Let’s get cooking, lets?
Cookbook / Whiskey Class
Yep, you learn that proper. Main our listing of summer season reads is one which has taken over the #1 spot in Amazon’s whiskey and alcoholic spirits classes, A Spy Walked Into A Bar: A Practitioner’s Information to Cocktail Tradecraft by former senior CIA Officers Rob Dannenberg and Joseph P. Mullin Jr. Consider it as a real-life information to spies and their favourite cocktails. Primarily based on experiences from their clandestine operations backgrounds, Rob and Joe have collected, curated and perfected the cocktails that had been loved whereas celebrating milestone occasions throughout their CIA careers. From the drinks they ordered after efficiently recruiting property, to marking the top of a significant operation, this e-book options actual life tales and homegrown pictures by the authors themselves.
Novels
Applicable for summer season, is a brand new spy novel from Tess Gerritsen, The Summer season Company: A Thriller. That is Tess’ second spy e-book, after her very profitable TV collection a number of years in the past referred to as Rizzoli and Isles. Gerritsen talked with Cipher Transient CEO & Writer Suzanne Kelly about her journey from the favored TV collection to spy writer within the Cowl Tales podcast – that was simply after her first e-book, The Spy Coastwas launched. Veteran CIA officers Jay and Anne Gruner reviewed her newest e-book about 4 retired CIA officers residing in Maine. The Gruners inform us it’s a “gripping account of a fancy set of murders, a attainable latest kidnapping, and a secretary who was lacking for 50 years.” speaking about her earlier spy-themed e-book.
Former U.S. counterterrorism officer and cybersecurity govt Neal Pollard broke the code on Ken Dekleva’s novel, The Russian Diplomat’s Spouse. In his assessment, Neal says whereas the e-book ostensibly is a spy novel set in Vienna, it’s actually a love story between two spies. Creator (and frequent Cipher Transient contributor) Dekleva attracts on his expertise as a psychiatrist working for the State Division in lots of the locales central to the e-book and his understanding of human motivation appears to convey his tales to life. We all know as a result of we additionally interviewed the writer for the Cowl Tales Podcast.
Talking of Dekleva, we tapped his experience to assessment a number of books by different authors this 12 months. One worthy of particular point out is The Poet’s Sport: A Spy in Moscow by Paul Vidich. Dekleva calls the novel is a terrific examine a former CIA station chief in Moscow, now working as an investor in a non-public fairness market in Moscow. The chief was referred to as again to obligation although to exfiltrate a former agent who claims to have explosive kompromat concerning America’s president. Navigating between two perilous worlds, these of Moscow and Washington, the storyline appears to supply proof that the chilly struggle by no means actually ended.
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Going again even additional in time, Dekleva additionally reviewed Task in Saigon: A Chilly Conflict Thriller by former senior CIA officer Invoice Rapp. In his assessment, Dekleva says that to really perceive the intelligence struggle in Vietnam, fiction could provide extra to the reader and Rapp’s novel is a most worthy learn.
Spy mastery is the theme of retired senior CIA officer Jim Lawler’s newest novel, The Traitors Story: A Novel of Treachery throughout the CIA. We turned to a different seasoned Company officer, and Cipher Transient knowledgeable, Joe Augustyn, to assessment it. Augustyn advised us: “Jim Lawler has written an intriguing and fascinating novel that ought to fulfill the urge for food of any spy novel fanatic. His character descriptions are spectacular, his data of the Company, its forms and its interior workings is deep, and his operational savvy is on show all through. Spectacular too is his understanding of the dynamics of private relationships, each skilled and private, which he calls the “metaphysics” of spying.” You’ll be able to be taught extra about Lawler and his e-book from this Cowl Tales Podcast interview.
