiet struggle over Austria’s future.

In The Berlin Spies the story stretches further, beginning in 1945 with a last-ditch Nazi scheme to seed a future Fourth Reich and then jumping three decades to a divided Berlin. A young British diplomat in East Berlin is compromised in a honey-trap and reaches out to Edgar for help, dragging the older spymaster back into a world thick with ex-Nazis, war criminals and professional double agents. To untangle the mess he must strike a wary alliance with his old adversary Viktor, knowing that their interests may only overlap for so long.

Taken together, the books trade in atmosphere as much as action, lingering on bomb-damaged cities, shabby safe flats and smoky briefing rooms where uneasy allies circle one another. They show how quickly yesterday’s comrades can become tomorrow’s opponents, and how people like Edgar and Viktor learn to live with the knowledge that every friendship might also be an operation in disguise.