True Spy

True stories of real spies.
Updated October 2, 2022
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
M: Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest Spymaster
Henry Hemming
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...
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Sonia Purnell
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
Ben Macintyre
Ebook
"Ben Macintyre's rollicking, spellbinding Agent Zigzag blends the spy-versus-spy machinations of John le Carré with the high farce of Evelyn Waugh."--William Grimes, The New York Times (Editors' Choice) "Wildly improbable but entirely true . . . [a] compellingly...
Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris
Alex Kershaw
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
David E. Hoffman
Paper Book
"While driving out of the American embassy in Moscow on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station heard a knock on his car window. A man on the curb handed him an envelope whose contents stunned U.S. intelligence: details of top-secret Soviet research and developments...
Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy
Larry Loftis
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...
How to Catch a Russian Spy: The True Story of an American Civilian Turned Double Agent
Naveed Jamali
Paper Book
The fascinating story of a young American amateur who helped the FBI bust a Russian spy in New York--named the Funniest Book of the Year by The Washington Post, sold in ten countries, and to be a major motion picture for 20th Century Fox. For three nerve-wracking years, Naveed...
The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames
Kai Bird
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
Douglas Waller
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
Larry Loftis
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
Karen Abbott
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
Howard Blum
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
Serhii Plokhy
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
Lynne Olson
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
Jack Barsky
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: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy
Judith Pearson
Paper Book
Virginia Hall left her Baltimore home in 1931 to enter the Foreign Service and went to work for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) when Hitler was building toward the peak of his power in Europe. She was assigned to France, where she helped the Resistance movement, escaped prisoners of...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.