The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception

While dated and including spy tricks with cigarettes that today would be less useful.. this book has a lot of interesting stories of deception and trickery by espionage agents and their handlers.The chapter on magician tricks and how they work for hiding spy activities is particularly good. Even in the digital age, these techniques are still valid.An easy, fun read and great if you are a Cold War spy buff and fan of the books of John Le Carre.

The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and DeceptionMany people don't realize that this manual was written by a magician. The techniques used by the CIA during the Cold War era used techniques including sleight of hand, otherwise known as black magic. You'll learn lots of interesting tidbits of CIA history, including placing notes in mouse carcasses, only to have cats eat them. The CIA's solution to the problem? Cover them in hot sauce. Then drive around at a 90-degree angle, toss the carcass out of a window to avoid detection (creates a visual blind spot), and have another agent intercept the note.As a woman and a Criminology and Psychology major, I found this book to be an enlightening read. I don't think I'll ever look at anything the same way again, literally.I'd highly recommend this manual for reading if you are a nerd or a geek.

I gifted this to my husband. Very interesting read.

They loved it

I’ve tried four times to read this book, and I just can’t get through it. While it’s on the fascinating topic of magician’s tricks used by spies, H. Keith Melton is a “spy historian” who manages to suck the fun out of every topic. The second half (Mulholland’s section on The Art of Deception) is even more dry, written like a grad student trying to stretch a ten-page term paper into twenty pages. Although this book has a lot of interesting information buried inside, it is a very hard read.

Excellent book delivered on time

Most people have learned to think along specific lines. We make assumptions of how things are, and should be. Deception and Trickery are based on subverting that type of thinking.The book is a wonderful read, and there are many interesting aspects to this volume, but it is very much ore historical. But of course it is historical. How could it be an up to date book on the subject? I am sure that people working in the business would be a bit nervous and upset at the author if he had published current tricks and deceptions. Nonetheless, an interesting and easy read.

Centers often on how magicians pull it off, and well worth seeing how it naturally occurs with how others do itThe book's foundation is while the words may change, the melody stays the sameThe techniques are worth remembering and watching the watchers, who more and more are doing this to usI got the book for $1.99 with one of Amazon's Kindle sales, and do not regret the purchase even at this low price