Margaret H. (ExPeruanista) - , reviewed on 10/9/2014 + 68 more book reviews

This book really should have "in the Twentieth Century" added to the subtitle after "Espionage," as the author barely acknowledges that there was any spying before 1900. Sir Francis Walsingham? Major Andre? Famous spies of the American Civil War? No mention of any of them. Also, the author's use of twentieth century espionage fiction is very limited - he quotes extensively from Graham Greene and John Le Carre. To a more limited extent, he also uses Kipling's Kim, Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands, Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps, W. Somerset Maugham's Ashenden, and Eric Ambler's A Coffin for Demetrios, as well he might, since they're classics in the field. Tom Clancy, David Ignatius, Ian Fleming, Charles McCarry, Frederick Forsyth, and Robert Littell get brief attention, but Len Deighton, Gavin Lyall, Michael Gilbert, and other masters of the post-World War II spy novels get no acknowledgement. Perhaps they didn't fit in with his argument that real-life espionage is more strange and wonderful than spy fiction?

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details