Non- Fiction
Whereas now we have reported on a ton of fantastic fiction over the previous six months, actual life tales, historical past and evaluation have performed a good bigger position in our protection. Among the many books we’d like to ask (or re-invite) to your consideration listed below are: Secret Servants of the Crown: The Forgotten Girls of British Intelligence by Claire Hubbard-Corridor and reviewed for us by Cipher Transient knowledgeable Tim Willasey-Wilsey, a real-life former member of the British Overseas Workplace. Willasey-Wilsey referred to as it a “marvelous e-book and a invaluable addition to what’s identified concerning the early days of the British secret companies.” We had been fortunate to have the writer be part of us on a Cipher Transient Cowl Tales podcast as nicely, describing the untold tales of ladies who silently served – together with Katleen Pettigrew who was the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s “Miss Moneypenny” within the James Bond novels.
For an American tackle unsung ladies in intelligence, there may be Propaganda Women: The Secret Conflict of the Girls of the OSS by Lisa Rogak. The previous director of the CIA’s Workplace of Public Affairs, Tammy Kupperman Thorp reviewed the e-book that focuses on 4 ladies who performed important roles within the Workplace of Strategic Service (OSS) affect campaigns throughout World Conflict II. She writes that girls members of the OSS had been in control of “black propaganda” primarily a “collection of plausible lies designed to trigger the enemy troopers to lose coronary heart and finally give up.”
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There may be additionally a very good learn on the market concerning the spouses and households of intelligence operatives who function nicely. For an enchanting have a look at that life, take a look at Story of a CIA Spouse: Married to the Craft by Rosie Mowatt-Larssen. Veteran journalist and contributing Cipher Transient editor Elaine Shannon reviewed that one for us and lauds the writer’s “razor wit” and tales of life in quite a few abroad posts together with time in Moscow the place she helped slip KGB tails, serviced lifeless drops and lived a life that at occasions was the stuff of spy thrillers. For extra on Rosie – take a look at her interview with us for the Cowl Tales podcast.
We even have a number of books about motion in World Conflict II that we’d advocate. Let’s begin with Nothing However Braveness: The 82nd Airborne’s Daring D-Day Mission and Their Heroic Cost Throughout the La Fière Bridge by James Donovan. We went to a topic knowledgeable to assessment that one – retired Military Main Common Jack Leide. The e-book tells of some of the operationally vital however lesser-known tales of World Conflict II. Leide praised the writer for offering “extremely insightful and complicated descriptions and actions of, not solely the allied and German army forces arrayed in opposition to one another, however how the operation affected lots of the native French residents and resistance forces as nicely.”
For a far much less heroic view of a number of the occasions in that struggle, there may be The Traitor of Arnhem: The Untold Story of WWII’s Biggest Betrayal and the Second that Modified Historical past Eternally by Robert Verkaik. Not too long ago declassified British MI-5 paperwork assist animate this story of a strategic failure that delayed Allied victory within the struggle and got here at a steep human price. CIA veteran (and Cipher Transient knowledgeable) Martin Peterson reviewed the e-book for us and writes that the writer makes a robust circumstantial case that Anthony Blunt, one in all Russia’s British brokers, performed a significant position in passing intelligence to the Germans that broken the Allies probabilities of success.
For a narrative about operational and intelligence success, there’s Taking Halfway: Naval Warfare, Secret Codes and the Battle that Turned the Tide of World Conflict II by Martin Dugard. Had the Battle of Halfway turned out otherwise, Hawaii and the west coast of the US stood weak to Japanese assault. The battle was received by the U.S. although by way of a mix of steely management by Admiral Chester Nimitz, and sensible cryptological work led by a unusual Lieutenant Commander named Joe Rochefort. Usually, our go-to supply for e-book reviewers are gray-haired subject material specialists. For this one, we tried one thing completely different and gave the mission to Jack Montgomery, a U.S. Navy ensign at present serving on a Japan-based ship. Montgomery, whose grasp’s diploma thesis was on the Solomon Islands Marketing campaign, notes that the writer’s writing model with quick punchy sentences makes the e-book a fast, pleasing and informative learn. Dugard joined us for a Cowl Tales podcast lately by which he defined how he developed his story-telling model and researched the e-book.
