#30: Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games by Tennent H. Bagly

I actually had a few good novels in line to read after The New York Trilogy, but then this called out to me from across the bookstore, “Laura! Read me! You love non-fiction!” and it’s hard to say “no” to things like that. So I did what I was told and pretty much devoured the book. And for lack of more formal wording, it was soooooooooo good. Spy Wars follows the story of Yuri Nosenko, a former KGB officer from the Soviet Union who defected (gave up all information) to the CIA in the middle of the Cold War. Tennent Bagly, author of the book and one of the lead officers in the Nosenko case, writes about how this man is known to many to have been an incredible help to US operations and conterintelligence, but could have actually been sent by the KGB as a plant. To this day, the US continues to support Nosenko and his information even though there are holes in his stories and absolutely no information to back up some of his claims. This is an excellent read because winding throughout the story are interactions with Lee Harvey Oswald, FBI traitor Robert Hanssen, history about Cold War spying, and other CIA moles. Most of the information in Spy Wars was incredibly intriguing, furthering my belief that the best learning often takes place when school is over. So go read about spies, people, because they’re probably already watching you!