I Lie for a Living: Greatest Spies of All Time

by International Spy Museum

Top Secret is definitely not the right word for the International Spy Museum—its launch in 2002 made news and it has been high-profile ever since, with attendance growing by leaps and bounds. The International Spy Museum Handbook of Practical Spying has already been declassified to the delight of those in the need-to-know. Now, following up on that success, here's an illustrated biographical who's who of spydom from biblical days to recent times. I Lie for a Living is a regular rogue's gallery of history's most accomplished intriguers and intelligence operatives, famous and infamous alike.

It's amazing how colorful some of these characters are, like 16th century playwright, brawler and secret agent Christopher Marlow or Virginia Hall and Josephine Baker, femmes fatales both. Organized into ten thematic chapters, this light-hearted but clear-eyed look at lone-wolf moles, double agents, and intricate triple-crosses unmasks a wide-ranging roster from covert patriots whose unheralded heroism sometimes cost them their lives to mercenary traitors for sale to the highest bidder, like Benedict Arnold or Aldrich Ames.

It's a for-your-eyes-only kind of book, so beware—if you don't watch your back it's a sure bet someone will be reading it over your shoulder.

Genres: Nonfiction, Espionage, History, Biography Memoir, Biography

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2006

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quite a bit and it's a nice gateway to lot's of other reading about a ton of other spy's

[Angeluismanzueta · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is a biography (no main characters) there are the world's most important spies besides james bond most assassinated by few still alive. this book can relate to the james bond books although james bond is not a real spy but the world's famous spies including others. i had decided to rate this book 3 stars although spies might sound cool but when you read a little boring but very good descriptions.

[Erin Phelps · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spies! I love them.

This book is a great little sampling of mini-biographies of spies through the years, and pretty much just makes me want to find books about

1) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
2) Kim Philby and the Cambridge Spy Ring
3) Mata Hari

And read books by

1) John Le Carre
2) Graham Greene,
who were both spies.

So stay tuned for that.

[Steve O. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was great but a little short on the bios. Even though the library shelved it as young adult I had a hard time understanding the lingo used in its covers because of the writers intelligence backgrounds.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It gets an extra star from me because I read it when I was obsessed with spies and the International Spy Museum was awesome. Other wise it would have gotten two.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and interesting read. It's a lot of information to take in if read quickly but overall I enjoyed it.

[Carol Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am enjoying spy and conspiracy stories right now. This little book gives thumbnail biographies of the lesser known to the devious. I definitely want to visit the new Spy Museum in Washington D.C.

[T.M. Carper]

Mini bios of spymasters, spies, female spies, spycatchers, covert actors, masters of tradecraft, and so on. An interesting read and good background for anyone doing reports on esponiage. Borrow.

[Aria Hancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some things that were just phrased in a way that made it difficult to understand. Like the order that information was given was confusing. I blame that partially on the fact that I often read this book right before I went to sleep, so I was usually pretty tired, but it was still sometimes like that even when I wasn’t tired. Idk.

But that aside, this is a good book for learning brief summaries about various international spies throughout history. For the most part it doesn’t go very in-depth, but it’s a decent overview. The cover and chapter illustrations are really fun.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the spy museum so of course I had to pick this one up! It’s a fun introductory guide to a wide variety of well known spying cases. It’s not particularly deep and there are a few reused phrases, but overall I thought it was an interesting and compelling read.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I Lie for a Living: Greatest Spies of All Time", is a good insight into some of the older spies in history.

[Joebacca · Rating 3 out of 5]

short quick hits on some of the heroic, mysterious and notorious folks working in the shadows of history

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, but not a lot of detail on any single person. Good for inspiring readers to look further on their own!

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very poorly written.

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

- over 60 micro-biographies of some of the most famous spies in history; well-illustrated, simply written, but interesting none-the-less

[Sally Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book if you want a brief introduction to spies from the US, Europe, or Russia. The book has pictures of each spy for reference.