German spies and saboteurs in the United States. Books about espionage before and during World War II Within each section, they’re listed in alphabetical order by the authors’s last names. The most remarkable of these books are David Talbot‘s revisionist biography of Allen Dulles, The Devil’s Chessboard Dana Priest and William Arkin’s extraordinary expose of the military-intelligence complex, Top Secret and Max Hastings’ revisionist history of secret intelligence in World War II, The Secret War.Įach of the more than thirty titles below is linked to my review of the book. Since January 2010, I’ve read more than thirty excellent nonfiction books about espionage. But, for assurance that what I read is less likely to be fictional, there’s nothing like an in-depth nonfiction treatment of the field by a credible author. In fact, many of those authors are veterans of the intelligence game and should know what they write about.

A few authors are particularly diligent about research and accuracy, so most of what I’ve picked up is probably true.

For good or ill, a fair amount of what I’ve learned about espionage over the years has come from reading spy stories.

Are secret agents true