Books reviewed in this edition of the IO Bookshelf
This issue of IO Bookshelf contains reviews of 15 books on various topics—unless otherwise noted, all reviewed by Hayden Peake. They are:
GENERAL
Backroom Deals in Our Backyard: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities and the Local Heroes Fighting Back By Miranda S. Spivack (The New Press, 2025) 221 pages, notes, index. (Reviewed by Joseph Gartin)
Creating Mission Impact: Essential Tradecraft for Innovators at CIA and Beyond By Joe Keogh, Joe Ball, and Greg Moore (Amazon, 2024), 264 pages, endnotes, appendix, photos.
Decolonizing Global Intelligence: Emerging Intelligence Trends and the Practice of Inclusive Statecraft By Pak Nung Wong (Routledge, 2025) 251 pages, end of chapter notes, index.
Problematising Intelligence Studies: Towards a New Research Agenda Edited by Hager Ben Jaffel and Sebastian Larsson(Routledge, 2022), 266 pages, end of chapter notes, index.
Treason, Terrorism, and Betrayal: Why Individuals Cross the Line By William Costanza (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2025) 279 pages, acronyms and abbreviations, endnotes, bibliography, index. (Reviewed by Joseph Gartin)
US Intelligence Failure and Knowledge Creation: Improving Intelligence Analysis By Carl W. Ford, Jr. and Kathleen M. Vogel (Routledge, 2025) 181 pages, end notes.
HISTORY
Admiral Canaris: How Hitler’s Chief of Intelligence Betrayed the Nazis By David Alan Johnson (Prometheus Books, 2024) 254 pages, endnotes, photos, index.
Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War By Gerri Willis(Harper, 2025), 266 pages, endnotes.
The Spy Archive: Hidden Lives, Secret Missions, and the History of Espionage By Dexter Ingram (IN Network, 2025) 216 pages, references, photos, no index.
The Spy Who Helped the Soviets Win Stalingrad and Kursk: Alexander Foote and the Lucy Spy Ring By Chris Jones (Pen & Sword Books, Ltd., 2025) 206 pages, endnotes, bibliography, photos, index.
Vigilance is Not Enough: A History of US Intelligence By Mark M Lowenthal (Yale University Press, 2025) 832 pages, notes, bibliography, index. (Reviewed by William D. Murray)
Women of Espionage: Inspiring True Stories of Four SOE Agents Instrumental in Altering the Outcome of WWII and Their Harrowing Capture by the Nazis By Camille Fox (Self-published, 2023) 189 pages, references, photos, no index.
MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY
Superspy: Hans Tofte: Intelligence Officer for SOE, OSS, and CIA By David Foy (Casemate Publishers, 2025) 213 pages, endnotes, bibliography, photos, index.
FICTION
A Sting in Her Tale
By Mark Ezra (No Exit Press, 2025). (Reviewed by John Ehrman)
REDISCOVERED
The Great Game: Memoirs of the Spy Hitler Couldn’t Silence By Leopold Trepper(McGraw-Hill, 1977) 442 pages, index, appendices. (Reviewed by John Ehrman)