Spy Thrillers set during Cold War

Start by finishing Le Carre's Smiley trilogy by reading Smiley's People. Nice end to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Then if you liked that trilogy, read Len Deighton's Game, Set, Match trilogy. I love this genre. Nelson DeMille's The Charm School. John Le Carre A Perfect Spy. Although not spy novels, Child 44 and Gorky Park are pretty good thrillers set in Soviet Russia.

If you liked Le Carre, you will probably like Deighton. Enjoy

Robert Ludlum was my favorite back in the day. He wrote the Jason Bourne series which is nothing like the movie franchise.

Clive Egleton had some good ones too. I've mainly read his Peter Ashton series, so I'm not that familiar with his other books.

Not exactly spy thrillers, but there are a couple detective series that take place in the Soviet Union during that era that do have some similar elements to spy novels- the Arkady Renko series from Martin Cruz Smith and the Porfiry Restnikov series by Stuart Kaminsky.

I actually watched a documentary on Oleg Gordievsky not too long ago. I'll have to add this one to my list

The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva is fantastic.

Mailer's Harlot's Ghost is riveting. He promised a sequel but never got around to it.

Bond, end thread

LeCarre's The Little Drummer Girl is very good. It's Mossad going after a PLO splinter group in the early '80s, I guess, so it's kind of Cold War-y.

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Child 44 and Gorky Park are pretty good thrillers set in Soviet Russia.

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I love the entire Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park, etc). It's not a spy thriller, but is very dark, almost comedic, about life in Russia from the viewpoint of an idealist. There is a recent one involving Ukraine that will probably be the last in the series.