Join the Espionage Books Discussion Group the 2nd Friday of each month from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. Everyone is welcome, whether you want to join on Zoom (link available on weekly OLLI schedule update emails) or in person. We read and discuss a spy novel, biography, historical fiction, or non-fiction book each month.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Books + Movies 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025
2025
Jan 10 Moscow X
David McCloskey 2023
(Damascus Station #2)
Feb 14 The Kremlin’s Candidate
Jason Matthews 2018
(Red Sparrow #3)
March 14 Cold Victory
Karl Marlantes 2024
April 11 The Peacock and The Sparrow
I.S. Berry 2023
May 9 The Spy Coast
Tess Gerritsen 2023
June 13 Madame Fourcade’s Secret War
Lynne Olson 2019 (Non-F)
July 11 The Paris Diversion
Chris Pavone 2019
Aug 8 The Eye of the Needle
Ken Follett 1977
Sept 12 Real Tigers
Mick Herron 2015
(Slough House #3)
Oct 10 Spook Street
Mick Herron 2017
(Slough House #4)
Nov 14 Winter Work
Dan Fesperman 2022
Dec 12 The Moscow Sleepers
Stella Rimington 2019
(Liz Carlyle #10)
2024
Jan 12 A Coffin for Dimitrios
Eric Ambler 1937
Feb 9 Palace of Treason
Jason Matthews 2015
(Red Sparrow #2)
March 8 Secret Asset
Stella Rimington 2006
(Liz Carlyle #2)
April 12 Damascus Station
David McClosky 2021
May 10 The Matchmaker
Paul Vidich 2022
June 14 Spies
Calder Walton 2023 Non-F
July 12 Trinity Six
Charles Cumming 2011
Aug 9 You Can Run
Karen Cleveland 2021
Sept 13 Night Soldiers
Alan Furst 2001
Oct 11 Dead Lions
Mick Herron 2013
(Slough House #2)
Nov 8 Cardinal of the Kremlin
Tom Clancy 1988
Dec 13 Three Hours in Paris
Cara Black 2023
2022
Jan 14 Agent X
Noah Boyd 2011
Feb 11 The Secrets We Kept
Lara Prescott 2020
Mar 11 Slow Horses
Mick Herron 2010
(Slough House #1)
April 8 The Woman Who Smashed Codes
Jason Fagone 2017 Bio
May 13 The Cairo Affair
Olen Steinhauer 2014
June 10 A Shadow Intelligence
Oliver Harris 2020
July 8 Who Is Vera Kelly?
Rosalie Knecht 2018
Aug 12 A Game of Spies
John Altman 2002
Sept 9 American Spy
Lauren Wilkinson 2019
Oct 14 The Marching Season
Daniel Silva 1999
Nov 11 The Billion Dollar Spy
David E. Hoffman 2015 Non-F
Dec 9 Traitor
Jonathan de Shalit 2015
2020
Jan 10 Munich
Robert Harris 2017
Feb 8 The Fox
Frederick Forsyth 2018
Mar 13 Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews 2013
(Red Sparrow #1)
Mar 20 Movie: The Day of the Jackal 1973
Apr 10 Too Bad to Die
Francine Matthews 2015
May 8 A Colder War
Charles Cumming 2014
June 12 D-Day Girls
Sarah Rose 2019
July 10 The Other Woman (Gabriel Allon #18)
Daniel Silva 2018
(Gabriel Allon #18)
July 18 Movie: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold 1965
Aug 14 The Legacy of Spies
John LeCarre 2017
Aug 15 Movie: Red Sparrow 2018
Sept 11 Need to Know
Karen Cleveland 2018
Oct 9 Leaving Berlin
Joseph Canon 2015
Nov 13 Transcription
Kate Atkinson 2018
Dec 11 The Quantum Spy
David Ignatius 2017
2019
Jan 25 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John LeCarre 1974
Feb 21 Illegal Action
Stella Rimington 2007
Mar 22 The Faithful Spy
Alex Berenson 2006
Apr 26 Moscow Rules
Daniel Silva 2008
May 20 Movie: The Hunt for Red October 1990
June 28 Casino Royale
Ian Fleming 1953
July 26 Forever and A Day
Anthony Horowitz 2018
Aug 23 Movie: From Russia With Love 1963
Sept 20 The Increment
David Ignatius 2010
Oct 18 Journey to Munich
Jacqueline Winspear 2016
Nov 15 Restless
William Boyd 2006
Dec 20 All the Old Knives
Olen Steinhauer 2015
Dec 20 Movie: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 2011
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
February 10: Two Spies in Caracas Characters
Characters - Two Spies in Caracas by Moises Naim
February 1992
Havana - G2 (Cuba’s Intelligence Directorate)
Raimundo Galvez
Ivan Rincon ( Mauricio Bosco)
Chloe
Adalberto Sanataria, cousin
The General
Washington, DC - CIA
Colonel Oliver Watson
Cristina Garza (Eva Lopez/LUNA)
undocumented immigrant
Marine, Just Cause (removal of General Manuel Noriega)
Sen Brendan Hatch
Rita Ferguson
Caracas, Venezuela - Miraflores
President Carlos Andres Perez
Colonel Hugo Chavez - passions: baseball, women, politics
Clara
Flora
Eloisa
Oscar Rojas
Donato Gil, Cuban Santeria
Colonel Manuel Sanchez
Colonel Angel Montes
General Raul Mujica
Colonel Gonzalo Giron - Antonieta
Nicolas Maduro
Luz Amelia Lobo - Lia Ron, Bala Loca, Crazy Bullet
Venezuela-Cuba Plan
Pran (Yusnabi Valentin)
Willy Garcia (Patricia)
Juan Cash
The Generals Cartel
Monica Parker
Chuck, father
Gunther Muller Uri Abarbanrl
Ftank Stanley
February10: Two Spies in Caracas
Two Spies in Caracas by Moisés Naím, Daniel Hahn (Translator)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Power comes an edge-of-your-seat political thriller about rival spies, dangerous love, and one of history’s most devastating revolutions.
Venezuela, 1992. Unknown colonel Hugo Chávez stages an ill-fated coup against a corrupt government, igniting the passions of Venezuela’s poor and catapulting the oil-rich country to international attention. For two rival spies hurriedly dispatched to Caracas—one from Washington, DC, and the other from Fidel Castro’s Cuba—this is a career-defining mission.
Smooth-talking Iván Rincón of Cuba’s Intelligence Directorate needs a rebel ally to secure the future of his own country. His job: support Chávez and the revolution by rallying the militants and neutralizing any opposing agents.
Meanwhile, the CIA’s Cristina Garza will do everything in her power to cut Chávez’s influence short. Her priority: stabilize the greatest oil reserves on the planet by ferreting out and eliminating Cuba’s principal operative.
As Chávez surges to power, Iván’s and Cristina’s paths cross. Soon they’re caught in the fallout of a toxic political time bomb: an intrepid female reporter and unwitting informant, a drug lord and key architect in Chávez’s rise, and Iván and Cristina themselves. With everything at stake, the adversaries find themselves at the center of a game of espionage, seduction, murder, and shifting alliances playing out against the precarious backdrop of a nation in free fall. A thrilling fictional story based on unimaginable real-life events.
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