If you loved
Books like Argo
A gripping, stranger-than-fiction thrill ride that proves reality can be far more audacious than any Hollywood script. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Argo.
- tense
- cinematic
- clandestine
- high-stakes
- 01
All the Shah's Men
Stephen Kinzer
A real-life geopolitical thriller that traces the tragic, shadowy roots of modern international conflict through a gripping narrative of espionage and hubris.
- 02
Thirteen days
Robert F. Kennedy · 1969
A claustrophobic, ticking-clock glimpse into the rooms where the world almost ended.
- 03
No Easy Day
Mark Owen and Kevin Maurer
A gripping, boots-on-the-ground plunge into the grueling training and high-stakes reality of elite military operators.
- 04
Charlie Wilson's War
George Crile III
A gripping, behind-closed-doors look at the rogue operatives and political mavericks who secretly funded a war and inadvertently reshaped the modern world.
- 05
By way of deception
Claire Hoy and Victor Ostrovsky · 1990
A tense, unvarnished descent into the shadowy, morally compromised world of elite international espionage.
- 06
The ayatollah begs to differ
Hooman Majd · 2008
A witty, insider's journey through the cultural and political paradoxes of modern Iran.
- 07
Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
Kim Zetter
A gripping, real-life techno-thriller that unspools the terrifying dawn of digital warfare.
- 08
Operation Mincemeat
Ben Macintyre
A stranger-than-fiction espionage thriller where the most important secret agent is already dead.
- 09
The Reluctant Spy
John Kiriakou
A gripping, confessional plunge into the high-stakes, morally murky world of counterterrorism and intelligence gathering.
- 10
Failure is not an option
Gene Kranz
A gripping, sweat-inducing seat inside the control room where brilliant minds chain-smoked their way through impossible crises.
- 11
The Billion Dollar Spy
David Emanuel Hoffman
A meticulously documented descent into the paranoid, high-stakes shadows of Cold War Moscow that reads like a masterclass in suspense.
- 12
The monuments men
Robert M. Edsel
A thrilling, real-life race against time to rescue humanity's greatest cultural treasures from the ashes of war.
