Dead Doubles by Trevor Barnes

Dead Doubles by Trevor Barnes

The astonishing but true story of one of the most notorious spy cases from the Cold War--and the international manhunt that seized global attention as it revealed the shadowy world of deep cover KGB operatives. 

The
dramatic arrest in London on January 7, 1961 of five Soviet spies made
headlines worldwide and had repercussions around the globe. Alerted by the CIA,
Britain's security service, MI5, had discovered two British spies stealing
invaluable secrets from the highly sensitive submarine research center at
Portland, UK.  Their controller, Gordon Lonsdale, was a Canadian who
frequently visited a middle-aged couple, the Krogers, in their sleepy London
suburb. But the seemingly unassuming Krogers were revealed to be deep
cover American KGB spies--infamous undercover agents the FBI had been hunting
for years--and they were just one part of an extensive network of Soviet
operatives in the UK.

In the wake
of the spies' sensational trial, the FBI uncovered the true identity of the
enigmatic Lonsdale--Konon Molody, a Russian who had lived in California before
being recruited by the KGB. Molody opened secret talks with MI5 to betray
Russia, but before he had the chance, the KGB blackmailed Britain into spy
swaps for him and the Krogers.

Based
on revelatory, newly-released archival material and inside sources from around
the world, Dead Doubles follows the hunt for the highly damaging
Portland Spy Ring.  As gripping as a le Carré novel, this
incredible narrative, layered with false identities, deceptions, and betrayal,
crisscrosses from the UK to the USSR to the US, Canada, Europe and New Zealand,
and brings to life one of the most extraordinary spy stories of the Cold War.

Trevor Barnes studied espionage and the early history of the CIA as a student at the University of Cambridge and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. He has worked as a radio and television journalist for the BBC and as a legal consultant, and is the author of three crime novels. He also researched and wrote Trial at Torun, a radio play about the trial in Poland of a secret service murder case. He lives in London.