Spy Wars

From the authors who created Eyewitness to World War II and numerous other best-selling reference books, this is the shocking story behind the covert activity that shaped the outcome of one of the world's greatest conflicts - and the destiny of millions of people. National Geographic's landmark book illuminates World War II as never before. Seven narrative chapters reveal the truth behind the lies and deception that shaped the "secret war".

They call themselves "January 30," after the date of a British massacre in Belfast. They are allied with no one, killing American diplomats and KGB agents, Arabs and Israelis, IRA gunmen and Loyalist soldiers. But they are definitely the enemies of peace - and they are plotting an assassination that will shatter the uneasy truce that reigns in Ireland.

A group of Colombian soldiers prepares to raid a drug lord's safe house on the Venezuelan border. They're watching him with an American-made drone, about to strike using military tactics taught to them by US soldiers who honed their skills to lethal perfection in Iraq. In Missionaries, Phil Klay examines the globalization of violence through the interlocking stories of four characters and the conflicts that define their lives.

Two brutal murders and millions of missing dollars in the growing UN/Iraq oil-for-food scandal have led Castillo and his team to an estancia in Uruguay, where the man they seek is murdered right before their eyes. Who is responsible? Most likely, the people higher up in the dirty-money chain - those willing to risk anything to keep their secrets from being revealed.

Former FARC revolutionary Sofia Lozano has become the world’s most cunning assassin, and now she’s selling her services to the highest bidder. But when the CIA learns that Sofia’s newest client is an international terrorist syndicate with plans to kill countless civilians, her name is placed on David Rivers’ kill list. As David and his team track the elusive operative from Colombia’s triple canopy jungles to its Pacific mangrove swamps, his team stumbles onto a larger conspiracy: a narco-sub loaded with cocaine and evidence of a terrorist attack-in-progress.

Between 1939 and 1945, more than 70 Allied men and women were convicted - mostly in secret trials - of working to help Nazi Germany win the war. In the same period, hundreds of British Fascists were also interned without trial on specific and detailed evidence that they were spying for, or working on behalf of, Germany. Collectively, these men and women were part of a little-known Fifth Column: traitors who committed crimes including espionage, sabotage, communicating with enemy intelligence agents, and attempting to cause disaffection among Allied troops.

When the launch of their powerful new hypersonic missile ends in destruction, the Chinese government needs someone to blame. Was it a failure of engineering, or sabotage? The chief engineer on the project, Dr. Yang Dàyóu, is targeted as the scapegoat and arrested—unable to help his family as they are hunted down by the military. Op-Center’s Lt. Grace Lee is sent to China on a solo reconnaissance mission, but when she sees an opportunity to free the imprisoned scientist, she seizes it.

The British Secret Service has been cloaked in secrecy and shrouded in myth since it was created 100 years ago. Our understanding of what it is to be a spy has been largely defined by the fictional worlds of James Bond and John le Carre. MI6 provides a unique and unprecedented insight into this secret world and the reality that lies behind the fiction.

Something is amiss on the open waters of the Indian Ocean. When a group of adventurers investigates a luminescent pool of water, they come in contact with a deadly organism risen from the depths. To combat this threat, Sigma Force races across the globe searching for a cure that may be hidden within humanity’s genetic code. But elements of an ancient conspiracy want the plague to spread, and they have a mole entrenched within Sigma Force.

Life is good for Rafael de Bourbon. The 40-year-old Spaniard recently married to a wealthy English beauty, and is days away from opening a luxury boutique hotel off the southern coast of Thailand. But when the Royal Thai Police storm the hotel and arrest him for blackmail and extortion, "Rafa" is thrown into Bangkok's most notorious jail. In desperation, he reaches out to the one man who can prove his innocence.

New York Times bestselling author Alan Furst is internationally renowned as master of the European espionage thriller. Unfolding in September of 1939 as Hitler’s Wehrmacht ravages Warsaw, the Polish Officer discloses the clandestine existence of Polish Military Intelligence.

