Forthcoming, New Releases, Overlooked
Creators: Avi Issacharoff, Lior Raz | Netflix | 8 September 2026
Featuring undercover operations, ties with Shin Bet, and family connections to the world of espionage, the show highlights the human stories on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Creator Lior Raz, who plays the main character, Doron, served in Duvdevan, the elite IDF undercover counterterrorism unit portrayed in the show.
Read more about the show’s unexpected popularity in the Arab world.
Howard Mason | Routledge | 9 September 2026
Female Agents in the Male World of Cold War Spy Novels: The Spies Who Stayed Out in the Cold is an in-depth analysis of the way writers of Cold War spy novels have portrayed their female characters, paying particular attention to women presented as secret agents and to the work of women writers.
The book explores the scope and range of spy fiction while offering a tentative definition of the genre. It reviews the work of major male authors including Ian Fleming, Peter O'Donnell, John le Carré and Len Deighton, with particular attention to Deighton's portrayal of SIS officer Fiona Samson across his nine-volume series. It also examines female authors, notably Helen MacInnes, and provides an in-depth analysis of Evelyn Anthony's portrayal of SIS officer Davina Graham in her four-volume series. A postscript surveys Cold War spy fiction produced since the fall of the Berlin Wall, offering insights into the genre's evolution in the post-Cold War era.
In essence, the role of women as agents, both in the sense of professional spies and autonomous, empowered individuals is a central concern of the volume. It examines the androcentric world of Cold War spy novels through a feminist prism.
Eamonn Gearon | Oxford University Press | 1 April 2026
In the midst of the First World War, an extraordinary intelligence unit operated from Cairo's Savoy Hotel, combining the skills of archaeologists, academics and soldiers to revolutionize how Britain gathered information and shaped events in the Middle East. Overshadowed by Lawrence of Arabia, the Arab Bureau's true significance has remained hidden in plain sight ever since.
This fascinating study uncovers the Bureau's remarkable story through newly discovered Arabic documents and previously overlooked archives. At its heart lies an astonishing find: Thawrat al-Arab, an ambitious Arabic-language book and the longest piece of British propaganda produced during the war. From the Arab Bulletin 's secret intelligence reports to sophisticated propaganda campaigns, the Bureau was decades ahead of its time. The team--including archaeologists fresh from desert digs and scholars fluent in local dialects--developed new methods of cultural intelligence that would influence future generations.
Eamonn Gearon's compelling narrative reveals how this unique organization navigated the complexities of Arab politics, tribal rivalries and Ottoman intelligence, while developing techniques that resonate with today's challenges in intelligence-gathering. Essential reading for anyone interested in intelligence history, the Middle East or how innovation occurs in wartime, this book transforms our understanding of a crucial moment in world history.
Sandra Grimes, Jeanne Vertefeuille | Naval Institute Press | 15 October 2012
While there have been other books about Aldrich Ames, Circle of Treason is the first account written by CIA agents who were key members of the CIA team that conducted the intense “Ames Mole Hunt.” Sandra Grimes and Jeanne Vertefeuille were two of the five principals of the CIA team tasked with hunting one of their own and were directly responsible for identifying Ames as the mole, leading to his arrest and conviction. One of the most destructive traitors in American history, CIA officer Aldrich Ames provided information to the Soviet Union that contributed to the deaths of at least ten Soviet intelligence officers who spied for the United States. In this book, the two CIA officers directly responsible for tracking down Ames chronicle their involvement in the hunt for a mole. Considering it their personal mission, Grimes and Vertefeuille dedicated themselves to identifying the traitor responsible for the execution or imprisonment of the Soviet agents with whom they worked. Their efforts eventually led them to a long-time acquaintance and coworker in the CIA’s Soviet-East European division and Counterintelligence Center, Aldrich Ames. Not only is this the first book to be written by the CIA principals involved, but it is also the first to provide details of the operational contact with the agents Ames betrayed. The book covers the political aftermath of Ames’s arrest, including the Congressional wrath for not identifying him sooner, the FBI/CIA debriefings following Ames’s plea bargain, and a retrospective of Ames the person and Ames the spy. It is also the compelling story of two female agents, who overcame gender barriers and succeeded in bringing Ames to justice in a historically male-oriented organization. Now retired from the CIA, Grimes and Vertefeuille are finally able to tell this inside story of the CIA’s most notorious traitor and the men he betrayed.