From the Publisher
One of the most dramatic spy stories of the Cold War, superbly told by a real authority on the subject. Steve Vogel draws on his family background and reportorial expertise to recreate the paranoid atmosphere of divided Berlin and the wall that symbolized the superpower standoff. With a cast of characters that could have come straight out of a John le Carré novel, this is a “mole versus mole” espionage tale like no other.” — Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“The best spy book I have ever read...Steve Vogel is a talented and gifted writer who brings the personalities and idiosyncrasies of every participant in this operation to life. His research is vast, varied, and full of detail. It is truly one of those rare books you can’t put down.” — Sandra “Sandy” Grimes, retired twenty-six year veteran of CIA’s Clandestine Service and co-author of Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Traitor Aldrich Ames and the Men He Betrayed
“A crackling Cold War espionage story, Betrayal in Berlin takes you to the peaks of spying ambition and the depths of betrayal.” — David E. Hoffman, author of The Billion Dollar Spy
“Swiftly moving, richly detailed… As well paced as a le Carré novel, with deep insight into the tangled world of Cold War espionage.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This captivating study will thrill World War II buffs as well as mystery readers of all ages.” — Library Journal
“This is a fascinating, fast-paced narrative, and Vogel is particularly well-suited to write it.” — Washington Post
"Betrayal in Berlin is one of the best Cold War non-fiction espionage books I have read. For me, Mr. Vogel is up there with Ben Macintyre." — Spybrary Podcast
“Excellent… although there are other books on Blake, Mr. Vogel’s handling of his tale is original and rewarding… meticulously researched and full of vivid detail.” — Wall Street Journal
“A riveting and vivid account. … reads like a Hollywood screenplay” — Foreign Affairs
"Blake’s story has been told before, as has the tunnel’s, but Steve Vogel pulls them together accessibly and comprehensibly, along with the wider political context and entertaining detail about personalities of the period.” — The Spectator
“A well-researched and fascinating look back at the Cold War.” — Washington Times
"Betrayal in Berlin has everything a great spy story needs: fascinating characters, plenty of dramatic action, atmospheric backdrops, and world-changing consequences." — Monte Reel, author of A Brotherhood of Spies: The U-2 and the CIA's Secret War
"A dazzling, true-life saga of the spy-versus-spy underpinnings of the Cold War." — Washington Independent Review of Books
"Vogel’s ability as a storyteller has made this into a great spy yarn." — The Virginia Gazette
"A super book, beautifully told and compelling throughout. Vogel sketches George Blake perfectly as a diffident traitor who combines high intellect with ruthlessness." — Luke Harding, author of Collusion and Shadow State
"Reads like a thriller, reaches sources previously untapped .... Betrayal in Berlin is reliable, exciting, well-sourced and fair. . . Vogel transports the reader back in time into rooms and meetings that, at the time, were extraordinarily sensitive. ... The best book to date on the Berlin Tunnel." — Studies in Intelligence
The Spectator
"Blake’s story has been told before, as has the tunnel’s, but Steve Vogel pulls them together accessibly and comprehensibly, along with the wider political context and entertaining detail about personalities of the period.
Washington Post
This is a fascinating, fast-paced narrative, and Vogel is particularly well-suited to write it.”
Foreign Affairs
A riveting and vivid account. … reads like a Hollywood screenplay
David E. Hoffman
A crackling Cold War espionage story, Betrayal in Berlin takes you to the peaks of spying ambition and the depths of betrayal.
Spybrary Podcast
"Betrayal in Berlin is one of the best Cold War non-fiction espionage books I have read. For me, Mr. Vogel is up there with Ben Macintyre."
Sandra “Sandy” Grimes
The best spy book I have ever read...Steve Vogel is a talented and gifted writer who brings the personalities and idiosyncrasies of every participant in this operation to life. His research is vast, varied, and full of detail. It is truly one of those rare books you can’t put down.
Wall Street Journal
Excellent… although there are other books on Blake, Mr. Vogel’s handling of his tale is original and rewarding… meticulously researched and full of vivid detail.”
Michael Dobbs
One of the most dramatic spy stories of the Cold War, superbly told by a real authority on the subject. Steve Vogel draws on his family background and reportorial expertise to recreate the paranoid atmosphere of divided Berlin and the wall that symbolized the superpower standoff. With a cast of characters that could have come straight out of a John le Carré novel, this is a “mole versus mole” espionage tale like no other.
The Virginia Gazette
"Vogel’s ability as a storyteller has made this into a great spy yarn."
Studies in Intelligence
"Reads like a thriller, reaches sources previously untapped .... Betrayal in Berlin is reliable, exciting, well-sourced and fair. . . Vogel transports the reader back in time into rooms and meetings that, at the time, were extraordinarily sensitive. ... The best book to date on the Berlin Tunnel."
Washington Times
A well-researched and fascinating look back at the Cold War.
Washington Independent Review of Books
"A dazzling, true-life saga of the spy-versus-spy underpinnings of the Cold War."
Monte Reel
"Betrayal in Berlin has everything a great spy story needs: fascinating characters, plenty of dramatic action, atmospheric backdrops, and world-changing consequences."
Luke Harding
"A super book, beautifully told and compelling throughout. Vogel sketches George Blake perfectly as a diffident traitor who combines high intellect with ruthlessness."
Wall Street Journal
Excellent… although there are other books on Blake, Mr. Vogel’s handling of his tale is original and rewarding… meticulously researched and full of vivid detail.”
Washington Post
This is a fascinating, fast-paced narrative, and Vogel is particularly well-suited to write it.”
Sandra "Sandy"-Grimes
The best spy book I have ever read...Steve Vogel is a talented and gifted writer who brings the personalities and idiosyncrasies of every participant in this operation to life. His research is vast, varied, and full of detail. It is truly one of those rare books you can’t put down.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-07-01
It's spy vs. spy in Khrushchev-era Berlin, and countless lives are in the balance.
As the Cold War began to grind its way through the 1950s, notes former Washington Post military reporter Vogel (Through the Perilous Fight: Six Weeks That Saved the Nation, 2013, etc.), British and American intelligence agencies began to look for ways to intercept Soviet signals. The telephone was obvious, and British agents had already used the tunnel network of Vienna to tap into Soviet lines. But Berlin was the better locale: "Just as all roads led to Rome, all calls—including to and from Moscow—were routed through Berlin." Thus, an ambitious tunneling project was put into motion only for the Allies to be thwarted when the Soviets learned of the tunnel, a discovery that afforded the possibility of "a big propaganda splash" when Khrushchev made a state visit to London. Why hadn't the tap been detected when it was first made? "Everyone must have been quite drunk," commented an East German technician after taking a look at the alien cables. For all that, Khrushchev kept mum, knowing that if he revealed that the Soviets knew about the tunnel, they would provide clues as to who had made them aware of the project—that source being an overly confident British double agent named George Blake. In time, Blake was discovered and jailed only to break out of prison and make his way across the Iron Curtain in a daring escape. Combing through declassified documents and intelligence archives and drawing on interviews with Blake, Vogel delivers a swiftly moving, richly detailed, and sometimes improbable narrative, surpassing an earlier study of the tunnel affair, David Stafford's Spies Beneath Berlin (2003).
As well paced as a le Carré novel, with deep insight into the tangled world of Cold War espionage.
