spy novel for a 14 yob...Ludlum maybe?

[Alexandra]

I have a 14 yos who really likes history and politics. I was thinking of getting a book or two from the library. He especially likes WWII and I thought he might like a spy novel. I was looking for an adult book but without the violence and se&ual content that many have. Is Robert Ludlum a good bet? I really don't know a thing about this genre.

Thanks for any help on this.

[klmama]

I have a 14 yos who really likes history and politics. I was thinking of getting a book or two from the library. He especially likes WWII and I thought he might like a spy novel. I was looking for an adult book but without the violence and se&ual content that many have. Is Robert Ludlum a good bet? I really don't know a thing about this genre.

Thanks for any help on this.

 

I've never read Ludlum. However, you definitely want to avoid books by John Le Carre.

[chaik76]

I have a 14 yos who really likes history and politics. I was thinking of getting a book or two from the library. He especially likes WWII and I thought he might like a spy novel. I was looking for an adult book but without the violence and se&ual content that many have. Is Robert Ludlum a good bet? I really don't know a thing about this genre.

Thanks for any help on this.

If you don't want violence or se*ual content, avoid Ludlum. I read them at thirteen...and got a pretty thorough education that I probably could have waited until a little later to get! A few of the books have some very graphic se*ual scenes...it's been a while since I've read them, but I would be wary of letting your fourteen year old have these, if you don't want them to have this type of content.

[kalanamak]

I haven't read The Spy Who Came in From The Cold in 35 years. I can't remember any s#x, but who knows. Anyone read it more recently?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spy_Who_Came_in_from_the_Cold

[KarenNC]

My husband suggests Guns of Navarone (Alistair Maclean) and perhaps suggested others---Where Eagles Dare, HMS Ulysses. Might also go with John Le Carre's early stuff---the Smiley books---Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. He says there's relationship content in the Smiley books, but doesn't remember any actual sex. He said there may be a brief non-graphic scene in Guns of Navarone where the character seduces the secretary of a Nazi general or some such---he remembers in the movie that Barbara Bachman takes off her top at one point (he was 14 at the time and it made an impression;)).

 

We are really enjoying Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax novels, set in the Cold War era, but depends as to whether your son would enjoy them. The protagonist is a widowed grandmother who volunteers to join the CIA. Great stories, funny and fun with good action but not terribly violent. The major issue with them is language, but even that is fairly mild for an adult novel anymore---he's reading them to our 8 yo daughter at the moment and only censoring the language a bit. My husband enjoyed them as a preteen/teen, but says he was perhaps not a typical teenager :).

 

They're not historical, I don't think, but my nephew really enjoyed the Alex Ryder novels, which I believe are spy novels.

[elizabeth]

 

http://www.amazon.com/Between-Silk-Cyanide-Codemakers-1941-1945/dp/068486780X/ref=ed_oe_p/188-7123221-0647465 excellent regarding spies, double agents and cryptography except ...it is real. Try this as dd loved it and I also suggest Simon Weisenthal's book The Murderers Among Us about his efforts to hunt and bring to justice the Nazi war criminals who escaped. I think he would sincerely be engrossed by both of these books, no sex but some detail regarding the atrocities of war, especially this war. However, these two books have kindled a real interest in dd that I had not seen before.

[AndyJoy]

I would recommend "The Paladin" by Brian Garfield. It is based on the true story of Winston Churchill's young handpicked personal agent/spy/assassin during World War II.

[klmama]

Boy, if that wasn't the Le Carre book I read, I don't know what it was. None of his other titles sound familiar. I clearly remember an explicitly se&ual scene that I wouldn't want my dc reading at 14! Maybe not as detailed as some, but a lot more than what a 14yo needs to read!

[kalanamak]

Boy, if that wasn't the Le Carre book I read, I don't know what it was. None of his other titles sound familiar. I clearly remember an explicitly se&ual scene that I wouldn't want my dc reading at 14! Maybe not as detailed as some, but a lot more than what a 14yo needs to read!

 

How funny. I think I read it at 15, and have no memory of that part. (I will admit that at that age I thought such stuff so stupid, I might well have skipped over those pages....come to think of it, I still think that stuff is stupid. Rarely well written, often odd, and not helpful to the plot at all.) The rest was rather good, and that is not a genre I usually read.

 

There is also the Ashenden short stories by Maugham, which he wrote after actually being a spy in WWI.

http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Short-Stories-Twentieth-Century-Classics/dp/0140185917/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230102048&sr=1-16

 

They have no explicit scenes. There is a man lured into a country where he is vulnerable by a woman he loves, who is an "actress" in a time when such creatures were somewhat loose.

Edited December 25, 2008 by kalanamak

[Liz CA]

I have a 14 yos who really likes history and politics. I was thinking of getting a book or two from the library. He especially likes WWII and I thought he might like a spy novel. I was looking for an adult book but without the violence and se&ual content that many have. Is Robert Ludlum a good bet? I really don't know a thing about this genre.

Thanks for any help on this.

 

This author has written a great historical series dealing with WWI.

Anne Perry: "Angels in the Mist"

"At some disputed barricade"

there are more titles in this series which I cannot remember

now but you can probably google it.

[Laura Corin]

The book is old enough that there are no explicit sex scenes, and the violence is 'straightforward' (there is some gunfire, but no torture or detailed description of injury). At the beginning of the book there is a fair bit of chat about the political situation in the Balkans (?) at the time - I'd suggest he skim that and get on with the plot.

 

Laura

[klmama]

Aaauugghh!!!!! I am sooooooo sorry! It hit me in the shower - it wasn't Le Carre's book, it was something by Ken Follett! He's one the OP's ds should avoid. You all were right, and I was wrong. Please forgive me!!!! I guess I need to keep my mouth shut (and fingers still) if it's a question about something I haven't read recently. This middle-age thing is making my brain cells fall out.

 

Slinking off.... :sad:

[Ellie]

I have a 14 yos who really likes history and politics. I was thinking of getting a book or two from the library. He especially likes WWII and I thought he might like a spy novel. I was looking for an adult book but without the violence and se&ual content that many have. Is Robert Ludlum a good bet? I really don't know a thing about this genre.

Thanks for any help on this.

 

Ludlum--that's the Bourne Identity author, yes? Violence and s#x, so that wouldn't be my recommendation.

[Guest]

I picked up one of Ludlum's Bourne books awhile back. I was very turned off by the language in it - lot of the F word...so I haven't read too much of his stuff. Wouldn't let my kid read it.

[Laura Corin]

Calvin had been reading it, and was definitely disturbed by it.

 

Laura

[Parrothead]

Matthew Riley is good. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_10?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=matthew+riley&sprefix=matthew+ri

 

There isn't any sex, but there is a bit of violence. The violence is of the military type as opposed to random violence.

[6packofun]

Have you read any of Brad Thor's novels? I have a ds with similar interests and was going to try one of these. Amazon says "What Jason Bourne was to the Cold War, Scot Harvath is to the War on Terror".

 

My 14 yo has enjoyed the Alex Rider series, the Young James Bond books and also Operation Red Jericho and Operation Typhoon Shore. All suitable for kids as young as 11-12, but still fun reads for ds.

 

Another adult author I want to try: Alan Furst (The Spies of Warsaw: A Novel, Night Soldiers: A Novel, and others). He's been around for a while.