GURPS – Generic Universal RolePlaying System

You can find an index of all the GURPS bibliographies we have online here. If you spot any broken links or other problems with this page, please report them to webmaster@sjgames.com.

Bibliography for GURPS Covert Ops

The following list is far from complete, but covers essential fictional sources in various media and a variety of useful nonfictional works. The subject area is deliberately kept in narrow focus; it excludes crime, espionage, and irregular warfare, except when they involve covert operations as this book defines them. Space doesn't permit plot or content summaries for all of this material, so it's provided only when absolutely necessary (in the judgment of the authors). Online lists maintained by Amazon (www.amazon.com), the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), and the Library of Congress were invaluable in checking this information; the first two can often provide much more information on a work.

Nonfiction: General Information

Bolz, Frank, Jr., Dudonis, Kenneth J., and Schulz, David P. The Counterterrorism Handbook (CRC, 2002).

Ezell, Edward C. Small Arms Today, 2nd ed. (Stackpole, 1988).

Feral, Rex. Hit Man: A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors (Paladin, 1983).

Gray, Randal, and Harding, David, eds. Weapons: An International Encyclopedia from 5000 B.C. to A.D. 2000, Revised Edition (Diagram, 1990).

Hartnik, A. E. The Complete Encyclopedia of Automatic Army Rifles (Rebo International, 1999), and The Complete Encyclopedia of Handguns and Revolvers. (Rebo Productions, 1996).

Hayes, Stephen K. The Mystic Arts of the Ninja (Contemporary, 1985).

Houde, John. Crime Lab: A Guide for Nonscientists (Calico, 1999).

Loomis, Ted A., and Hayes, A. Wallace. Loomis's Essentials of Toxicology, 4th ed. (Academic, 1996).

Luttwak, Edward. Coup d'État, a Practical Handbook (Knopf, 1969).

McBride, Mike, ed. Jane's Security and Police Equipment 2003-2004 (Jane's, 2003). Other Jane's titles, such as Jane's Infantry Weapons or Jane's All The World's Aircraft, may also be useful for specialized research.

Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince (various editions).

Melton, H. Keith. Ultimate Spy (Dorling Kindersley, 2002).

Morelli, Jim. Poison: How to Handle the Hazardous Substances in Your Home (Andrews and McMeel, 1997).

Turkington, Carol. The Poisons and Antidotes Sourcebook (Facts on File, 1999).

Taber, Clarence Wilbur. Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 20th ed. (F. A. Davis, 2005).

Wujcik, Erick. The Palladium Book of Weapons and Assassins (Palladium Books, 1984).

Nonfiction: History

Andrews, Christopher. Her Majesty's Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community (Penguin, 1987).

Angelo, Sydney. The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe (Yale University Press, 2000).

Ashdown, Dulcie M. Royal Murders (Sutton, 1998).

Axelrod, Alan. The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders (Facts on File, 1997).

Clarke, James W. American Assassins (Princeton University Press, 1982).

Ford, Franklin L. Political Murder: From Tyrannicide to Terrorism (Harvard University Press, 1985).

Hoffman, William, and Headley, Lake. Contract Killer (Thunder's Mouth, 1992).

Hymoff, Edward. The OSS in World War II (Ballantine, 1972).

Infield, Glenn. Skorzeny: Hitler's Commando (St. Martin's, 1981).

Lawrence, T. E. Revolt in the Desert (Garden City, 1930).

Lentz, Harris M. Assassinations and Executions (McFarland & Company, 1988).

McKinley, James. Assassination in America (Harper & Row, 1975).

Prados, John. Presidents' Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon Covert Operations from World War II through the Persian Gulf, rev. ed. (I. R. Dee, 1996).

Russell, Francis, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. The Secret War (Time-Life Books, 1981). Discusses the espionage and dirty tricks of WWII.

Shultz, Richard H., Jr. The Secret War Against Hanoi: Kennedy's and Johnson's Use of Spies, Saboteurs, and Covert Warriors in Vietnam (HarperCollins, 1999).

Sudoplatov, Pavel. Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness (Little, Brown, 1997).

Tanenbaum, Robert, and Rosenberg, Philip. Badge of the Assassin (E.P. Dutton, 1979).

Tuchman, Barbara. The Zimmermann Telegram (Macmillan, 1966).

Whalen, Robert Weldon. Assassinating Hitler (Associated University Presses, 1993).

Fiction: Novels

Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang (Lippincott, 1975).

Banks, Iain M. Use of Weapons (Bantam Spectra, 1992).

Buchan, John. Greenmantle (Oxford University Press, 1999; originally published 1916) and The Thirty-Nine Steps (Oxford University Press, 1999; originally published 1914).

Chesterton, G.K. The Man Who Was Thursday (Penguin, 1990; originally published 1907).

Conrad, Joseph. The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Oxford University Press, 1998; originally published 1907).

