Thank you, Mariner Books and William Morrow Group, for providing this book for review consideration in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book will be released on October 1, 2024.

Mr. Book just finished Den Of Spies: Reagan, Carter And The Secret History Of The Treason That Stole The White House, by Craig Unger.

This was an excellent look at how the Reagan campaign team, led by William Casey, orchestrated the October Surprise that sabotaged Carter’s efforts to release the hostages and keep them in Iran until Reagan’s inauguration in order to guarantee his victory. As the book shows, until the final days of the campaign, the polls showed the race was too close to call and the release of the hostages would have led to a Carter reelection.

The first part of the book shows the extent of the coverup and the sabotaging of the reporting of the story. The final few chapters contain explosive smoking guns, including the fact that FBI wiretaps prove Casey’s conversations with the Iranians discussing holding the hostages in exchange for weapons, both immediately (via Israel) and later once Reagan was in office.

1980 was the second of the three elections in the past 60 years that Republican candidates have resorted to treasonous actions to win. The book also discusses Nixon’s sabotage of the 1968 peace talks in order to win the presidency and then briefly mentions Trump’s help from the Russians in 2016.

This is the sixth book of Unger’s that I have read. I previously gave House Of Trump, House Of Putin an A+ and gave both Boss Rove and American Kompromat A’s. I also read both House Of Bush, House Of Saud and Fall Of The House Of Bush, but don’t have recorded grades since that was prior to the time I started recording grades. I will be adding each of these to my very long reading list, so I will be able to post reviews here.

I give this book an A+, which means it is immediately inducted into the Hall of Fame. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A+ equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

As soon as I finished this book, I preordered the audio version so I will also be able to listen to it.

This review has been posted at Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on September 19, 2024.