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Best Espionage (Non-Fiction)

Description: True Spy stories

Rank Title Author Added

1

The Codebreakers

1,239 members

12 reviews

4.1

3 Members: lquilter, LoriAnnK, John_Vaughan

2

Bridge of Spies

by Giles Whittell

292 members

8 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: Chatterbox, LoriAnnK

3

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

2,502 members

34 reviews

4.2

2 Members: Chatterbox, Bretzky1

4

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal

by Ben Macintyre

1,726 members

83 reviews

3.9

2 Members: aulsmith, John_Vaughan

5

A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII

447 members

21 reviews

4.1

2 Members: lquilter, LoriAnnK

6

by Andrew Boyle

175 members

3 reviews

3.1

Member: John_Vaughan

7

The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Authorized Edition)

by National Commission on Terrorist Attacks

3,629 members

29 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Bretzky1

8

Mask of Treachery

by John Costello

119 members

1 review

½ 3.5

Member: John_Vaughan

9

The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy

by Jonathan Miles

25 members

1 review

4

Member: Chatterbox

10

Double Cross : The True Story of the D-Day Spies

by Ben Macintyre

1,086 members

44 reviews

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

11

The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington

by Jennet Conant

785 members

28 reviews

3.2

Member: John_Vaughan

12

A Man Called Intrepid

by William Stevenson

1,194 members

14 reviews

4.2

Member: Chatterbox

13

The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB

by Milton Bearden

293 members

3 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

14

Operation Mincemeat

by Ben Macintyre

1,991 members

97 reviews

3.9

Member: Chatterbox

15

The Master Spy: The Story of Kim Philby

by Phillip Knightley

196 members

4 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: John_Vaughan

16

Casey: The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey: from the OSS to the CIA

by Joseph E. Persico

102 members

½ 4.5

Member: Bretzky1
Explanations: Bretzky1: Interesting for how much power Casey wielded in a position not known for having a seat at the big table, and instructive for why intelligence chiefs should stay away from policy

17

A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affairs

by Theodore Draper

118 members

½ 3.4

Member: Bretzky1

18

Between Silk and Cyanide

1,028 members

33 reviews

4.1

Member: John_Vaughan

19

Our Own Backyard: The United States In Central America, 1977-1992

by William M. LeoGrande

59 members

1 review

½ 3.6

Member: Bretzky1
Explanations: Bretzky1: Not strictly a story about espionage; but does cover a lot of the CIA's rather amateurish activities in Central America

20

Spy Catcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer

by Peter Wright

1,750 members

16 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: John_Vaughan

21

Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin

110 members

2 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: Bretzky1

22

Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956

by David Holloway

161 members

2 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1
Explanations: Bretzky1: Deals in part with Soviet espionage against American and British nuclear programs in the 1940s and 1950s

23

The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA

by Antonio J. Mendez

392 members

8 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: Bretzky1

24

The Secret War against Hanoi

by Richard H. Shultz Jr.

129 members

1 review

4

Member: Bretzky1

25

Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times

by George Crile

1,648 members

32 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

26

by Andrew Cockburn

59 members

3.8

Member: Bretzky1
Explanations: Bretzky1: American efforts, both overt and covert, to prevent Russian nuclear materials from winding up in even more dangerous hands

27

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

by Judith Miller

699 members

6 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: Bretzky1

28

Breakdown: How America's Intelligence Failures Led to September 11

164 members

½ 3.3

Member: Bretzky1

29

Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA

by Morten Storm

131 members

2 reviews

3.9

Member: Bretzky1
Explanations: Bretzky1: A good story, but one that I can't quite trust as being fully truthful

30

Class 11: Inside the CIA's First Post-9/11 Spy Class

by T. J. Waters

146 members

2 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: Bretzky1

31

Jawbreaker : The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda : A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander

by Gary Berntsen

298 members

5 reviews

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

32

Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda

1,078 members

18 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: Bretzky1

About This List

Started: John_Vaughan
January 2012
Type: Numbered and unnumbered

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