The Rogue Warrior's taking a flying leap -- a high-altitude jump over the South China Sea. His mission: scuttle a Chinese freighter's cargo of nuclear hardware and its crack crew of naval commandos. It's a leave-no-tracks, take-no-prisoners operation, and business as usual for Marcinko. But on board he makes a chilling discovery: a cache of state-of-the-art command and control equipment, all made in the U.S.A. -- and primed for America's destruction!

In Any Means Necessary, nuclear waste is stolen by jihadists in the middle of the night from an unguarded New York City hospital. The police, in a frantic race against time, call in the FBI. Luke Stone, head of an elite, secretive, department within the FBI, is the only man they can turn to. Luke realizes right away that the terrorists’ aim is to create a dirty bomb, that they seek a high-value target, and that they will hit it within 48 hours. A cat and mouse chase follows, pitting the world’s most savvy government agents versus its most sophisticated terrorists. As Agent Stone peels back layer after layer, he soon realizes he is up against a vast conspiracy, and that the target is even more high value than he could have imagined—leading all the way to the President of the United States. In Oath of Office, a biological agent is stolen from a biocontainment lab. Weaponized, it could kill millions, and a desperate national hunt ensues to catch the terrorists before it is too late. Luke Stone, head of an elite FBI department, with his own family still in jeopardy, has vowed to walk away—but when the new President, barely sworn in, calls him, he can’t turn his back on her.

In a small town in Utah, people are contracting a horrific disease with alarming plague-like symptoms. The CDC quarantines the area, but outbreaks are already being reported in China, Japan, and England. Evidence suggests this is not a new strain of superbug - but an act of war, an orchestrated deployment of unstoppable terror....

Prior to World War II, Josephine Baker was a music-hall diva renowned for her singing and dancing, her beauty and sexuality; she was the most highly paid female performer in Europe. When the Nazis seized her adopted city, Paris, she was banned from the stage, along with all "negroes and Jews". Yet, instead of returning to America, she vowed to stay and to fight the Nazi evil. Overnight she went from performer to Resistance spy. In Agent Josephine best-selling author Damien Lewis uncovers this little known history of the famous singer's life.

1997. Amy Novak has lost the two great loves in her life: her husband, Michael, and her first love, music. With the first anniversary of Michael's death approaching, Amy buries herself in her job as an archivist. And when a newly declassified file lands on her desk, she is astonished to uncover proof that Agent 'Colette' existed—a name spoken only in whispers; an identity so secret that it has never been verified.

After a particularly long cruise, the USS United States is in port in Naples, and her crew is enjoying its first liberty in months. But something's not right. Several crew members have not reported back from their leave, and a beautiful American reporter who boarded the United States in Tangiers may not be a reporter, or even an American. When one of Jake's men, in a hotel in Naples, witnesses an assassination attempt led by this woman, Grafton realizes the situation is much more serious than he suspected.

In the tradition of Ben MacIntyre, Game of Spies tells the story of a lethal spy triangle in Bordeaux between 1942 and 1944 - and of France's greatest betrayal, by aristocratic and right-wing Resistance leader Andre Grandclement. The story centres on three men - one British, one French and one German - and the duel they fought out in an atmosphere of collaboration, betrayal and assassination, in which comrades sold fellow comrades, Allied agents and downed pilots to the Germans as casually as they would a bottle of wine.

When American citizens in Nigeria are kidnapped and held for ransom, David Rivers and his team of CIA contractors find themselves enveloped in an international firestorm. With a US administration determined to protect American lives, David has the authority to do whatever it takes. But as David’s team tracks down the mysterious terror cell responsible for the kidnapping, they uncover a conspiracy beyond anything they could have imagined.

Meet the Williamson sisters, Britain’s most treasured World War II veterans. Now in their late nineties, Josephine and Penny are in huge demand, popping up at commemorative events and history festivals all over the country. Despite their age, they’re still in great form—perfectly put together, sprightly and sparky, and always in search of their next “excitement.” This time it’s a trip to Paris to receive the Légion d’honneur for their part in the liberation of France. And as always, they will be accompanied by their devoted great-nephew, Archie.