What do you think?
Rate this book
The Spy Game Novels: The Aiken Trilogy
"A thinking man's thriller... A real adrenaline blast... I loved it!" – ROBERT REDFORD
"Brilliantly executed… with a smart, gritty atmosphere." – CHARLES CUMMING, bestselling author of BOX 88
"Nobody captures espionage like Beckner." – I.S. BERRY, Edgar Award winner The Peacock and the Sparrow
"Moving, funny and thrilling. A wonderful book." – CHARLES BEAUMONT, bestselling author of A SPY ALONE
"Laced with absurdity and stylistically daring... Beckner is a razzle-dazzle showman at the top of the thriller heap." – Publishers Weekly, Editor's Pick
It’s not how you play the game... It’s how the game plays you.
This complete box set edition collects the full trilogy inspired by the world of the classic film Spy Game—three interconnected novels that follow CIA lawyer Russell Aiken, spymaster Nathan Muir, and operative Tom Bishop across fifty years of American intelligence history, from Cold War Berlin to the jungles of Malaysia to the interrogation rooms of Havana.
MUIR’S GAMBIT48 hours before the events of the movie classic Spy Game, and Nathan Muir is about to see his world implode. A bomb on the yacht of CIA hero Charlie March puts March on ice, and his dying words implicate Muir. Enter Russell hard-luck Agency lawyer, dispatched to force Muir’s confession and bury forty years of dirty secrets. By legal means—or otherwise.
The protégé Muir cast aside for Tom Bishop, Aiken thirsts for payback, unaware he’s walking into a game Muir set in motion long ago—one that leaves him 24 hours to learn its rules, plays, and lethal stakes.
“Epic in scope… sweeps from the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir to Berlin Wall’s final hours… all those lies leave one final night for redemption.”
🏅 Gold Medal – IPPY Awards
🏅 Spy Thriller of the Year – BestThrillers
⭐ Editor’s Pick – Publishers Weekly
⭐ 5 Stars – Foreword Reviews
BISHOP’S ENDGAMETen years later. All of Muir’s former operatives have vanished. The CIA is blind—until a coded message from one spy has survived the purge. He’ll only reveal himself to the man Langley trusts less than Muir—Tom Bishop.
Told by hapless but dogged CIA lawyer Russell Aiken, Bishop’s Endgame brings Tom Bishop and Nathan Muir to a final face-off along a border between two countries, two centuries, and two world orders—between who they are and who the Spy Game makes them.
“A sophisticated and hugely successful espionage novel… rivals Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” – BestThrillers
“Startling secrets, explosive action… A marvelous narrator ignites a story of spies, deceit, and murky history.” – Kirkus Reviews
🏅 Bronze Medal – IPPY Awards
⭐ Editor’s Pick – Publishers Weekly
⭐ Highly Recommended – Midwest Book Review
AIKEN IN CHECKLove or country? To save one you must sacrifice the other... Christmas Eve in Havana.
"Brilliantly executed… with a smart, gritty atmosphere." – CHARLES CUMMING, bestselling author of BOX 88
"Nobody captures espionage like Beckner." – I.S. BERRY, Edgar Award winner The Peacock and the Sparrow
"Moving, funny and thrilling. A wonderful book." – CHARLES BEAUMONT, bestselling author of A SPY ALONE
"Laced with absurdity and stylistically daring... Beckner is a razzle-dazzle showman at the top of the thriller heap." – Publishers Weekly, Editor's Pick
It’s not how you play the game... It’s how the game plays you.
This complete box set edition collects the full trilogy inspired by the world of the classic film Spy Game—three interconnected novels that follow CIA lawyer Russell Aiken, spymaster Nathan Muir, and operative Tom Bishop across fifty years of American intelligence history, from Cold War Berlin to the jungles of Malaysia to the interrogation rooms of Havana.
MUIR’S GAMBIT48 hours before the events of the movie classic Spy Game, and Nathan Muir is about to see his world implode. A bomb on the yacht of CIA hero Charlie March puts March on ice, and his dying words implicate Muir. Enter Russell hard-luck Agency lawyer, dispatched to force Muir’s confession and bury forty years of dirty secrets. By legal means—or otherwise.
The protégé Muir cast aside for Tom Bishop, Aiken thirsts for payback, unaware he’s walking into a game Muir set in motion long ago—one that leaves him 24 hours to learn its rules, plays, and lethal stakes.
