Spytime Audiobook By William F. Buckley Jr. cover art

Spytime

The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton

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Spytime

By: William F. Buckley Jr.
Narrated by: Raymond Todd
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James Jesus Angleton was the master, a legend in the time of spies. Founder of U.S. counterintelligence at the end of World War II, ruthless hunter of moles and enemies of America, his name is synonymous with skullduggery and intellectual subterfuge. Now, best-selling author William F. Buckley, Jr., presents a subtle and thrilling fictional account of the spymaster's life.

From his early involvement in the World War II underground to the waning days of the Cold War in Washington, D.C., Angleton pursued his enemies with a cool, calculating intelligence. Convinced that there was a turncoat within the CIA itself, he confused his enemy by misleading acts and deceptive feints to distort his real objective, to capture and expose a traitor. The result was near-victory for American Intelligence...and defeat for himself.

A brilliant re-creation of his world, Spytime traces the making, and tragic unmaking, of a man without peer and, in the end, a man without a country to serve.

©2000 William F. Buckley, Jr (P)2001 Blackstone Audiobooks Spies & Politics Suspense Espionage Fiction Political Thriller & Suspense Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Exciting Middle East

Critic reviews

"The ultimate in spy novels, with real characters and studied speculation on certain events by Buckley, who met many of the key players, is is a tense, heroic tale of a real Cold-War legend." (New York Daily News)
"Spytime is a quiet-time read for those who like their espionage erudite and their intelligence intelligent." (USA Today)
All stars
Most relevant
I enjoyed much of the book, but felt very little developement for such an interesting time period.
And the ending was weak, made it difficult to really be able to recommend as a satisfying listen.

Ok story, weak predictable ending

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Awful recording quality - at least three different parts were skipped over, but probably only 5 words missing, altogether.

Engaging plot for fans of the genre! Adds to the great mystery of who actually was JJA.

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The narrative lost focus. The section on Tony Cresti seemed to have no place in the story about James Jesus Angleton. I was expecting history and I got fiction.

Disappointing

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I like William F. Buckley, his later works are very satisfying. This book is not his best and the monitone perfomance of the reader makes for a very hard "read".

3 star book with a 1 start reader

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William Buckley should stick to political interviews and commentary if Spytime is a good example of his novel writing. His characters, at least two of whom, James Jesus Angleton and Kim Philby, are two of the most fascinating spies and counterspies of all time, never leave their cardboard images. Buckley's sex scenes are laughable, but perhaps laudable in a man of his conservative stripe. You can easily mistake them for massage therapy sessions. He violated the first rule of sex writing: if you cannot write the scene at least as erotically as Henry Miller, skip it. But the worst sin of Spytime is that it is incredibly dull, leaving out some of the most explosive incidents in the wonderful world of espionage from 1950 to 1974 and the exciting conversations that surrounded them. Buckley could have easily gleaned these exciting incidents from public records and embued them with dynamite suspense and interest, if he were John Le Carre. He is not even close, alas. Don't make my mistake and listen to this book.

This book is not worth a minute of your time

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