Cover Stories: Spies, Books & Entertainment

David McCloskey, former CIA Analyst turned novelist is out with his fourth book, The Persian , about an Iranian dentist who is recruited by Mossad to take on a dangerous mission inside Iran.  Cover Stories Host Suzanne Kelly digs in on how McCloskey's real-life Intelligence background fueled his latest novel, and discovers a few of McCloskey's own secrets along the way.

Have you ever wanted to write a book but not known where to start?  We've got some answers for you.  Jane Friedman, the author of "The Business of Being a Writer " joins us to explain the ins and outs of deciding what kind of publisher is right for your writing, how to approach a literary agent, what to include in a book proposal and much more. She offers author-wannabees a wealth of advice and re...

Former British diplomat and current Cipher Brief expert Tim Willasey-Wilsey is just out with a book called "The Spy and the Devil: The Untold Story of the MI6 Agent Who Penetrated Hitler's Inner Circle "  We'll talk with him about the never before told story of Baron Wilhelm Von de Ropp, a German aristocrat, who became a British citizen and who spied on the Nazis for the UK from 1931 to 1939.The b...

Author and former Marine Elliot Ackerman's latest tale is about an ex-CIA Ground Branch operator who goes by his call sign, "Skwerl" and a former Afghan special ops pilot who goes by the name "Big Cheese" so you're probably already getting a good picture of Ackerman's latest novel Sheepdogs, which follows Skwerl and Cheese on a globe-trotting adventure from Uganda to Marseille.  Cipher Brief CEO &...

Ambassador Joe  DeTrani's The North Korean Threat: Intelligence and Diplomacy — A Personal Memoir is a candid insider's account of more than three decades navigating the perilous world of U.S.–North Korea relations. We'll talk with him about some of his  experiences as a CIA officer, senior U.S. negotiator, and Special Envoy for the Six-Party Talks.  In his book, which is available for free at thi...

 Lots of forces were released when the Soviet Union came apart in the early 1990s. Brad Meslin imagines the worst case scenario in his novel " The Moldavian Gambit" in which a man-portable nuclear device goes missing from a Soviet arsenal in Moldova and may have ended up in the hands of terrorists threatening to detonate in a western capital. Meslin has worked in "the intersection of aerospace, de...

 In  October1979, the most powerful cyclone in recorded history, raced across the Pacific and set in motion circumstances that caused a horrendous fire at a U.S. Marine Corps facility at the foot of Japan's Mount Fuji. Thirteen Marines died of their burns and more than 70 other people were seriously injured.  And yet few people today know of or remember these events. Chas Henry who served twenty y...

Martin Dugard is an enormously prolific, best-selling author. In addition to ten mega-million selling books co-authored with Bill O'Reilly,  He has authored a fistful of books about World War II including "Taking London," "Taking Berlin" and "Taking Paris." Now he is back with  "Taking Midway: Naval Warfare, Secret Codes, and the Battle That Turned the Tide of World War II."  Podcast host Bill Har...

Former CIA Officer Rodney Faraon served in some pretty fascinating roles at CIA – including as a daily briefer to former director George Tenet and as Chief of the unit that dealt with Chinese and Taiwanese relations.  Since retiring, he's kept his analytic hat on as a Partner at Crumpton Global but he also took a turn toward Hollywood and did what many who have come from the Agency – have yet to d...

From 2007 – 2012, the Pentagon secretly funded a small program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program tasked with investigating reports of military encounters with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. In 2020, the Defense Department launched a new unit called the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force led by the U.S. Navy. And in 2022, the Pentagon created the All-domain Anomaly R...

Former CIA Officer Gus Kangas knew from his time in the ROTC in college, that he wanted to be an Intelligence Officer.  But a convergence of mission, technology, COVID and a CIA tragedy turned him in the direction of embracing Hollywood storytelling techniques, which later opened the door to him becoming a consultant on the Paramount+ show, "The Agency", starring Michael Fassbender and Richard Ger...

Veteran journalist Douglas Waller is out with a new book  "The Determined Spy: The Turbulent Life and Times of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner. We will talk with Waller about his fascinating examination of the life of a brilliant man who was a standout member of the World War II OSS, one of the founders of the CIA, and a combatant in the nascent Cold War. But Wisner also battled – and eventually lost a f...

