Big thank you to Cyndy for sending this rather difficult request in.
I have a Rec League request! I recently watched the 2015 remake of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (which is, essentially, perfect) and it’s lit a fire in me for other tension filled spy romances. Specifically, Cold War era ones! Any suggestions?
Amanda: There are quite a bit of spy romances, but we wanted to try and find some Cold War era ones to really narrow it down.
It nearly stumped us.
Shana: I’m stumped but curious to hear other people’s suggestions!
Claudia: Stumped as well — I can think of spy romance, and CW romance, but not combined…
Amanda: RIGHT?!
Claudia: Definitely an untapped market!
Susan: Ooh, maybe Dusk in Kalevia?
Claudia: I think it’s harder to write historical romance set in the somewhat near past? You don’t see it as much.
Susan: Let me check when it’s actually set though.
1960s, so I think it does technically count as a queer fantasy Cold War-era romance?
Claudia: I’d say yes, def anything before 1989 if we wanted to stretch it!
Susan: …I keep forgetting that it technically went on that late.
Claudia: The good spy stuff though def 50s/60s, hahaha.
This reminds me that I keep meaning to go back and finish The Americans.
Maya: American Spy by Lauren Wilkerson is Cold War era and there’s a romance, but I haven’t gotten into it yet. It’s all locked and loaded on my Audible account because the narrator is the totally amazing Bahni Turpin who did The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. I’m probably gonna save it for my cross-country move!
Aarya: Would the Fly Me to the Moon ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) series by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner count? It’s a fictionalized version of the 1960s space race, albeit less Russians. While it’s not spying and more about the Americans, I would argue that the space race is a crucial aspect of the Cold War and the rivalry with the Russians. Also, I have seen the authors discuss the next book on social media and I believe that there is going to be a Russian heroine (don’t quote me on this!).
Claudia: I thought about this series but I am not sure it qualifies since there’s no active spying on page. It definitely fits the Cold War aspect of the request, though.
Aarya: I can think of several other romances set in the time frame (e.g., Let It Shine by Alyssa Cole) but the Cold War link is even less than the Fly Me to the Moon books. This is hard!
Catherine: Can’t help with this one, I’m afraid. It’s an interesting idea, though. Given how popular spy romances are in the regency, you’d think the potential would be there.
Shana: Ok, this just popped into my head: Kiss the Girls and Make Them Spy by Mabel Maney, and the sequel, The Girl with the Golden Bouffant ( A | BN ). F/F spy rom coms starring James Bond’s sister Jane. I remember loving these and they’re set in the 60s.
I can’t remember if Russians are actually involved in the Jane Bond books but they definitely have an over the top Cold War flavor.
My subconscious has been working on this ALL day.
Claudia: Our HONOR was on the line and you and Susan saved us from coming up totally empty.
What do you think about Cold War era spy romances? Do we need some? Can you think of any?
Many by Helen MacInnes
No recs, but The Man from UNCLE is amazing and everyone needs to watch it!
Patricia Wentworth?
My favorite cold war adventure series is the Mrs. Pollifax novels by Dorothy Gilman – where a woman ‘of a certain age’ is bored with her garden club and decides to volunteer as a CIA spy. I want to be Mrs. Pollifax when I grow up! (the movie with Angela Landsbury didn’t do her justice).
These may be post cold war instead of cold war romances:
UNDERCOVER MAN by Merline Lovelace (Spies! In Cannes!)
DANGEROUS SECRETS by Lisa Marie Rice
Evelyn Anthony did a number of good ones that I read as a teen. Recently re-read The Doll’s House. Total Cold War, total spy, very romantic to my teen heart and did hold up. Her Davina Graham series, not so much romance but definitely cold war spy and love interest.
I know there were more because I started reading them when I was eight, in the 50’s. Oh, Helen MacInnes. Spies and beautiful women. She also wrote Friends and Lovers, which is not spy at all, just two young people who want to marry and can’t so they decide to live together. In the 50s. Well worth the read.
Beside Helen MacInnes (such good stuff, especially The Venetian Affair), my keeper shelf holds Anne Armstrong Thompson (Message From Absolom), Catherine Gaskin (The File on Devlin)and several of the Evelyn Anthony books.
Basically, you have to go back to books written in the 1950s-1970s to get this trope.
I seem to remember that a couple of Mary Stewart novels (published in the 60s) have CW subplots – Airs Above the Ground (set in Vienna, a hotbed of international intrigue!) and This Rough Magic (set in Corfu but referencing “closed” Albania).
The Spy at the Villa Miranda, by Elsie Lee? I think she had others that involved espionage or international crime, but that’s the only one I’m sure of. Published in the 1960s and reprinted a couple of times.
Echoing the votes for Helen MacInnes; my mom is a great romance fan and has a cherished collection of MacInnes novels I was allowed to read in high school (Assignment in Brittany and The Salzburg Connection were favorites.)
