O’Neill’s Quotients is a captivating meditation on personal relationships in a world of secrets and surveillance. With romance, community gardens, and a strong sense of morality, this one also might be the most cheerful pick of December. To her dismay, Yolanda is instead assigned to infiltrate an environmental group that’s been labeled as a terrorist organization, and finds herself quickly at odds with her new career. And when a legal career is no longer an option, she decides to sign on with the Bureau as an analyst, ready to use her corporate lawyer skills for good. After all, she was only covering her own ass when she sent those files to the FBI. When Yolanda blows the whistle on her corrupt bosses, she doesn’t expect to get blacklisted by an entire industry.

Now, in her first espionage novel, de Leon cements her reputation for tales of social justice anchored by blood, vengeance, and love. Here are our choices for the year’s best espionage novels.Īya de Leon has already gained a significant following through her Justice Hustlers series, cult favorites for those who want to see the poor get richer and the rich get deader, featuring a gang of Robin Hood-esque sex workers dedicated to their craft. Family secrets, failed careers, and diamond thefts-all grist for nuanced, captivating tales of espionage, right there beside the assassins and Cold War throwback moles. There’s still plenty of room and readers for thrillers where the world is saved anew each year (God knows it needs saving now and again), but increasingly we’re seeing quieter, more personal stories of discovery and reckoning, set against a backdrop of international intrigue. Espionage fiction has always been a genre obsessed with shifting identities and allegiances, but in recent years authors have taken the preoccupation to a new level, and with that evolution the world of spy novels has grown more and more diverse.

Best spy books