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[Yellow Pinky]

Greg Rucka's Queen and Country series are outstanding. They are based around agents working for MI-6 (primarily female assassin Tara Chace) and are a great blend of inter-agency office politics and in-the-field operations. They remind me of a more action-packed version of the Spooks/MI-5 TV series, but with a much more pronounced international (primarily Middle-East) element.

Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series is quite simply the best spy series in print for my money. There's not a dud in the lot and are packed full of great spycraft and edge of the seat excitement.

I tried the Alex Hawke series by Ted Bell and found them sorely lacking on many levels, from massive plot holes and uneven pacing to paper thin characters, To me they came off as a sub-par attempt to copy Cussler's much more successful Dirk Pitt character/formula.

The Quiller series by Adam Hall (aka Elleston Trevor) was mentioned earlier and are simply essential spy reading for any true fan. Possibly my top tier favorite spy series ever and a real find for anyone searching for truly literate and original espionage fiction in the classic "man on a mission" mold.