The Skripal Files
The Life and Near Death of a Russian Spy
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The Skripal Files
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Narrated by:
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Mark Urban
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By:
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Mark Urban
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
The explosive story of the poisoning of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and what it reveals about the growing clandestine conflict between the West and Russia.
Salisbury, England: March 4, 2018.
Slumped on a bench, paralyzed and barely able to breathe, were a former Russian intelligence officer named Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia. Sergei had been living a quiet life in England since 2010, when he was expelled from Russia as part of a spy swap; he had been serving a lengthy prison sentence for working secretly for the British intelligence agency MI6. On this Sunday afternoon, he and his daughter had just finished lunch at a local restaurant when they started to feel faint. Within minutes they were close to death.
The Skripals had been poisoned, not with a familiar toxin but with Novichok, a deadly nerve agent developed in southern Russia. Was this a message from the Kremlin that traitors would not escape violent death, even on British soil? As Sergei and Yulia fought for their lives, and the British government and their allies sought answers, relations between the West and Russia descended to a new low.
The Skripal Files is a remarkable and definitive account of Sergei Skripal’s story, which lays bare the new spy war between Russia and the West. Mark Urban, the diplomatic and defense editor for the BBC, met with Skripal in the months before his poisoning, learning about his career in Russian military intelligence, how he became a British agent, his imprisonment in Russia, and the events that led to his release. Skripal’s first-hand accounts and experiences reveal the high stakes of a new spy game that harks back to the chilliest days of the Cold War.
©2018 Mark Urban (P)2018 Macmillan Digital AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 696
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 625
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 623
On November 1, 2006, journalist and Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London. He died twenty-two days later. The cause of death? Polonium—a rare, lethal, and highly radioactive substance. Here Luke Harding unspools a real-life political assassination story—complete with KGB, CIA, MI6, and Russian mobsters.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Cover-To-Cover, This'll Have You Mindblown!
- By Gillian on 02-03-17
By: Luke Harding
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Spymaster
- Startling Cold War Revelations of a Soviet KGB Chief
- By: Tennent H. Bagley
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 771
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 691
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Story4 out of 5 stars 689
From the dark days of World War II through the Cold War, Sergey A. Kondrashev was a major player in Russia’s notorious KGB espionage apparatus. Rising through its ranks through hard work and keen understanding of how the spy and political games are played, he “handled” American and British defectors, recruited Western operatives as double agents, served as a ranking officer at the East Berlin and Vienna KGB bureaus, and tackled special assignments from the Kremlin.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An brilliant personal Cold War perspective
- By Iamnotaspy on 01-09-15
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Agent M
- The Lives and Spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight
- By: Henry Hemming
- Narrated by: Henry Hemming
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
The fascinating, improbable true story of Maxwell Knight - the great MI5 spymaster and inspiration for the James Bond character M. Maxwell Knight was perhaps the greatest spymaster in history. He did more than anyone in his era to combat the rising threat of fascism in Britain during World War II, in spite of his own history inside this movement. He was also truly eccentric - a thrice-married jazz aficionado who kept a menagerie of exotic pets - and almost totally unqualified for espionage. Yet he had a gift for turning practically anyone into a fearless secret agent.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding in every way!
- By Grace O'Malley on 07-18-22
By: Henry Hemming
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The Man with the Poison Gun
- A Cold War Spy Story
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
In the fall of 1961, KGB assassin Bogdan Stashinsky defected to West Germany. After spilling his secrets to the CIA, Stashinsky was put on trial in what would be the most publicized assassination case of the entire Cold War. The publicity stirred up by the Stashinsky case forced the KGB to change its modus operandi abroad and helped end the career of Aleksandr Shelepin, one of the most ambitious and dangerous Soviet leaders.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Long…but excellent
- By Shawna Hanley on 10-16-23
By: Serhii Plokhy
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Death of a Dissident
- The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB
- By: Alex Goldfarb, Marina Litvinenko
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
The November 2006 assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko, who was poisoned by the rare radioactive element polonium, caused an international sensation. Within a few short weeks, the fit 43-year-old lay gaunt, bald, and dying in a hospital, the victim of a "tiny nuclear bomb". Suspicions swirled around Russia's FSB, the successor to the KGB, and the Putin regime.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting and scary...
- By A. M. on 03-21-15
By: Alex Goldfarb, and others
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Agent Sniper
- The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA
- By: Tim Tate
- Narrated by: Tim Tate
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper, was one of the most important spies of the early Cold War. For two and a half years at the end of the 1950s, as a Lt. Colonel at the top of Poland’s espionage service, he smuggled more than 5,000 top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents, as well as 160 rolls of microfilm, out from behind the Iron Curtain. In January 1961, he abandoned his wife and children and made a dramatic defection across divided Berlin with his East German mistress to the safety of American territory.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very entertaining cold war spy story
- By Jason on 12-18-21
By: Tim Tate
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Good Hunting
- An American Spymaster's Story
- By: Jack Devine
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 354
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 307
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 308
Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story is the spellbinding memoir of Devine's time in the CIA, where he served for more than 30 years, rising to become the acting deputy director of operations, responsible for all of the agency's spying operations. This is a story of intrigue and high-stakes maneuvering - all the more gripping when the fate of our geopolitical order hangs in the balance. But this audiobook also sounds a warning to our nation's decision makers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating, An education on spying
- By Anthony on 12-13-15
By: Jack Devine
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Defend the Realm
- The Authorized History of MI5
- By: Christopher Andrew
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 39 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4 out of 5 stars 69
An unprecedented publishing event: to mark the centenary of its foundation, the British Security Service, MI5, has for the first time opened its archives to an independent historian. The book reveals the precise role of the Security Service in 20th-century British history, from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909, through two world wars, up to and including its present roles in counterespionage and counterterrorism.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A very throrough and impartial history.
