Steele Curry alerted me to the website Spybrary and this excellent post. If you are a fan of spy fiction then this is a must read for you — The Top 125 Spy Authors Ranked! Tim’s Shipman’s commentary on each author is so well done that I can see this becoming a seminal reference book on the subject some time in the future.

Caveat: No one who is well-read in spy fiction will totally agree with Tim Shipman’s rankings, but his rankings are probably just as good, if not better, than any other expert in the field. He has hit all the major (and some minor) players and with 125 slots, that would be hard not to do so.

I was glad to see some of my favorites and recent reads make the top 30. Starting with Mick Herron at number 8, then going on to my all-time favorite spy novelist Brian Freemantle at number 12. Then follow four that I have really liked and/or recently read: Paul Vidich (22), Henry Porter (24), Charles Cumming (25), and Greg Rucka (29). I thought that Joseph Kanon (who is a good writer) was ranked way too high at number 3. I had no quibbles with John le Carre’ and Len Deighton being ranked 1 and 2, even though I personally am not a big fan of le Carre’. His stature is too great to ignore.