True Spy

True stories of real spies.
Updated October 2, 2022
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Agent M : the lives and spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight
Hemming, Henry
Paper Book
The fascinating, improbable true story of Maxwell Knight -- the great MI5 spymaster and inspiration for the James Bond character M. Maxwell Knight was perhaps the greatest spymaster in history. He did more than anyone in his era to combat the rising threat of fascism in Britain...
Open secret : the autobiography of the former Director-General of MI5
Rimington, Stella.
Paper Book
'The story of MI5's transformation - is fascinating. So, too is Rimington's account of her rise in what was very definitely a man's world.' Guardian ____________________________ The eye-opening memoir from the first female Director-General of MI5<...
A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, the Seattle Times, the Washington Independent Review of Books, PopSugar, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, BookBrowse, the Spectator...
Agent Zigzag : a true story of Nazi espionage, love, and betrayal
Macintyre, Ben
Paper Book
Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one...
Avenue of spies : a true story of terror, espionage, and one American family's heroic resistance in Nazi-occupied France
Kershaw, Alex.
Paper Book
The best-selling author of The Liberator brings to life the incredible true story of an American doctor in Paris, and his heroic espionage efforts during World War II The leafy Avenue Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris's...
The billion dollar spy : a true story of Cold War espionage and betrayal
Hoffman, David E.
Paper Book
From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history The Dead Hand comes the riveting story of a spy who cracked open the Soviet military research establishment and a penetrating portrait of the CIA's Moscow station, an outpost of daring espionage in the last years of the Cold War...
Code name: Lise : the true story of the woman who became WWII's most highly decorated spy
Loftis, Larry.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist Florida Book Awards Silver Medalist Featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, New York Newsday, and on Today! Best Nonfiction...
Bridge of spies : a true story of the Cold War
Whittell, Giles
Paper Book
The "riveting, meticulously researched, and beautifully written" (Ben Macintyre, author of The Spy and the Traitor) true story chronicles the first and most legendary prisoner exchange of the Cold War, between East and West at Berlin's Glienicke Bridge and Checkpoint Charlie ...
How to Catch a Russian Spy: The True Story of an American Civilian Turned Double Agent
Naveed Jamali
Ebook
With an epilogue on recent Russian spying, a "page-turner of a memoir" (Publishers Weekly) about an American civilian with a dream, who worked as a double agent with the FBI in the early 2000s to bring down a Russian intelligence agent in New York City. For three nerve...
The good spy : the life and death of Robert Ames
Bird, Kai.
Paper Book
The Good Spy is Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kai Bird's compelling portrait of the remarkable life and death of one of the most important operatives in CIA history - a man who, had he lived, might have helped heal the rift between Arabs and the West.   On April 18, 1983, a...
Disciples : the World War II missions of the CIA directors who fought for Wild Bill Donovan: Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, William Casey
Waller, Douglas C.
Paper Book
"A fantastic book, one of the very finest accounts of wartime spookery...a hell of a good tale." --The Wall Street Journal The author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Wild Bill Donovan, tells the story of four OSS warriors of World War II. All four later led...
Into the lion's mouth : the true story of Dusko Popov : World War II spy, patriot, and the real-life inspiration for James Bond
Loftis, Larry
Paper Book
James Bond has nothing on Dusko Popov. A triple agent for the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6 and the FBI during World War II, Popov seduced numerous women, spoke five languages and was a crack shot, all while maintaining his cover as a Yugoslavian diplomat. Into The Lion's Mouth is a globe-trotting account of...
Liar, temptress, soldier, spy : four women undercover in the Civil War
Abbott, Karen
Paper Book
Karen Abbott, the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and "pioneer of sizzle history" (USA Today), tells the spellbinding true story of four women who risked everything to become spies during the Civil War. Karen Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet...
In the enemy's house : the secret saga of the FBI agent and the code breaker who caught the Russian spies
Blum, Howard
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling author of Dark Invasion and The Last Goodnight once again illuminates the lives of little-known individuals who played a significant role in America's history as he chronicles the incredible true story of a critical, recently declassified counterintelligence mission...
The man with the poison gun : a Cold War spy story
Plokhy, Serhii
Paper Book
In the fall of 1961, KGB assassin Bogdan Stashinsky defected to West Germany. After spilling his secrets to the CIA, Stashinsky was put on trial in what would be the most publicized assassination case of the entire Cold War. The publicity stirred up by the Stashinsky case forced the KGB to change...
Madame Fourcade's secret war : the daring young woman who led France's largest spy network against Hitler
Olson, Lynne
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The little-known true story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II, from the bestselling author of Citizens of London and Last Hope Island "Brava to Lynne...
Deep undercover : my secret life and tangled allegiances as a KGB spy in America
Barsky, Jack
Paper Book
One decision can end everything . . . or lead to unlikely redemption.Millions watched the CBS 60 Minutesspecial on Jack Barsky in 2015. Now, in this fascinating memoir, the Soviet KGB agent tells his story of gut-wrenching choices, appalling betrayals, his turbulent inner world, and...
The Wolves at the Door
Pearson, Judith L.
Ebook
This WWII espionage biography brings "one of America's greatest spies back to life" in a "story of derring-do and white knuckles suspense" (Patrick O'Donnell, author of Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs) Virginia Hall left her comfortable Baltimore roots in 1931...

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