The “big four” is how espionage author Graeme Shimmin categorizes the types of plots found in spy novels. Fans of espionage writing, myself included, look for expected tropes and familiar plots. Stray too far outside of those tropes and plots, and you may find yourself in a completely different genre.

Shimmin believes that limits the plots of spy novels to only four:

• The Mission
• The Mystery
• On the Run
• Playing Defense

But first, let’s review Shimmin’s archetypes in spy novels that I’ve discussed before. These archetypes appear in each of the four spy novel plots, but their roles and actions may be different in each:

• The Protagonist or the action driver of the story
• The Antagonist or the character who throws up all the obstacles for the Protagonist to overcome
• The Mentor or the person who guides and advises the Protagonist
• The Prize or what the Protagonist accomplishes by the end of the story.

The Mission Spy Novel Plot is the most common, perhaps too common plot, but it’s also one of the most popular. The Mentor archetype assigns a specific mission to the Protagonist, who does what’s necessary to achieve a successful mission.

If you were a fan of the Mission: Impossible television series (and, okay, the movies), every episode began with Mr. Phelps receiving a message via recording outlining a problem. Then, Mr. Phelps heard, “Your mission, should you decide to accept it . . .” Every episode of this series was a Mission plot. The same is true for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. or I Spy, as well as most spy novels. For me, the best example of a Mission plot is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. (Well, let’s face it. For me, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, is the best in everything that makes a spy novel a spy novel.)

Of course, after the Protagonist receives the Mission, he or she must come up with a plan to assure the Mission is a success. In television shows, that’s a step that’s usually skipped for time constraints—allowing for commercials, most TV episodes are 45 – 50 minutes long. And the planning for a covert operation is sometimes tedious and lengthy. A movie or better yet, a novel, gives the Protagonist the time to come up with a workable plan.

Next is something else you rarely see in a TV episode but can be an exciting part of both a movie and a spy novel—logistics and preparation. That doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but when you see the Protagonist gathering resources and training perhaps a team, that adds to the rising action in a novel and is an opportunity for character development and subplots.

In the Mission plot, the Protagonist may have an Ally, perhaps from an unexpected source. An example of this is The Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie from 2015, where CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB agent Ilya Kuryakin are teamed to stop the post-war Nazis from getting an atomic bomb. Now, in the U.N.C.L.E., TV series, it was never established that Kuryakin was KGB, but it was the 1960s and the Cold War. Assuming he was KGB was a good guess.

Another role the Ally can serve is as a romance subplot in a novel, like almost every James Bond novel. The possibilities for enhancing the rising action using an Ally as a romantic interest are many: Ally gets captured and Protagonist risks the Mission to save the Ally; the Ally and the Protagonist are captured together and acknowledge their feelings but sacrifice their feelings to assure the mission gets accomplished; the Ally joins the Mission for personal reasons of his or her own, which are hidden from the Protagonist. Like I said, many possibilities. The writer has to be careful, though, not to make a romantic subplot, in particular, overcome the overall Mission plot.

Once all the prep, training, and forging alliances is finished, it’s time for the Protagonist(s) to attempt to complete the Mission according to the plan. However, in steps the Antagonist to attempt to thwart the Protagonist’s efforts in acquiring the ultimate Prize, the successful mission. The Antagonist usually isn’t alone, having acquired Allies as well. These Allies may be other enemies of the Protagonist or even a betrayer on the Protagonist’s team. Many times the betrayer is typically the Mentor or the Ally/love interest. Betrayal, especially by the love interest, has become somewhat of a cliché, and there are great plots out there where the betrayal is thwarted or known all along but used to advantage to accomplish the mission.

As the Protagonist moves along in accomplishing the mission, there is usually either an attempted capture that’s eluded or an actual capture and escape. This can really hike up the rising action in a spy novel. Think of all those Bond car chases (or in one case a tank chase) where Bond eludes capture. That’s balanced by the many times Bond is captured and manages to escape. It’s all part of the Plot.

Finally, the Protagonist and Antagonist have their climactic confrontation, and the Mission is either successful . . . or not. In either case, someone gets the Prize.

The Protagonist walks away with the prize if the Mission plan goes as expected and the Antagonist is neutralized. But, the Antagonist gets the Prize if the Protagonist’s mission is upended. In the book, The Day of the Jackal, the assassin called The Jackal is stopped from shooting his target. So, Prize for the Protagonist. However, in the recent Apple TV series, The Day of the Jackal—Spoiler Alert—The Jackal kills his target and walks away a free man with the Prize.

I think perhaps that’s why I didn’t like the Apple TV series, despite the excellent performances, as much as the original novel, the 1973 movie, or the 1997 movie, simply titled The Jackal. In the book and these two movies, the Plot follows the standard Mission outline. The Apple TV series turned that on its head and set the series up for a second season.

Again, the Mission plot for the spy novel is one of the most popular and most used because it is a reader favorite. Readers like to be surprised, but they prefer that within a familiar context. Rather than devolving into a cliché, the Mission plot is dependent upon the writer to use interesting and unexpected twists and turns so that each Mission plot novel stands alone, not as a copy.

This can be hard to do with historical espionage fiction, especially when you stick to the history of an event. Everyone knows what’s coming, whether the Protagonist succeeds or fails, so it’s incumbent upon the writer to make that interesting and provocative in the rising action portion of the novel.

So, now you know more than you ever wanted to know about the Mission plot-style spy novel.

Next time I pick this back up, I’ll talk about Graeme Shimmin’s second spy novel plot—The Mystery.