Ten titles exploring secret ecosystems & shadow economies

Elizabeth Heider lived in Italy for several years, working as a research analyst for the U.S. Navy. She’s currently a scientist at the European Space Agency, and her short fiction has earned recognition from the Santa Fe Writer Awards and the New Century Writer Awards.

Heider's new novel is May the Wolf Die.

At CrimeReads she tagged ten books if "you’re compelled to peel away the secrecy, to unlock clandestine systems and see what makes them tick." One title on the list:

Smiley’s People by John le Carré

If you want to understand clandestine intelligence operations, the masterful canon of John le Carré is a must-have – your backstage pass into this ethically grey world. John le Carré (David Cornwell) famously launched his career as a writer after working for Britain’s clandestine service, M16. His first book in 1963, The Spy who Came in from the Cold made a splash for its stark depiction of the moral ambiguity of real spy work—a contrast to the glamorous and clearly-defined “us versus them” landscape Ian Fleming created for James Bond. In my opinion, le Carré’s writing evolves and improves over time—its apotheosis manifested in George Smiley, a character who contends for top-place as one of my all-time favorite protagonists. Unlike Bond, George is far from a physical specimen—and there’s nothing of the ladies man in him. Instead, he’s clever, perceptive, compassionate, and has few illusions. He’s also unassuming —a trait that makes for a good spy (“Smiley was the oddest. You thought, to look at him, that he couldn’t cross the road alone, but you might as well have offered protection to a hedgehog.”). I list Smiley’s People as the book to read, but I’m tricking you into reading multiple books here – because you really should read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (and possibly the other Smiley books) first. In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, we learn about the very personal nature of Karla, George’s enemy in the KGB’s Thirteenth Directorate. In Smiley’s People, to beat Karla, George must become him.

Le Carré’s prose is often breathtakingly poignant, because he was a master of both language and human nature. “There are moments that are made up of too much stuff for them to be lived at the time they occur,” he tells us in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. And, in Smiley’s People, he observes, “In the spy trade, we abandon first what we love the most.”

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue