BOOK REVIEWS & RECOMMENDATIONS — Welcome to our annual vacation e-book evaluate and proposals listing, the place we spotlight a number of the terrific books which have been reviewed and featured in The Cipher Transient in current months. Since our summer season e-newsletter, we have coated and reviewed greater than 35 books – typically sliced and diced by world-class subject material consultants. On this e-newsletter, we’ve singled out a couple of dozen that obtained our highest 4 out of 4 “trench coat” score. As at all times, the books reviewed in The Cipher Transient characterize an eclectic mixture of subjects starting from the historical past of previous wars to the prospects of future ones. We’ve included each fiction and non-fiction faves.
FICTION FAVORITES:
Tops on many people’ listing is The Persian: A Novel by veteran CIA analyst David McCloskey. For this one, we turned as soon as once more to Joe Zacks, a veteran of four-plus many years of presidency service, to supply his take. Zacks writes that The Persian will be the most interesting of McCloskey’s 4 spy novels to this point (excessive reward given how effectively the primary three have been obtained). For this one, Zacks calls McCloskey’s novel “a complicated and multidimensional depiction of human nature and the motivations that propel individuals to motion. It brings the HUMINT self-discipline to life, vividly portraying how a complicated intelligence service identifies, targets, and in the end recruits and handles an agent whereas plumbing the depths of the agent’s psyche and inside conflicts.” To be taught much more concerning the e-book – and its creator – Cipher Transient CEO & Writer Suzanne Kelly did a debrief with McCloskey on this fun-filled Cowl Tales podcast.
To evaluate veteran spy novelist Daniel Silva’s 25th e-book, An Inside Job, we turned to a few CIA veterans – Anne and Jay Gruner. The newest Silva e-book brings again expert artwork restorer and former Mossad chief Gabriel Allon, in a fast-paced story involving artwork theft, European crime and corruption – and a newly elected Pope. The Gruners’ evaluate declares that Silva has as soon as once more demonstrated that he’s a grasp of his craft.
Whereas Gabriel Allon, the hero of Silva’s novel, is a fictional former Mossad officer, a real Mossad alumni, Yariv Inbar, can be a prolific novelist. His newest e-book, Behind the Set off, was reviewed for us by Dr. Ken Dekleva, a novelist in his personal proper and a former Regional Medical Officer/Psychiatrist for the State Division. With that background, Dekleva was fast to identify Inbar’s talent in describing the human, emotional, and psychological features of espionage. The e-book options two central feminine characters and a Center East canvas.
Not the entire novels that gained plaudits on The Cipher Transient got here from long-time authors. There was the thriller The Moldavian Gambit by first-time novelist Brad Meslin a couple of man-portable nuclear system that goes lacking on the time the Soviet Union was coming aside within the early Nineties and will have fallen into the palms of a terrorist — and presumably smuggled into Paris. We requested James Lawler, a former CIA officer with deep expertise in thwarting rogue state weapons proliferators and the creator of a number of well-received novels himself to evaluate it. Lawler gave Meslin excessive marks for technical accuracy and heart-stopping story telling. Meslin additionally joined us on a Cowl Tales podcast to debate what impressed him to write down the novel and his sources and strategies for conserving readers on the sting of their seats.
THE NON-FICTION BOOKS THAT ROCKED CIPHER BRIEF REVIEWERS:
With Latin American counternarcotics operations a lot within the information, a well timed learn is After Escobar: Taking Down the Infamous Cali Godfathers and the Greatest Drug Cartel in Historical past reviewed by veteran authorities lawyer Terence Verify. Written by former DEA brokers Chris Feistl and Dave Mitchell with an help from Jessica Balboni, the e-book tells the two-year saga within the mid-Nineties of the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of the main “godfathers” of the Cali drug cartel (aka “Cocaine, Inc.”) one of many greatest multi-billion-dollar drug trafficking enterprises of all time. In his evaluate, Verify writes that After Escobar “can be a story about diplomacy, and the ability it has as a drive multiplier for our legislation enforcement and army….(exhibiting) the reader the significance of the diplomatic cadre in serving to to deliver down the Cali Cartel by doing the arduous work of negotiating with the Colombian authorities.”
The criticality of diplomacy was on the forefront of one other e-book this fall. Nice Energy Diplomacy: The Ability of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger by A. Wess Mitchell. The e-book was reviewed for The Cipher Transient by retired U.S. Ambassador Gary Grappo. In his evaluate Grappo describes the e-book as “half historical past lesson and half instruction guide for nationwide leaders and diplomats, reprising the ways, methods, strategies and actions of earlier main state leaders and diplomats who discovered themselves confronting related nice energy contests.” Grappo lauds the e-book for being a: “resounding reaffirmation of the worth and significance of diplomacy as an indispensable part of nationwide energy not simply prior to now however much more so right now. The abilities of its practitioners might have rejuvenating. However there isn’t a denying that diplomacy in the end holds options to the issues of right now.”
A number of books we are going to spotlight right here provide recent appears at previous historical past. Let’s begin with one from Yale College Press: No Extra Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World Warfare One. The e-book was written by Andrew Lambert and one in every of our most prolific reviewers, Jean-Thomas Nicole, a Coverage Advisor with Public Security Canada, reviewed it. Nicole praised the e-book for its reminder of “the enduring utility of maritime energy, the virtues of restraint, and the need of sustaining affect with out overreach.” Nicole notes that these themes resonate strongly with right now’s world challenges.
