Bookworms and fans of detectives, private investigators, and spy novels often have a hard time putting a book down and doing anything else aside from reading. They would pour through pages and pages of the book, sometimes forgetting to eat and even regularly breathing in between! That’s how engaging and enthralling detectives or spy novels are! There’s that breathtaking thrill of the chase, the stimulating, mind-boggling mystery problem-solving task, and the excitement of the guessing game of who’s who, who is the suspect, and is the victim is what they claimed to be; these are the makeup of an effectively written spy novel.
Author Brian Clements’s book Anthology of Short Stories and Poems II exemplifies what a good detective novel should be like. The book follows the story of Private Detective Jack Donavon as he continues the search for his attacker that caused him to lose his hearing. The book also contains a collection of suspense short stories, love stories, and poetry, the trademark of what anthology books are.
With writers coming out of the woodwork and making names for themselves in the mystery and suspense genre of detectives and spies, bookworms will undoubtedly have a fun time sifting and getting lost in an endless list of book choices!
Top 5 All-Time Bestselling Spy Mysteries
The characteristic of a good spy novel is that it can transport its readers to a different place and time. They enable their readers to take on the hat and be in the shoes of the protagonists or antagonists. They make their readers be in the exact scene when there’s a hot pursuit going on. They engross the readers so much that the readers become so invested in solving a mystery case. Writing spy novels and detective stories is such a tall order!
Writing these mysteries and suspense-led fiction is challenging, and those who were able to survive the grueling hours of pounding away on the keyboard while ensuring that the light bulb of a brilliant idea doesn’t go off. Those who made it through the long days and nights and came out with a good story then face the challenge of making it to the top of the coveted bestseller’s list. Because those authors whose names are among the top slot will reap the rewards of a wide range of readership, not to mention higher royalty revenues!
Now, let’s pay homage to some of the industry’s top-notch, bestselling spy, detective, or mystery novels of all time.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
This classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle crime novel is the third of a four-part novel featuring the world-renowned fictitious detective that puts detectives and their work on a high pedestal – Sherlock Holmes. This book set the bar high up for mystery and suspense writers, with the book series gaining momentum by being adapted screenplays for theaters, films, and TV series.
Murder on the Orient Express
Who could forget the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot? English author Agatha Christie wrote this classic, bestselling masterpiece, inspired by the 1932 event, the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son. The book gained traction as it was also adapted into theater plays, films, and TV and translated into several languages.
The Silence of the Lambs
This psychological horror novel by Thomas Harris changed the way audience perceived detective novels. This time around, it’s not just all about the protagonist. The novel’s antagonist character, serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, shows that there is more to criminals than meets the eye. The book’s film adaptation further enhanced this through an electrifying performance by none other than famous Hollywood actor Anthony Hopkins.
Red Sparrow
Stemming from the ingenious, creative mind of author Jason Matthews, Red Sparrow touches on the life of espionage, Russian espionage training school, the Sparrow School, and the life being a double agent. An impressive masterpiece of modern-day spy suspense and mystery literature, the book’s popularity is based on the fact that the author successfully created characters so raw and rich that it almost seemed that the book was written based on real-life characters! Combined with Matthews’s accurate depictions of surveillance and countersurveillance techniques, the book earned its place among worldwide bestseller’s hits!
The Da Vinci Code
Then comes Dan Brown’s 2003 mystery thriller novel, The Da Vinci Code. The book gave massive success worldwide, selling 80 million copies and counting, and has since then been translated into over 44 languages. This time, the mystery revolved around and was solved by an unlikely character for a protagonist – a symbologist.
The book follows the story of symbologist Robert Langdon as he goes head-on to solve a mystery case involving the murder of a fictional Louvre Museum director. Although a detective or a spy does not lead this book, book lovers note the critical thinking skills of the book’s protagonist by far surpassing those of the detectives in the novel. Dan Brown gained fame following his thought-provoking theme, touching on the Holy Grail legend and the history of Christianity.
Author Brian Clements is well on his way to becoming part of a well-known, well-loved part of literary history, a legend in the making for detective stories. Grab a copy of Anthology of Short Stories and Poems II on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or visit the author’s website at www.blclements.com/order.