The Spy With No Name

Like many of his other rightly admired works of long-form nonfiction, The Spy with No Name demonstrates Jeff Maysh’s skill in bringing an unusual and complex tale of human deceit and fascinating subterfuge to compelling narrative life. Here the reader is immersed in the cold calculations of Cold War espionage, including the decision to use a mother’s longing for her long-lost son to position a spy for the theft of British and American secrets.

Also see Handsome Devil, available as a Kindle Single, and works posted at jeffmaysh.com for riveting, surprising stories — including the tales of The Bombshell Bandit, The Murder House, The Wedding Sting, and a wild adventure in the international black market for Pez candy dispensers. (Honestly). All terrific reads.

I have long been a fan of espionage books and movies. In this book we have a real life espionage story. Descriptions of the many techniques align well with the fictional books. This gives credit to both the real and fictional.
This story is concise and short. The main character Erwin Van Haarlem is reasonably well developed. The mother Johanna does play a significant role as well. Most of the other characters are not as thoroughly explained. Given that this is a historical description, it would have been much more difficult to get accurate information about these other characters.
The many sources that are itemized gives stronger evidence to the accuracy of the story. However, I very much enjoyed this short story. I recommend this book especially to fans of espionage.

Wow. I couldn’t put this down. Maysh weaves quite a (true) tale. I can’t wait to tell my friends that the “book is way better than the movie.

Jeff’s work is always a pleasure to read. He hooks you and keeps you on the line. This was a surprisingly heartfelt and insightful story about espionage (or is it simply a sacrificial act of service?). It’s a quick read with a good injection of history. Highly recommend!

I found the story of Erwin van Haarlems life as a spy to be quite interesting and informative. Its not every day you get to read about the life of a spy from recent history in this detail. This is a quick and entertaining read.

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