Mr. Smiley’s Neighborhood

Many a tour guide has made a significant amount of money holding Sherlock Holmes or Dickens character tours in London looking at the real locations of their fictional counterparts. Some would consider this foolish. Why look at place that these characters never walked? They weren't real people after all. That's true, but visiting these places …

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Favorite Things in 2016

Here are some of my favorite things I did or discovered in 2016 in no particular order- Slough House series - Mick Herron blew me away with his spy series. I burned through all 5 books in the series in a matter of weeks. I read an advance copy of Spook Street, out early next year …

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Revolutionary War Spies – Spy Website of the Week 

This site, organized by the Clements Library of the University of Michigan, is a collection of letters to and for American and British Spies in the Revolutionary war. It's fascinating to see the actual letters that went back and forth between folks spying in the Revolutionary War and some of the history behind them. It …

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Intelligence bibliography – Spy Website of the Week

In my internet travels I stumbled on this site, The Literature of Intelligence, dedicated to nonfiction books and articles on the Intelligence business. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of what is found there but the depth of information collected is pretty extraordinary. Being organized by a former member of the CIA turned …

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KGB Headquarters – Spy image of the Week

For decades the thought of being taken to the KGB headquarters, also known as Lubyanka, struck fear in the hearts of Russians and spies alike. Originally an insurance agency, it was taken over by the secret services after the revolution and still houses part of Russia's current intelligence agency the FSB. The above picture was …

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