What Kind of a Person Reads SpyTalk?
Former CIA ops officer now novelist Ilana Berry is a fan. How about you?
CIA case officer, lawyer, now acclaimed first-time novelist—Ilana Berry has done a lot in her handful of decades on this Earth.
And she’s a longtime SpyTalk fan.
“SpyTalk is my news wellspring for all things espionage,” she says. “Deep, thoughtful, balanced coverage, plus interesting angles and insider perspectives you rarely find in mainstream media.”
“It's singular,” she raves on. “There's literally no other news source I know of that's so focused on intelligence-related news."
Wow. Music to our ears.
Last summer Berry’s debut novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow, arrived to enthusiastic notices. Our expert reviewer loved it, writing that “Berry’s background as a former CIA operations officer and her familiarity with the ground truth there gives the story and her characters genuine believability.”
But that was just the start. In short order The Peacock and the Sparrow would be named a best book of the year by both The New Yorker and NPR, and nominated for an Edgar Award (the highest honor in the mystery book world, named after that Raven guy) in the category of Best First Novel.
So it hardly needs saying that it’s an honor to have her as a paid subscriber, let alone volunteering to offer this testimonial.
How about you? Please do consider joining the SpyTalk family of devoted readers, now spanning all 50 states and 183 countries.
Me. I read SpyTalk.
I read it and I was once a spy. Along with my friends, we try on a pro bono basis to help promote crime and espionage books (especially non-fiction) where the profits from publishing go to noble causes related to the authors' experiences. The Burlington Files ticks all those boxes and just as happened to Mick Herron's now famous Slough House series, the series was rejected for spurious reasons by mainstream publishers in pursuit of profit.
Many authors create fictitious stories about make-believe spies without so much as a nod or a wink to acknowledge the real spies who risk their lives for the very countries the authors live in. Those authors, famous names included whether dead or alive, simply exploit and mislead for their own advantage. Most of them can’t even realistically depict what espionage is about. It’s time authors in the fictional espionage genre put warning labels on their misleading products and gave credit to those in the real world who have to face down daily dangers for their fellow compatriots including those authors who do them such disservice.