World Warfare II and the occasions that led as much as and adopted it are sometimes good fodder for books. Amongst people who stood out for us this yr was “The Spy and the Satan” by Cipher Transient professional Tim Willasey-Wilsey. Journalist and creator Michael Smith reviewed it for us and known as it “one of many biggest untold tales of the Second World Warfare intelligence.” It’s the story of a Lithuanian-born ‘Baltic-German’ who ended up working for British intelligence and managed to penetrate the very best Nazi circles previous to the struggle together with having a number of conferences with Adolf Hitler himself. Willasey-Wilsey additionally joined us on a Cipher Transient Cowl Tales podcast to speak about this outstanding story.
In October, we printed a evaluate of The Traitor’s Circle: The True Story of a Secret Resistance Community in Nazi Germany – and the Spy Who Betrayed Them by Jonathan Freedland. Australian author Susan Gorgioski reviewed it and advised us the e-book reads like a detective novel however tells the actual story of a “little-known group of opponents to the Nazi regime in Germany who have been keen to sacrifice careers, social place, cash, and in the end for some, their lives.”
After which there was Rain of Wreck: Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Give up of Japan by Richard Overy and reviewed by former senior CIA clandestine service officer (and Cipher Transient professional) Sonya Seunghye Lim. In her evaluate, Lim praises Rain of Wreck for being a “thought-provoking and disturbing e-book” and its clarification for “why armed conflicts will proceed to plague the world: dehumanizing the enemy, depersonalizing killings by making assaults as distant as attainable, and glamorizing fight serve to palliate our collective conscience and to justify the persistence of jingoism.”
However not all the good things got here from historical historical past. CNN anchor Jake Tapper printed a e-book in October known as Race Towards Terror: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer on the Daybreak of the Ceaselessly Warfare. So, we turned to somebody with deep experience – Joe Zacks who was simply wrapping up a 42-year profession – half within the Military and half as a CIA officer – and whose last put up was Deputy Assistant Director of the CIA for Counterterrorism, to evaluate it for us. Excellent credentials to guage Tapper’s e-book which Zacks describes as “ a mixture of detective story and authorized drama” a couple of six-year odyssey of tenacious federal prosecutors making an attempt to deliver an al Qaeda terrorist to justice.
A few of our greatest obtained books have been about future intelligence challenges. For instance, there may be The Fourth Intelligence Revolution: The Way forward for Espionage and the Battle to Save America by Anthony Vinci. We tapped Cipher Transient professional and principal with the Cyber Initiatives Group Glenn Gerstell to evaluate that one for us. In his evaluate, Gerstell describes the e-book as analyzing “the confluence of more and more complicated geopolitical challenges and of world technological advances” and tells us that the conclusion is that “America’s spy businesses should not merely adapt but in addition dominate this dynamic if we’re to blunt (if not defeat) our adversaries.”
However regardless of how good the know-how goes ahead, you’re gonna want individuals to make all of it work proper – and so they must be individuals who can get a safety clearance. So, what do that you must know with a view to attempt to do this? Thankfully, there’s a e-book for that. Belief Me: A Information to Secrets and techniques: Who Will get Them and Why We Have Such a Combined Observe File with Them by Lindy Kyzer. We trusted retired CIA Deputy Director for Evaluation (and present Cipher Transient Skilled) Linda Weissgold to evaluate it. Weissgold can be a professor at Texas A&M’s Bush College of Authorities and Public Service in Washington, DC and says she now recommends the e-book to her college students who wish to perceive the opaque but essential means of getting a safety clearance. The e-book gives sensible and philosophical recommendation that seeks to demystify the method.
Whereas somewhat tougher to offer as vacation items, there are some podcasts interviews we extremely advocate as effectively, together with:
- A dialogue with Marine and CIA floor department veteran – and award-winning author Elliot Ackerman discussing his newest novel Sheepdogs.
- A deep dive into North Korean issues with Ambassador Joe DeTrani on his memoir The North Korean Risk: Intelligence and Diplomacy.
- A dialogue with journalist and Marine veteran Chas Henry a couple of devastating Pacific cyclone that triggered a horrendous fireplace at Marine Corps Base in Japan.
- And even a e-book by a publishing professional, Jane Friedman, who gives important recommendation on how YOU can write your individual e-book. Get her information, The Enterprise of Being a Author, and possibly in a few years The Cipher Transient can be carrying a evaluate of your e-book.
Earlier than we go – we must always word that a few of our reviewers are actually powerful graders – and there are dozens of different books we’ve reviewed that got here in with just below the 4 trench coat score that we’re sure you’ll get pleasure from. So, make sure to take a look at the full listing of opinions right here.
Glad Vacation procuring and studying!
Are you Subscribed to The Cipher Transient’s Digital Channel on YouTube? There isn’t any higher place to get clear views from deeply skilled nationwide safety consultants.
Learn extra expert-driven nationwide safety insights, perspective and evaluation in The Cipher Transient as a result of Nationwide Safety is Everybody’s Enterprise.
