Long before the waterboarding controversy exploded in the media, one CIA agent had already gone public. In a groundbreaking 2007 interview with ABC News, John Kiriakou called waterboarding torture—but admitted that it probably worked. This book, at once a confessional, an adventure story, and a chronicle of Kiriakou’s life in the CIA, stands as an important, eloquent piece of testimony from a committed American patriot. In February 2002 Kiriakou was the head of counterterrorism in Pakistan. Under his command, in a spectacular raid coordinated with Pakistani agents and the CIA’s best intelligence analyst, Kiriakou’s field officers took down the infamous terrorist Abu Zubaydah. For days, Kiriakou became the wounded terrorist’s personal “bodyguard.” In circumstances stranger than fiction, as al-Qaeda agents scoured the streets for their captured leader, the best trauma surgeon in America was flown to Pakistan to make sure that Zubaydah did not die. In The Reluctant Spy, Kiriakou takes us into the fight against an enemy fueled by fanaticism. He chillingly describes what it was like inside the CIA headquarters on the morning of 9/11, the agency leaders who stepped up and those who protected their careers. And in what may be the book’s most shocking revelation, he describes how the White House made plans to invade Iraq a full year before the CIA knew about it—or could attempt to stop it. Chronicling both mind-boggling mistakes and heroic acts of individual courage, The Reluctant Spy is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the inner workings of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, the truth behind the torture debate, and the incredible dedication of ordinary men and women doing one of the most extraordinary jobs on earth.

The Reluctant Spy: Revolution is the first half of the timely story of Calvin Evan, a smart but flawed CIA agent, beginning with the 1979 Iranian revolution. Cal develops a critical Iranian operative and becomes embroiled in the audacious yet little honored effort to liberate the American embassy hostages. Romantically, hes caught between his love for a rescued refugee and the aggressive intentions of his bosss manipulative daughter. Ensnaring him, the savvy daughter navigates his career away from the political fallout of the missions failure and directs him to the battleground of the 1980s, the Nicaraguan Contra War, where Cal runs an illegal funding operation. Morally conflicted and victimized by his erratic behavior, he slips into a burned-out funk, posted to Switzerland. There, amidst the rise of Middle Eastern terrorism, his past pulls him into conflict with his former Iranian asset, possibly a double agent, and reunites him with his long ago betrayed love, now a death squad target.

John Mason, CIA agent and Medal of Honor recipient, is sent to England where he meets a most sinister terrorist who plans to destroy the economy of the UK. Aided by a beautiful and intelligent operative, Mason's relentless drive brings him to a final confrontation with the terrorist as the clock ticks rapidly against devastating tragedy.

A first-person account of a covert agent's two-decade career in the CIA describes his role in such cases as the capture of a senior Al-Qaida terrorist, offering insight into the recent national debate about the interrogation techniques used in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.

The instant New York Times bestseller from the author of the Newbery Medal winner When You Reach Me: a story about spies, games, and friendship. The first day Georges (the S is silent) moves into a new Brooklyn apartment, he sees a sign taped to a door in the basement: SPY CLUB MEETING—TODAY! That’s how he meets his twelve-year-old neigh­bor Safer. He and Georges quickly become allies—and fellow spies. Their assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr. X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer’s requests become more and more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend? “Will touch the hearts of kids and adults alike.” —NPR Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children’s Fiction Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and more!