A message from Spybrary's John Koenig Spybrarians, some of you know me as much for my tales of hunting for and buying books as anything else. I have a lifelong passion for reading and books, passed along by my father. I cannot remember not being able to read, nor enjoying it. John Koenig with a haul of spy books. At age 8 or so I wrote and “published” a little book about the Civil War. … [Read more...] about From book nerd, to spy book scout to spy bookseller.
Spybrary Blog
Berlin: Uprising by Paul Grant – Review
Review by John Koenig. Post-war Berlin is the epicenter of Paul Grant’s third entry in his fine trilogy, Berlin: Uprising. Change is happening in Germany, even after the relentless upsets of World War II and the Russian “liberation” and occupation of Berlin and much of the country. Berlin: Uprising stands on it’s own, but getting your hands on the self-published Berlin: Caught in the … [Read more...] about Berlin: Uprising by Paul Grant – Review
The Kresal Dossier – The Russian Engima
One of the joys of listening to and being involved with the community around the Spybrary podcast has been discovering books I might never have heard of otherwise. Clive Egleton's The Russian Enigma (aka Pandora's Box) is just such an example of that, having been posted about by C.G. Faulkner whom I had the pleasure of meeting (alongside other Spybrarians) at last spring's Spy-Con. Though it took … [Read more...] about The Kresal Dossier – The Russian Engima
The Intelligence Trail – News just in for spy tourists (and not the sort that visit Salisbury.)
The Intelligence Trail is Spybrary Approved. This was not a freebie either (Brian is Scottish after all.) We paid the retail price and think its worth every penny! Who’s heard of London’s in-depth spy tour, THE INTELLIGENCE TRAIL? Perhaps you’ve listened to Spybrary Episode 24, where Founder and Guide Brian Gray waxed lyrical (well, a lot, to be honest. Too much for one episode, in … [Read more...] about The Intelligence Trail – News just in for spy tourists (and not the sort that visit Salisbury.)
The Kresal Dossier: Doctor Who – Endgame
Philby. Burgess. Maclean. If you're a student of Cold War spies (and if you're at Spybrary there's a decent chance you are), those names will be very familiar. The latter pair's 1951 defection helped to make public the most famous spy scandal of the era. In the decades since, they've also inspired countless works of fiction on page and screen. One of the more unusual comes from the realm of … [Read more...] about The Kresal Dossier: Doctor Who – Endgame
Review – The Avengers: Too Many Targets
If you're a fan of the spy-fi side of spy fiction chances are you're a fan of The Avengers. With Patrick Macnee as the debonair John Steed alongside fellow agents such as Diana Rigg's Emma Peel, it's become a quintessential piece of 1960s British television. Indeed, the series was part of my teenage years as I watched re-runs of it and The Saint on BBC America some four decades after it originally … [Read more...] about Review – The Avengers: Too Many Targets
Review – Into The Shadows: Assassination Corps
Having read and very much enjoyed The Fever, the opening salvo from Michael Brady's Into The Shadows range, I was eager to dig into the second volume. This one would take the firmly established CIA non-official cover (NOC) officer Michael Brennan to Asia in what seemed to be another tale potentially ripped from the headlines. Would it live up to volume one, though? As the book opens, Brennan is … [Read more...] about Review – Into The Shadows: Assassination Corps