Literary Spy Master John Le Carre.

Le Carre is the pseudonym of writer David Cromwell, who used to be a spy himself. His newest novel, The Russia House, considers the glasnost reforms of the Soviet Union's Gorbachev administration. Some of Le Carre's past novels include The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The Little Drummer Girl, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The '60s sitcom was often a one-joke affair; the film's starry-eyed geek has room for nuance. You can make a case for both Maxes, but critic David Edelstein misses the tube's lovable boob. Anne Hathaway's Agent 99, now ... that's another matter.

Alan Furst's best-selling spy thrillers (Kingdom of Shadows, Night Shadows, The Polish Officer) play out in the brooding, tumultuous Europe of the pre-World War II years, offering an intimate, insider portrait of an escalating crisis in which the players can't always see the implications of the game. Critic-at-large John Powers explains why he's a fan.