“Epic in scope… sweeps from the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir to Berlin Wall’s final hours… all those lies leave one final night for redemption.”
🏅 Gold Medal – IPPY Awards
🏅 Spy Thriller of the Year – BestThrillers
⭐ Editor’s Pick – Publishers Weekly
⭐ 5 Stars – Foreword Reviews
BISHOP’S ENDGAMETen years later. All of Muir’s former operatives have vanished. The CIA is blind—until a coded message from one spy has survived the purge. He’ll only reveal himself to the man Langley trusts less than Muir—Tom Bishop.
Told by hapless but dogged CIA lawyer Russell Aiken, Bishop’s Endgame brings Tom Bishop and Nathan Muir to a final face-off along a border between two countries, two centuries, and two world orders—between who they are and who the Spy Game makes them.
“A sophisticated and hugely successful espionage novel… rivals Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.” – BestThrillers
“Startling secrets, explosive action… A marvelous narrator ignites a story of spies, deceit, and murky history.” – Kirkus Reviews
🏅 Bronze Medal – IPPY Awards
⭐ Editor’s Pick – Publishers Weekly
⭐ Highly Recommended – Midwest Book Review
AIKEN IN CHECKLove or country? To save one you must sacrifice the other... Christmas Eve in Havana.
1379 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 24, 2025
37 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Michael Frost Beckner
34 books37 followersIn 1989, Michael Frost Beckner's script for Sniper launched a military-thriller franchise now in production on its eighth sequel. Three consecutive record-breaking spec script sales and three films later, Tony Scott directed Beckner's original screenplay "Spy Game." An international blockbuster that paired Robert Redford and Brad Pitt as CIA partners and rivals, it is now a classic in the espionage genre.
Beckner branched into television with his CIA-based drama "The Agency" for CBS, Beckner's pilot predicted Osama bin Laden's terror attack and the War on Terror four months before 9/11. In that series alone, Beckner would go on to predictively dramatize three more future international terror events. Having penned more than twenty-five pilots for network and cable television, miniseries and docudramas, and dozens of original motion picture screenplays, adaptations, and rewrites, he is a Hollywood institution.
In 2001, intrigued by the idea of writing a two-man play focused on the four meetings between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee over their lifetimes, Beckner embarked on a twenty-year research odyssey, advised by more than a dozen of the top Civil War historians in America, which saw him transform his intimate theater piece into the most comprehensive Civil War mini-series ever written. Variously known as "To Appomattox" and "Battle Hymn," and now entitled "A Nation Divided," for the first time, Beckner’s full 12-hour scripts are being released to the public in three volumes.
As a commentator on American espionage, Beckner has appeared on CNN, Fox News, CBS News, TF1 in France, and as a featured guest of Bill Maher on HBO. Now, in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of "Spy Game," Beckner returns to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop with the release of his trilogy of Spy Game novels: "Muir's Gambit," "Bishop's Endgame," and "Aiken in Check."
Beckner branched into television with his CIA-based drama "The Agency" for CBS, Beckner's pilot predicted Osama bin Laden's terror attack and the War on Terror four months before 9/11. In that series alone, Beckner would go on to predictively dramatize three more future international terror events. Having penned more than twenty-five pilots for network and cable television, miniseries and docudramas, and dozens of original motion picture screenplays, adaptations, and rewrites, he is a Hollywood institution.
In 2001, intrigued by the idea of writing a two-man play focused on the four meetings between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee over their lifetimes, Beckner embarked on a twenty-year research odyssey, advised by more than a dozen of the top Civil War historians in America, which saw him transform his intimate theater piece into the most comprehensive Civil War mini-series ever written. Variously known as "To Appomattox" and "Battle Hymn," and now entitled "A Nation Divided," for the first time, Beckner’s full 12-hour scripts are being released to the public in three volumes.
As a commentator on American espionage, Beckner has appeared on CNN, Fox News, CBS News, TF1 in France, and as a featured guest of Bill Maher on HBO. Now, in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of "Spy Game," Beckner returns to the world of Nathan Muir and Tom Bishop with the release of his trilogy of Spy Game novels: "Muir's Gambit," "Bishop's Endgame," and "Aiken in Check."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.