Useful Spy Books

One way for both insiders and outsiders to gain a fuller understanding of intelligence and security agencies is to read books. Agent Sonya is a recent book, and it is extremely interesting because Ursula Kuczynski was a German communist working for Russia, living through very interesting times in Germany, China, Switzerland and the UK. Most of the books on this page cover somewhat more recent material, but Agent Sonya is still a mandatory read because of its completely different perspective, describing a Russian female spy working in the west. In the book we read how 'watchers' who did surveillance on London streets used radio communications on a specific frequency, a frequency known to Soviet intelligence. The book's many details are very valuable to understand many near universal intelligence dilemmas. The book introduces the concept of the "Who hates whom"-chart within the intelligence community, and how hard it is to cooperate - with your own friends. Some of his works are more literary than others, so you may not find all his books to be to your liking. Although most of his books were fictional, John le Carré's work remains tremendously useful for understanding the relation between agencies, their governments, politicians, informers and agents.