A Spy Among Friends

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben McIntyre, 368 pages

Kim Philby is one of the best-known double agents in history. An up-and-comer at Britain's MI6, Philby spied for the USSR for more than 30 years, spanning from the early 1930s through the '60s, through a career that included running MI6 counter-intelligence on Russia. McIntyre offers up a (self-described) cobbled together account of Philby's career at MI6--cobbled together because the official accounts of so much of what went on is still classified and can only be guessed at by comparing various accounts. The result is an intriguing tale that sometimes gets a bit mired in detail. However, Philby's duplicitous life is ripe for exploration, and it seems that McIntyre leaves no stone unturned. I particularly liked the narrator for the audiobook, who slides from one accent to another with such clarity that at times I felt like a different person was talking.