- By Matthew on 12-01-09
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At the Center of the Storm
- My Years at the CIA
- By: George Tenet
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 412
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 187
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Story4 out of 5 stars 185
In the whirlwind of accusations and recriminations that has attended the post 9/11 world, one man's vital testimony has been conspicuously absent. Candid and compelling, At the Center of the Storm is George Tenet's memoir of his life at the CIA - a revelatory look at the inner workings of America's top intelligence agency and its dealings with national leaders at home and abroad.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant!
- By Karen on 05-05-07
By: George Tenet
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Missing Man
- The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran
- By: Barry Meier
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
In late 2013, Americans were shocked to learn that a former FBI agent turned private investigator who disappeared in Iran in 2007 was there on a mission for the CIA. The missing man, Robert Levinson, appeared in pictures dressed like a Guantánamo prisoner and pleaded in a video for help from the United States.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Important story
- By Richard F. Callahan on 08-03-16
By: Barry Meier
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Hunting Evil
- The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice
- By: Guy Walters
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 145
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4 out of 5 stars 113
From its haunting chronicle of the monstrous mass murders the Nazis perpetrated and the murky details of their postwar existence to the challenges of hunting them down, Hunting Evil is a monumental work of nonfiction written with the pacing and intrigue of a thriller.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Eye-opening and riveting
- By Ellen on 10-20-10
By: Guy Walters
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The Angel
- The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel
- By: Uri Bar-Joseph
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
As the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and a close advisor to his successor, Anwar Sadat, Ashraf Marwan had access to the deepest secrets of the country's government. But he himself had a secret: he was a spy for the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. Under the codename "The Angel", Marwan turned Egypt into an open book for the Israeli intelligence services and, by alerting the Mossad in advance of the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Yom Kippur, saved Israel from a devastating defeat.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Buena biografía
- By Rony M on 07-05-20
By: Uri Bar-Joseph
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The Ghost
- The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton
- By: Jefferson Morley
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 501
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 431
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 429
In The Ghost, investigative reporter Jefferson Morley tells Angleton's dramatic story, from his friendship with the poet Ezra Pound through the underground gay milieu of mid-century Washington to the Kennedy assassination to the Watergate scandal. From the agency's MKULTRA mind-control experiments to the wars of the Mideast, Angleton wielded far more power than anyone knew.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Flawed Superpatriot
- By Bubblehog on 11-23-17
By: Jefferson Morley
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The One Percent Doctrine
- Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
- By: Ron Suskind
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 262
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4 out of 5 stars 54
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author Ron Suskind takes you deep inside America's real battles with violent, unrelenting terrorists, a game of kill-or-be-killed, from the Oval Office to the streets of Karachi.
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2 out of 5 stars
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The Agenda is Clear
- By Penny on 09-28-11
By: Ron Suskind
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The Butcher's Trail
- How the Search for Balkan War Criminals Became the World's Most Successful Manhunt
- By: Julian Borger
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
Written with a thrilling narrative pull, The Butcher's Trail chronicles the pursuit and capture of the Balkan war criminals indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Borger recounts how Radovan Karadžic and Ratko Mladic - both now on trial in The Hague - were finally tracked down and describes the intrigue behind the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president who became the first head of state to stand before an international tribunal for crimes perpetrated in a time of war.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The most comprehensive and unbiased account of ICTY’s inception and development to date
- By AR on 04-18-22
By: Julian Borger
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Kiss the Boys Goodbye
- How the United States Betrayed Its Own POWs in Vietnam
- By: Monica Jensen-Stevenson, William Stevenson
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Kiss the Boys Goodbye convincingly shows that a legacy of shame remains from America’s ill-fated involvement in Vietnam even though that conflict ended over 35 years ago. Until US government policy on POW/MIAs changes, it remains one of the most crucial issues for any American soldier who fights for home and country, particularly when we are engaged with an enemy who doesn't adhere to the international standards for the treatment of prisoners - or any American hostage...
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4 out of 5 stars
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God Grant Them Peace
- By Gillian on 05-19-15
By: Monica Jensen-Stevenson, and others
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The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 835
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 746
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 736
A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
What listeners say about The Skripal Files
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sheri
- 06-25-24
Facinating story and very relevant
This was a well-paced book with storylines easy to follow. It is hard sometimes to listen to all the names and then remember which ones are changed for safety and which ones are real names. I found myself contemplating that reality for people who deal with/live the secrets of the world must truly lead lonely lives, for in the end - there is no one truly 100 percent trustworthy.
Maybe spies and espionage seem far less glamorous and far less interesting when more reality is known about their lives.
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