The Spy and the Traitor

The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

559 pages

English language

Published Dec. 16, 2018

ISBN:
978-1-9848-4153-7
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OCLC Number:
1052763966

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5 stars (6 reviews)

1 edition

Somewhat slow building, well worth some patience

4 stars

A few months after finishing The Bureau (definitely one of my favorite TV series ever), I was craving more spy stories. I kept seeing this book recommended. I don't think I even knew if it was fiction or non-fiction before starting it (it's a true story).

For the first half of the book, I thought it was going to be filled with interesting facts but lacking the intensity and drama that I wanted from it. Then I realized that nearly all of the drama was going to be saved for one story, the escape. It turned out to be worth the wait.

There are lots of important, interesting, and fun facts in this book. There are lessons about leadership and planning and trust.

Here are some of my favorite parts:

On some gadgets:

During the war, the Hanslope boffins produced an astonishing array of technical gadgets for spies, including secure …

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Subjects

  • Intelligence service
  • Cold War
  • Soviet Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoĭ bezopasnosti
  • Soviet Union
  • Large type books
  • History
  • Biography
  • Spies

Places

  • Soviet Union