"An intriguing text." --Booklist

Acclaimed author Ernest Volkman strips away the myths and Hollywood hype to reveal the human drama behind "the world's second oldest profession" --espionage. Here are the men and women whose daring feats of subterfuge have, for better or worse, irrevocably altered the course of history:

• "Counterfeit Traitor" Eric Erickson, the American businessman who, posing as a Swedish Nazi, helped stanch the flow of oil to Hitler's war machine and end the war in Europe.
• Fritz Kauders, the Viennese Jew who went from being a small-time confidence trickster to being one of Germany's most valued spies and a Soviet double agent.
• Amy Thorpe, the gorgeous American debutante turned superspy.
• British agent 17F, Ian Fleming, author of some of the most outrageous (and effective) "dirty tricks" in the annals of espionage.
• Dutch housewife-turned-burlesque-dancer-turned-secret-agent Margareta Zelle, a.k.a. Mata Hari, who, contrary to popular belief, was neither beautiful nor a very good spy
• Brilliant Soviet superspy Richard Sorge, whose intelligence-gathering operation in Japan balked Nazi Germany's attempt to seize Moscow.