The Books Briefing: I Spy
Covers blown—by a page-turner. Your weekly guide to the best in books.
It’s a paradox of spycraft, just as it is of some forms of editing, that the most successful acts of espionage are the ones least noticed. And sometimes spies’ accomplishments are hidden even in history.
Take the novel-worthy story of Mary Bowser, who gathered information for the Union Army by posing as a slave in the Confederate White House during the Civil War: Her identity (including, as it turns out, ) has been blurred in public memory thanks to archival gaps and errors that fooled even some historians. Similarly, several recent books note how little attention
