Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley

When Elizabeth Bentley slunk into an FBI field office in 1945, she was thinking only of saving herself from NKGB assassins who were hot on her trail. She had no idea that she was about to start the greatest Red Scare in U.S. history. Bentley (1908-1963) was a Connecticut Yankee and Vassar graduate who spied for the Soviet Union for seven years. She met with dozens of highly placed American agents who worked for the Soviets, gathering their secrets and stuffing sensitive documents into her knitting bag. But her Soviet spymasters suspected her of disloyalty--and even began plotting to silence her forever. To save her own life, Bentley decided to betray her friends and comrades to the FBI. Her defection effectively shut down Soviet espionage in the United States for years. Despite her crucial role in the cultural and political history of the early Cold War, Bentley has long been overlooked or underestimated by historians. Now, new documents from Russian and American archives make it possible to assess the veracity of her allegations. This long overdue biography rescues Elizabeth Bentley from obscurity and tells her dramatic life story.

THE SPY WORE RED, New York Times best seller listWhen Aline Griffith was born in Pearl River, New York, in 1923, one might have guessed from her exceptional beauty that a career as an actress or a model might be in her future. Few would have imagined that twenty-one years later, she would find herself in Spain as a deep-cover OSS agent, infiltrating the highest levels of Spanish society; or that five years later still, she would marry a Spanish grandee and become one of the most watched, most admired, most fascinating women of international society. This is the story of Aline, Countess of Romanones, a story of courage, beauty and success that will move readers with its amazing combination of autobiographical fact and narrative force. Reading The Spy Wore Red is like stepping into the script of Hitchcock's 1946 Cary Grant- Ingrid Bergman film Notorious. After confiding in 1943 to a young admirer her desire to serve the Allied cause, the fledgling model is recruited, sent to Washington. Trained as a spy and flown to Spain, Her mission: to uncover Madrid's high-society links to the German Nazi regime. As an undercover agent, Aline wends her way through lavish Madrid balls and dinners greeting the crème de la crème of Spanish society noting handshakes, wings and now among suspected – individuals. She and her colleagues live by code name, hers bing”Tiger” and by their wits. When security is breached, Aline is endangered, and she narrowly escapes several attempts on her life. When she falls in love with one of her fellow agents, complications-and hazards- abound. The Spy Wore Red is full of amazing plot turns, and readers will have to remind themselves they are reading a memoir. It is also full of astounding charters and some startling revelations about them: Madrid high society is peppered with Nazi spies, and successful- is to expose them. “My colleague Aline Romanones has written a Fascinating and exiting story evoking those marvelous days we served in the OSS in Europe. Her narrative reflects sensitively and accurately the clandestine intrigue and strategic maneuvers that marked the struggle between the secret services as well as the Allied and Axis powers and the atmosphere and high social live in wartime Spain.”William J. Casey, OSS agent, 1942-45, CIA director, 1981-1987

Sixteen-year-old Ilse and her older brother Wolf must hone their magical skills to sabotage Hitler's attempt to build an atom bomb and uncover a spy using dark magic to thwart them.

“A wicked sharp spy novel…Equal parts Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Killing Eve.” –S. A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears An exhilarating spy thriller written by an intelligence veteran about two women CIA agents whose paths become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division--one that's coming from inside the agency. Lyndsey Duncan worries her career with the CIA might be over. After lines are crossed with another intelligence agent during an assignment, she is sent home to Washington on administrative leave. So when a former colleague--now Chief of the Russia Division--recruits her for an internal investigation, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Lyndsey was once a top handler in the Moscow Field Station, where she was known as the "human lie detector" and praised for recruiting some of the most senior Russian officials. But now, three Russian assets have been exposed--including one of her own--and the CIA is convinced there's a mole in the department. With years of work in question and lives on the line, Lyndsey is thrown back into life at the agency, this time tracing the steps of those closest to her. Meanwhile, fellow agent Theresa Warner can't avoid the spotlight. She is the infamous "Red Widow," the wife of a former director killed in the field under mysterious circumstances. With her husband's legacy shadowing her every move, Theresa is a fixture of the Russia Division, and as she and Lyndsey strike up an unusual friendship, her knowledge proves invaluable. But as Lyndsey uncovers a surprising connection to Theresa that could answer all of her questions, she unearths a terrifying web of secrets within the department, if only she is willing to unravel it....

Arya is a young RAW recruit, pumped up about his first assignment as reinforcement to a veteran spymaster – Virat and his team. In a mind-boggling turn of events, Arya finds himself being interrogated by the very terrorist he is after – Mir. Barely has he escaped that he learns an excruciating fact about Virat and team. They have killed undercover agents of the CIA while hunting Mir. Hunted by the ruthless CIA, he can survive only using his wit and courage. On the run, declared rogue, he fights lone battles with enemy intelligence agencies. He creates a vivid deception, not only to throw CIA off the track, but also to get the actual traitor out in the open. He eventually gets his man, but then realizes that a much more devious plan is at work, with the real mastermind attempting to blacklist RAW as revenge for their role during Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. Arya evolves into the perfect weapon, but will he be in time to save RAW and his country’s repute? Or turn out to be a pawn in the game of master spies and espionage?

THE TRUE STORY THAT INSPIRED THE NETFLIX FILM THE RED SEA DIVING RESORT. 'Secret missions, brazen deceptions and thrilling, clandestine operations - Red Sea Spies has it all. But it has something more important, too - a genuine human mission that made a difference.' David Hoffman, author of The Billion Dollar Spy '[A] thrilling and meticulous account.' The Times In the early 1980s on a remote part of the Sudanese coast, a new luxury holiday resort opened for business. Catering for divers, it attracted guests from around the world. Little did the holidaymakers know that the staff were undercover spies, working for the Mossad - the Israeli secret service. Providing a front for covert night-time activities, the holiday village allowed the agents to carry out an operation unlike any seen before. What began with one cryptic message pleading for help, turned into the secret evacuation of thousands of Ethiopian Jews who had been languishing in refugee camps, and the spiriting of them to Israel. Written in collaboration with operatives involved in the mission, endorsed as the definitive account and including an afterword from the commander who went on to become the head of the Mossad, this is the complete, never-before-heard, gripping tale of a top-secret and often hazardous operation. 'Red Sea Spies is what really happened. There is none of the Hollywood colouring-in, and yet the book is all the more vivid for it ... part thriller, part dark comedy, all true ... Berg brings out the native drama in an improbable story of a clandestine homecoming.' Spectator