THE ART OF INTELLIGENCE Lessons From a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service

The author uses events from his own life to comment on the nation’s intelligence gathering. As part of the CIA, Crumpton spent time abroad, with posts in Africa and missions in Afghanistan. David Colacci’s narration is decent; he even delivers voices with growls or twangs when appropriate. The book stresses the importance of effective intelligence gathering—often through the development of foreigners on their home soil—in the face of the frustrations of politics. The latter half focuses on the CIA’s contributions to the efforts to defeat Al Qaeda. Colacci’s steady tone changes only when he is portraying an assertive Cofer Black during his discussions with the author. The book’s only shortcoming—and an understandable one—may be the lack of detail on exactly how spies pass along information, or other facts of a clandestine nature. M.B. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]