Ken Dekleva is no ordinary spy novelist. Not by a long shot. He is a doctor who served as a Regional Medical Officer/Psychiatrist with the State Department for 14 years. He is a Senior Fellow at the George HW Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, and a Salzburg Global Fellow. He brings his special insights to the fore in his third novel "The Russian Diplomat's Wife." We'll talk with him about th...

Admiral Jim Stavridis isn't just a prolific writer – having written a number of both fiction and non-fiction books since retiring from the military where he served as former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe at NATO – he's also an avid reader.  His latest book, The Admiral's Bookshelf brings those two worlds together as she shares the 25 books that he says have had the most impact on him over the y...

James Lawler was a highly-decorated CIA officer who conducted some legendary textbook level operations for the Agency.  He now excels as a novelist  and is out with his third work of fiction "The Traitor's Tale: A Novel of Treachery Within the CIA." We will talk with Lawler not only about the book – but about his career and how his art sometimes imitates his life.

In "Story of a CIA Wife," Rosie Mowatt-Larssen shares her journey from Germany to the United States, where her life took an unexpected turn when her husband joined the CIA. Suddenly immersed in a world of secrecy, Rosie grappled with anxiety and doubt as she adjusted to her husband's covert career. We will talk with her about  the unique challenges CIA spouses face—supporting high-stakes missions...

Dr. Claire Hubbard-Hall has broken the code on how to discover and report on the remarkable history of women who have silently served British intelligence over the years. In her book "Secret Servants of the Crown: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence" (published in the U.S. on February 25, 2025, tells heretofore untold tales of the real women who have largely worked in the shadows. We'll as...

Hal Brands, a renowned expert on global affairs, talks with us about his new book: "The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World. Brands argues that  Eurasia's strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today's world.  We will talk with him about what can be learned from Eurasian wars of the past century and the implications of those...

To say that retired Army Major General Jack Leide had a remarkable  military career would be an understatement.. He has been inducted into four different halls of fame - the US Military Attaché Hall of Fame, the US Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, the Defense Intelligence Agency's "Torch Bearers Hall of Fame" and the Army Foreign Area Officer Hall of Fame. He had four combat tours - three as an...

Scott Moyers is a veteran executive of the publishing industry. Today he is Vice President and Publisher of Penguin Press. He has acquired and edited countless bestsellers – including many authored by Cipher Brief experts. He was also director of the New York office of the Wylie Agency – one of the most prominent and influential literary agencies in the U.S.  We talk with him about his insights ab...

Thriller writer Jack Carr didn't just serve 20 years in the elite Navy SEALS teams – retire and write a book about his experiences.  He retired from a career of service (as a sniper) and then followed his 'other' passion – writing. His first book, The Terminal List is now an Amazon Prime television series starring Chris Pratt. Since then, he's written six more novels and has co-authored a non-fict...

Long-time CIA officer Marty Petersen is an acknowledged expert on Asia. He is a current Cipher Brief exert   who writes frequently on Asian matters.  But rather than focusing on modern day China policy for once, he has just published his first novel: City of Lost Souls which is set in 1932 Shanghai and tells of a private detective who helps a young woman search for her missing brother. We'll ask h...

Admiral Jim Stavridis (Ret.) is out with his fourteenth book, The Restless Wave -  a tale of historical fiction taking place during World War II. Cover Stories co-host Suzanne Kelly caught up with the retired Admiral for a Cipher Brief Book Club virtual meeting to talk about just how much of 'himself' was written into his main character – about what inspired his writing and then, she couldn't help...

Tom Straw is a former Top 40 radio disc jockey, TV weathercaster, and someone who has written and executive produced prime time and late night TV shows.  He is also a best-selling writer of crime novels (under the pseudonym "Richard Castle,") so friends like to say he can't keep a job. For his latest gig he has served up a spy novel called "The Accidental Joe" about a maverick celebrity chef whose...

We talk with retired Navy Rear Admiral Mike Studeman about his book "Might of the Chain: Forging Leaders of Iron Integrity about why trust in leaders in the public and private sector has sunk to all-time lows and his formula for restoring and keeping that trust. Drawing on his naval experience (and heritage) Studeman explains how every person in an organization must pull their share of the load –...