Here we are at last. The final installment in types of plots for spy novels. We’ve covered the Mission Plot, the Mystery Plot, and the On-The-Run Plot. We’ll wrap it up with the Playing Defense Plot and mention a few additional types of spy novel plots not among the top four.

Playing Defense

In this plot type, you start literally with an attack carried out by the antagonist. The attack can be large-scale, i.e., against the protagonist’s country, or it can be more personal, an attack on the protagonist’s family or love interest. The protagonist is singled out for the attack because they are more than likely part of an intelligence or counterintelligence organization or a counter-terrorist organization. The Prize the protagonist gets at the end is elimination of the threat recurring or preventing it from happening to others.

As full of action and intrigue as this plot is, it’s the least used of the four. I can think of novels that start with an attack, Thunderball with its theft of nuclear weapons, comes to mind. In this case the attack is the inciting incident for the story. The antagonists carries out an attack, and the protagonist works to recover or recoup from it. From there, the plot is usually a Mission Plot or a Mystery Plot.

To be a Playing Defense plot, after the initial attack, the protagonist has to remain off-kilter and reactive throughout the story, with small failure after small failure confronting the protagonist. A great many of the late Tom Clancy’s novels are Playing Defense plots, but the most notable one is Patriot Games. This attack-recover sequence repeats several times throughout the rising action part of the story, which usually ends with a cornered protagonist who has to fight to the death to defeat the antagonist. An excellent example of this is Skyfall, a Bond movie of the Daniel Craig iteration, and I think one of the best.

The Playing Defense Plot

The Protagonist–

• Is caught up the antagonist’s inciting incident, i.e., the attack
• Comes up with the plan to stop the antagonist from doing it again
• Brings together a trained team to stop the antagonist, i.e., defense
• Engages one or more allies in the defense, again presenting the opportunity for a subplot of romance
• Tries to stop further attacks but has to deal with allies and enemies that pop up everywhere
• Is stymied when the antagonist changes approach for the next attack
• Either fails to stop the antagonist or stops the antagonist who manages to escape
• Takes part in the final confrontation with the antagonist and stops or fails to stop them from carrying out the next attack

Examples of this plot include the aforementioned Patriot Games and Skyfall as well as my series, A Perfect Hatred.

Hybrid Plots

As with most written genres, you can mash spy novel plots together to create something out of the ordinary, and many spy novels use one of these typical plots to vault into another. Indeed, this helps with the rising action and tension in a spy novel.

Mystery Hybrids

Many spy novels start with a Mystery Plot, whose unresolved question can serve as the main plot or a subplot. Starting with mystery then moving to one of the other plots is common. For example, the unresolved question is the identity of the antagonist, and the Mission Plot enters–finding out exactly who the nemesis is. As the plot moves on with the protagonist trying to stop the antagonist, you’re in the On-The-Run Plot.

Multiple Protagonists

Quite often in a spy novel with multiple protagonists, you can give each protagonist their own plot. In my series, Self-Inflicted Wounds, one of my protagonists is in a Mystery Plot while the other is on a Mission plot. However, they have to intersect at the denouement.

A more well-known example is Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October. The Soviet submarine commander Ramius’ subplot is On The Run, as he’s trying to defect without his crew knowing that’s what he’s doing. Ryan the CIA analyst, however, is on a Mission Plot to assist Ramius’ defection.

Mission Gone Wrong

This mash-up involves the Mission Plot and the On-The-Run plot. The protagonist starts a mission, something goes off the rails, and they spend the rest of the story in the On-The-Run plot. A great example of this is the TV series Burn Notice, where the protagonist receives the news he’s been compromised in the midst of a mission. To find out who “burned” him, he slips into the On-The-Run plot–for several seasons.

Defense and Attack

This mash-up starts with Playing Defense, i.e., an attack of some sort. Then, it becomes a Mission with the protagonist’s hunt for the antagonist. You see, initially the protagonist is on the defense, but in the Mission portion the antagonist is the one on the defensive.

Conclusion

Of course, writers continually come up with new combinations of any type of plot, and sometimes hints of a spy plot end up in literary fiction or romance. It’s all up to our warped and overactive imaginations.

Credit to Graeme Shimmin who came up with the four spy novel plots.

And we’re done!