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Thread: Tips, reference material on spy novels?

TRX
12-02-2014

Originally Posted by Namatu
Some nonfiction to begin with:
  Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hansen Betrayed America
  Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames
  Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy
  Spymaster, by Oleg Kalugin
  The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
  If you're not already familiar with how the CIA is organized, Ronald Kessler's Inside the CIA is a good reference, possibly dated because it's been a long time since I've read it, but the CIA hasn't changed radically.

I've read all but one of those, and I'll agree that it's a good list.

Though there were some extravagantly Bondian spies in real life - Richard Sorge and Kim Philby, for example - most spies lead very dull lives in order to keep their cover secure, and their work is mostly tedious and boring. At least, it is if they are successful.

One thing to think about: almost any electronic communication can be easily intercepted by government, and nowadays private or privatized, organizations. The old tradecraft techniques - Morse code over short wave, dead drops (think of the volume of data you could put on a micro-SD card!), etc. aren't dead; they're even more important now than before. The main difference is that instead of calling up the office on his cellular phone, your character is limited to a once a week or once a month dead drop, or very low bandwidth radio, or even personal ads in the newspaper or Craigslist.