Forsyth, Frederick. The Day of the Jackal (Transworld Publications, 1971). The 1973 film (Fred Zinnemann, 1973) is also worth seeing, the 1997 remake, The Jackal (Michael Caton-Jones) abandons the plot of the novel for a more typical Hollywood action-movie.

Gaiman, Neil, and Pratchett, Terry. Good Omens (Workman, 1990).

Greene, Graham. The Quiet American (Penguin, 1991; originally published 1955).

Hammett, Dashiell. Red Harvest (Vintage, 1992; originally published 1929).

Heinlein, Robert. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (St. Martin's, 1997; originally published 1966).

Heinlein, Robert. The Puppet Masters, reissue edition (Del Rey, 1994).

Herbert, Frank. Dune (Ace, 2003; originally published 1965).

Higgins, Jack. The Eagle Has Landed (Berkeley, 2000; originally published 1975).

Household, Geoffrey. Rogue Male (Penguin, 1993; originally published 1939).

Le Carré, John. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Pocket Books, 2002; originally published 1974).

Powers, Tim. Declare (William Morrow, 2001).

Pratchett, Terry. Men at Arms (Harper, 2003; originally published 1993).

Puzo, Mario. The Godfather (Signet, 1995; originally published 1969).

Russell, Eric Frank. Wasp (Orion, 2000; originally published 1956).

Sheckley, Robert. 10th Victim (Gregg, 1978)

Stephenson, Neil. Cryptonomicon (Avon, 1999).

Trevanian. The Eiger Sanction (Outlet, 1972).

Westlake, Donald. The Hot Rock (Warner, 2001; originally published 1970). Also made into a film (Peter Yates, 1972).

Fiction: Series

Brust, Stephen. The Vlad Taltos series.

Bujold, Lois McMaster. The Miles Vorkosigan series.

Clancy, Thomas. The Jack Ryan series.

Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers series.

Fleming, Ian. The James Bond series.

Harrison, Harry. The Stainless Steel Rat series.

LeBlanc, Maurice. The Arsene Lupin series.

MacDonald, John D. The Travis McGee series.

O'Brian, Patrick, The Aubrey/Maturin series.

O'Donnell, Peter. The Modesty Blaise series.

Orczy, the Baroness. The Scarlet Pimpernel series.

Rohmer, Sax. The Fu Manchu series.

Westlake, Donald. The Parker series.

Wilson, F. Paul. The Repairman Jack series.

Film and Televison

Against the Wind (Charles Crichton, 1948). [Region 2 DVD]

La Battaglia di Algeri (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1965). Released in the United States as The Battle of Algiers, 1967.

The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974).

La Decima vittima (Elio Petri, 1965), from a short story by Robert Sheckley, "The Seventh Victim." Released in the United States as The Tenth Victim.

Dr. No (Terence Young, 1962) and numerous later James Bond films.

Elizabeth (Shekar Kapur, 1998).

The Emperor and the Assassin (Chen Kaige, 1999).

Enemy at the Gates (Jean-Jacques Annaud, 2001).

The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972).

Grosse Pointe Blank (George Armitage, 1997).

In the Line of Fire (Wolfgang Petersen, 1993).

The Killer (John Woo, 1989).

Kite (Yasunomi Umetsu, 1998). Animated.

The Long Kiss Goodnight (Renny Harlin, 1996).

The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962), and the 2004 version (directed by Jonathan Demme).

The Matrix (Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, 1999).

Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997), and the two sequels.

Michael Collins (Neil Jordan, 1996).

Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990). Released in the United States as La Femme Nikita, 1991; turned into the television series La Femme Nikita (1997-2001). Remade for American audiences as Point of No Return (John Badham, 1993) and in Hong Kong as Hei Mao [The Black Cat] (Stephen Shin, 1990) before being turned into Nikita (2010-2013), a remake of/sequel to the older television series.

Our Man Flint (Daniel Mann, 1966) and In Like Flint (Gordon Douglas, 1967), both available at the same link.

Our Man in Havana (Carol Reed, 1959). Based on the novel by Graham Greene.

Le Pacte des Loups (Christophe Gans, 2001). Released in the United States as Brotherhood of the Wolf, 2002.

Patriot Games (Philip Noyce, 1992) and Clear and Present Danger (Philip Noyce, 1994). Based on the novels by Tom Clancy. A box set is also available.

The Peacemaker (Mimi Leder, 1997).

Léon (Luc Besson, 1994). Released in the United States as The Professional, 1994.

The Quiller Memorandum (Michael Anderson, 1966).

Ronin (John Frankenheimer, 1998).

Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock, 1942).

Sneakers (Phil Alden Robinson, 1992).

Suddenly (Lewis Allen, 1954).

The Terrorist (Santosh Sivan, 1999).

The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935).

WarGames (John Badham, 1983).

The Young Poisoner's Handbook (Benjamin Ross, 1995).