I’d also rec John Le Carré’s The Russia House (not, of course, in the genre of romance in a traditional sense, but I love the romance in it.)
Lydia Perovic’s Incidental Music is a poignant (and steamy) f/f romance with several pairings/narratives, one of which occurs in 1950s Hungary, and all of which are affected by Cold War histories.
Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Identity? It’s a lot different than the Matt Damon movies. Ludlum’s prose leaves something to be desired, and the world is so different now, I’m not sure how well his novels have aged, but the plots were exciting.
If you don’t mind going back further in time, Alan Furst writes very atmospheric historical espionage leading up to and during WWII, which can maybe serve as good prologue to the cold war. Several of them have romance.
If you’re in the mood for a fun cold war movie, I recommend Gotcha! It has cheesy moments, but is entertaining and not too dark.
If you want a dash of sci-fi in with your Cold War, Lindsay Smith has “Sekret” and “Skandal”, Russian teens with psychic powers forced to work for/with the government.
Seconding Mary Stewart, Aires Above the Ground and This Rough Magic, but also The Gabriel Hounds, set in 1960’s Lebanon & Syria, and while not a spy novel definitely portrays the post WWII British relationship with pre-war (mid1970’s-1980’s) Lebanon. Madam Will You Talk is set in the 50’s and has some plot elements that grew from incidents in WWII. While not specifically spy romances, all of Mary Stewart’s “modern” novels are usually European in scope and set in the 50’s-70’s (maybe a few in the 80’s) and as such have a Cold War mindset and outlook that feels remarkably different to readers who were not alive in that period. Also, no one writes landscapes like Mary Stewart. She is the reason I grew up wanting to travel and thankfully I have been able to!
I was going to mention Mary Stewart, but Rachel K beat me to it. Not romance, but there’s always Ian Fleming and the Original James Bond. Alistair McLean also wrote a number of CW era thrillers, some with a romance for the hero. And I’ve always been fond of Keith Laumer’s Retief books. Again, not romance but a SF parody of Cold War politics with aliens.
Not totally on topic here, but is there soenwhere to ask for a rec for books with a hero with specific character traits? I’m somewhat desperate for a romance novel with a hero who is sarcastic and self-deprecating and semi-villainous (at first) and has to work through all that.
(Just watched a movie with a character like that and now I want all the stories.)
@ Sarah McG– I’d love to know which movie you’re referring to. I love characters with those traits. I think the hero in Venetia by Georgette Heyer fits that description pretty well.
@Cristie – I’m almost embarrassed to admit the movie. It was Adam Brody’s character in Ready or Not, which was definitely NOT a romance. But I can’t stop thinking about how much I’d love that character in a different setting. (Jaded, sarcastic, villain because of upbringing, self-loathing because of the villainy, but wanting to be good.) it just WORKED for me.
@Sara McG: I so enjoyed that movie!
@Amanda – yes.
If I remembered how to spoiler tag I would say more.
Yes to Mrs. Pollifax! Also, The Toast has this old article (the comments are even worth reading!):
Welp, that link didn’t work: http://the-toast.net/2016/06/14/from-the-desk-of-the-director-cold-war-reenactment-society/
The Spy Who Loved Me, by Ian Fleming, of course – though not a romance, really.
Lots of spoilers on Wiki page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spy_Who_Loved_Me_(novel)
Has anyone read Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise series? It started as a comic strip, but then the author did novels based on the character. The main character is a female James Bond type, and the books were written in the 60s-80s, so I’m assuming they take place during the cold war era. Peter O’Donnell also wrote historical romances as Madeleine Brent. I’ve read some of the old Madeleine Brent books, but haven’t tried the Blaise series. Looks like it could potentially be fun.
Cat Sebastian’s recent Hither, Page is a Cold War m/m romance mystery with one fragile small-town doctor hero and one cold-blooded spy hero. Plus murder. And scarves. It is an absolute delight!
I’d just like to remind people that the Soviet Union was made up of MANY nationalities and ethnic groups, many of whom suffered genocide or ethnic cleansing courtesy of Moscow, and most of whom are offended by being called “Russian”.
Child 44 by Tom Rob Ford. Be warned, it’s a *very* dark book (a child serial killer operating with impunity because ‘murder doesn’t happen in the Soviet Union’). The main characters are a spy hunter for KGB and his schoolteacher wife – she, unbeknownst to him, doesn’t love him and only married him because she was terrified of what would happen to her if she turned down one of the Kremlin’s top officers.
It’s much more a suspense-thriller than a romance, but it’s their relationship that I still think about whenever I see the book on my shelf (I got it from the library and bought the hardcover before I’d even finished it).
(BTW, there’s a movie with Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, and Gary Oldman, but it isn’t nearly as good as the book. I still liked it, but then my brain was filling in all the missing/altered scenes as I watched it. :D)