Honey Trapped: Sex, Betrayal and Weaponized Love

by Henry R. Schlesinger

The potent mix of sex and espionage is one of the most recognised among real-life spies as well as aficionados of spy film adventures. If the so-called 'honey trap' is a Hollywood cliché, it is also a tried and very true piece of tradecraft in the real-life world of spy versus spy, and has been used by virtually every intelligence service from ancient times to the present day. Honey Trapped examines the most famous cases, from Mata Hari to Anna Chapman, and explores how ‘Romeo Spies’, such as Roald Dahl and Dmitri Bystrolyotov, also used sex to acquire sensitive information. It is a crossover book that should attract the traditional readers of espionage and history, as well as a wider audience with an interest in the mythology of femme fatales, pop culture, and sex.

Genres: History

498 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 12, 2022

Reviews

[Michael Martz · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Honey Trapped" is a misnomer for this non-fiction tome by Henry Schlesinger. A more appropriate title might be "Selected Women Spies, Some of Whom Used Sex as a Weapon, Through A Couple Thousand Years". It's not the book I thought it'd be, as the writing is dull, subject matter that ought to be interesting simply isn't, and the lurid details I was expecting of the episodes covered in the narrative are MIA.

What is covered in Honey Trapped is a relatively superficial history of women in espionage since biblical times. They often used sex in their tradecraft. However, as it's ostensibly the focus of the book based on its title, the topic is treated in a fairly academic and perfunctory way.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complete and colourful compendium of all iterations of the oldest and still effective pieces of tradecraft.

[Artur Atson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Täis sodi raamat