A Spy Among Friends

Starred review from May 5, 2014
In this engaging real-life spy story, Macintyre (Double Cross) pulls back the curtain on the life and exploits of Kim Philby, who served for decades in Britain’s intelligence community while secretly working as a Soviet double agent. Macintyre covers the full range of Philby’s career, from his work during WWII and the early years of the Cold War to his downfall and defection to the Soviet Union. Moreover, Macintyre widens his scope to look at Philby’s closest allies and friends, including fellow MI6 officer Nicholas Elliot and CIA operative James Jesus Angleton—the men who stood by him when all others were convinced of his as-yet-unproven guilt. Working with colorful characters and an anything-can-happen attitude, Macintyre builds up a picture of an intelligence community chock-full of intrigue and betrayal, in which Philby was the undisputed king of lies. There’s a measure of admiration in the text for Philby’s run of luck and audacious accomplishments, as when he was actually placed in charge of anti-Soviet intelligence: “The fox was not merely guarding the henhouse but building it, running it, assessing its strengths and frailties, and planning its future construction.” Entertaining and lively, Macintyre’s account makes the best fictional thrillers seem tame. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd.

Starred review from June 1, 2014
A tale of espionage, alcoholism, bad manners and the chivalrous code of spies-the real world of James Bond, that is, as played out by clerks and not superheroes.Now pretty well forgotten, Kim Philby (1912-1988) was once a byname for the sort of man who would betray his country for a song. The British intelligence agent was not alone, of course; as practiced true-espionage writer Macintyre (Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, 2012, etc.) notes, more than 200 American intelligence agents became Soviet agents during World War II-"Moscow had spies in the treasury, the State Department, the nuclear Manhattan Project, and the OSS"-and the Brits did their best to keep up on their end. Philby may have been an unlikely prospect, given his upper-crust leanings, but a couple of then-fatal flaws involving his sexual orientation and still-fatal addiction to alcohol, to say nothing of his political convictions, put him in Stalin's camp. Macintyre begins near the end, with a boozy Philby being confronted by a friend in intelligence, fellow MI6 officer Nicholas Elliott, whom he had betrayed; but rather than take Philby to prison or put a bullet in him, by the old-fashioned code, he was essentially allowed to flee to Moscow. Writing in his afterword, John Le Carre recalls asking Elliott, with whom he worked in MI6, about Philby's deceptions-"it quickly became clear that he wanted to draw me in, to make me marvel...to make me share his awe and frustration at the enormity of what had been done to him." For all Philby's charm ("that intoxicating, beguiling, and occasionally lethal English quality"), modern readers will still find it difficult to imagine a world of gentlemanly spy-versus-spy games all these hysterical years later.Gripping and as well-crafted as an episode of Smiley's People, full of cynical inevitability, secrets, lashings of whiskey and corpses.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2014

Writer-at-large for the London Times and a best-selling author (e.g., Agent Zigzag), Macintyre tells the story of Kim Philby's high-level betrayal of his country. It's actually the story of Philby's relationship with two other men, English operative Nicholas Elliott and CIA powerhouse James Jesus Angleton, whose confidences he passed to the Soviet Union. The result: every Anglo-American spy operation at the time failed, and both men were forever devastated by Philby's actions. With January 2013 marking the 50th anniversary of Philby's defection to Moscow, MI5 released its files on Philby up to that time, so Macintyre had the advantage of lots of fresh, new material.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.