A review of The Company written by Robert Littell and reviewed by John Koenig for the Koenig Memorandum. The Company is pleasantly paced, detailed to an extreme, bringing places and people alive on the page in memorable fashion, yet never bogging down. Somehow Littell maintains a descriptive narrative for nearly a thousand pages, and decades of event-filled years, and I never lost … [Read more...] about The Company: A Novel of the CIA by Robert Littell
CIA
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
‘Jack Ryan’ Goes Prime
First appearing nearly thirty-five years ago in the pages of The Hunt For Red October, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is arguably the closest thing to an American James Bond. Not only with a highly successful series of novels but also a trilogy of successful films in the early 1990s. Recently, however, the CIA analyst has struggled a bit at cinemas with two reboots not quite hitting it off with audiences. … [Read more...] about ‘Jack Ryan’ Goes Prime
‘The Very Best Men’ Of The CIA’s Early Years
My recent viewing of the film The Good Shepherd and my reading of the CIA History Staff's 2007 critique of the film left me curious about the fact behind the Hollywood fiction. Hitting upon a recommendation from that analysis and the film's archived website, I bought a book that had been sitting for months already on my Amazon wishlist. Published in 1995 with an updated preface in 2006, Evan … [Read more...] about ‘The Very Best Men’ Of The CIA’s Early Years
Review Of The Good Shepherd (2006)
I am quite fond of the saying that "truth is stranger than fiction." As those of us who read spy fact (and those fiction works which blur the boundaries between the two) know, it is often the case. The film The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro and released by Universal Pictures in 2006, would seem to be such an example on the surface. It is true that the film had the tagline … [Read more...] about Review Of The Good Shepherd (2006)
46: Jeremy Duns Re-investigates Oleg Penkovsky
The True Story of Oleg Penkovsky with Author Jeremy Duns Thrilling, evocative and hugely controversial, Codename: Hero blows apart the myths surrounding one of the Cold War's greatest spy operations and potentially it's greatest spy Oleg Penkovsky In the late 1950s the USSR appeared to be winning the arms race: their 1949 nuclear test signaled a direct … [Read more...] about 46: Jeremy Duns Re-investigates Oleg Penkovsky
Not every hero dies in uniform
Today is Memorial Day in America. Most of us will take a moment to think about those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom. Memorial Day got me thinking though, what about our brave men and women in the clandestine services? Shouldn't we spare a moment to think about them as well? Spying has always been about the shadows, the secrecy, the silent world. No fanfare, no fuss. … [Read more...] about Not every hero dies in uniform