One other e-book positive to fascinate many Cipher Transient readers is The Decided Spy: The Turbulent Life and Occasions of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner by veteran journalist Doug Waller. Wisner’s story seems like fiction. Standout observe star in school, lawyer, modern chief within the OSS throughout World Conflict II, one of many founders of the CIA, writer of profitable and unsuccessful covert actions, distinguished participant within the Georgetown social set – however sufferer of what would now be referred to as bipolar dysfunction – an sickness that finally led to his taking of his personal life. Former senior CIA officer (and Cipher Transient knowledgeable) Mike Sulick reviewed the e-book for us noting that the bio was lengthy overdue and “a useful contribution to understanding the rewards and pitfalls of covert motion as a instrument of American overseas coverage.” Waller joined us in a Cowl Tales podcast to share a number of the secrets and techniques of writing about this trailblazing determine of U.S. intelligence.
A trailblazer of a unique type was Main Common Jack Leide whose e-book, Skilled Braveness: My Journey in Navy Intelligence By way of Peace, Disaster and Conflict, was featured in a January assessment. Leide has been inducted into 4 completely different army halls of fame. The tales he tells – and the teachings realized in Vietnam, in China throughout Tiananmen Sq., and as Central Command Director of Intelligence throughout Desert Defend and Desert Storm make it a invaluable learn. He additionally kindly joined us for a Cipher Transient Cowl Tales podcast the place he advised us concerning the challenges of telling a demanding boss what they should know slightly than what they wish to hear.
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For a totally completely different type of e-book, there may be Zero Sum: The Arc of Worldwide Enterprise in Russia by Charles Hecker. It’s a have a look at the wild world of world commerce launched from Russia following the autumn of the Soviet Union. Cipher Transient knowledgeable Nick Fishwick, a veteran of almost thirty years with the British Overseas Workplace, reviewed it for us – calling it a “grizzly odyssey” and one “stuffed with crisp soundbites.” Hecker addresses the query of why the west was so improper in its evaluation of the put up hammer and sickle Russia.
Our tech savvy followers would possibly notably be all for Chasing Shadows: Cyber Espionage, Subversion, and the World Struggle for Democracy, by Ronald Deibert. Jean-Thomas Nicole, a coverage advisor with Public Security Canada and a frequent reviewer for us, says the e-book “provides an enlightening and terrifying glimpse into the ever-present and murky world of mercenary adware and digital transnational repression.”
To wrap up our summer season books e-newsletter, what can be extra applicable than a e-book about books? We’re referring to The Admiral’s Bookshelf, by retired Navy Admiral (and Cipher Transient knowledgeable) James Stavridis. This spring, the admiral printed his fifteenth e-book, and this one is about 25 books (a combination of fiction and non-fiction) that he credit with having helped information his profession and life. Former CIA officer (and writer himself) Jim Lawler reviewed it for us and praised the best way Stavridis candidly discusses not solely his successes – but in addition his stumbles throughout his lengthy profession and the way the books on his bookshelf can assist all of us keep away from some heartache and frustration. Suzanne hosted the Admiral on a Cowl Tales podcast the place he defined how leaders can be taught not solely from Solar Tzu’s The Artwork of Conflict but in addition Mario Puzo’s The Godfather.
We’ve solely touched on a number of the books reviewed in 2025 in The Cipher Transient. You’ll find all of our opinions right here.
One of many issues that makes Cipher Transient opinions of books so invaluable is that our reviewers are specialists in their very own proper. In case you suppose you’ll have the chops to be a Cipher Transient e-book reviewer, take a look at our tips – and should you nonetheless suppose you’d be a very good match – drop us a notice at undercover@thecipherbrief.com to toss your hat within the ring. Tell us your explicit pursuits and areas of experience. Each time attainable, we attempt to marry up knowledgeable reviewers with forthcoming books. We attempt to get the reviewers advance copies – and purpose to publish opinions proper across the time a e-book is goes on sale.
We’re wishing you cheerful summer season studying!
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