Spy fiction

Spy fiction is "a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device"; it emerged "in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers". Erskine Childers's The Riddle of the Sands (1903) defined the term "spy novel"; Buchan, Maugham and Conrad built the form, and the Cold War gave the genre its canon, with Berlin as its espionage capital. The canon splits by register: Fleming's Bond, "more of an assassin than a spy", against le Carré's anti-heroic protagonists, who "struggled with the ethical issues involved in espionage" in "a morally grey world" where "lies, paranoia and betrayal are the norm for both sides".

For the writer it is information control at state scale: cover identities, tradecraft and who knows what must be tracked like fair-play mystery clueing, under the moral weather of noir. Its action edge feeds the techno-thriller; see how to write thrillers and how to write mysteries.