Spies in Historical Fiction from 1860 to 1975

A secret spy society working to undermine the Confederacy finds a new recruit when Ady stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn. Ady, raised by her mother on stories of their family’s origins and fierce spirit, is adrift now that they have been separated. Her cleverness and passion make her a perfect addition to The Daughters, a group of women fighting for a future in which they can be free—a future only possible if the Confederacy is defeated. For the first time, Ady is beginning to believe that the future might be possible, too.

All it takes is one name for Eve Gardiner to throw herself back into the life she thought she left behind after the First World War, a life of espionage and secrets. But when Charlie St. Clair, pregnant and sent away to Europe in 1947 to deal with her “little problem,” shows up asking about her missing cousin, Eve is determined to find answers, both for Charlie and herself. Could Rose’s disappearance during the Second World War answer questions about the betrayal that tore Eve’s spy network apart so many years ago?

No one thinks twice about a diminutive older woman like Yvonne Rudellat— not even the men who recruited her to become Britain’s first female saboteur. But for once, her tendency to go unnoticed by those around her is actually an asset. Soon, she’s upended all expectations with her aptitude for explosives. Armed with a new name and fake identification papers, she’s soon ready to set the Nazi regime in France ablaze.

With Nazi occupation looming over Paris, a young journalist who had been enjoying the freedom the city once brought her is mistaken for famous performer Josephine Baker. Whisked backstage, Elodie soon realizes Baker is much more than she seems during her shows. Now involved in the spy network Josephine Baker herself is a part of, Elodie is determined to fight for the country she now calls home.

As a young Black woman working for the FBI, Marie Mitchell is used to being overlooked by the old boy’s club. It’s probably why she agrees to join the task force to undermine the communist-sympathizing regime of Burkina Faso, even though she secretly admires the work of the country’s revolutionary president. She will, in fact, seduce him over the coming years before playing a role in his downfall. But in doing so, she will come to question everything she thought she knew about herself, her country, and the agency she works for.

When CIA cryptographer Luisa Voekler recognizes a symbol from her childhood in a series of letters, she discovers that her father is not dead, but imprisoned in East Germany. With her bosses refusing to help, Luisa flies to West Berlin to take matters into her own hands. But she’s no spy; she’s a code breaker, and without a plan, she has no hope of succeeding. When a friend shows up with contacts and a plan to get her across the wall, Luisa might just be able to save her father, even if the CIA can’t—or won’t.

Torn between worlds and ideologies, a man born to an absent French father and a Vietnamese mother—who went to school in America—returns home to fight in Vietnam. But although he’s working as a captain for the Southern Vietnamese army, he’s secretly relaying information to higher-ups in the community Viet Cong regime. The truth is he sympathizes with both sides, sees horrors inflicted by and upon both sides, and knows it is all Vietnamese people who will lose because of this war in the end.