The Crime Writers’ Association

ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-fiction 2026

Shortlisted


Shaun Walker

The Illegals

Edited by: Nick Humphrey

Published by: Profile Books

Judges’ comments

A panoramic account of the century-old Soviet/Russian tradition of using deep-cover resident ‘illegals’ to spy on the west. Walker shows how the paranoia and conspiratorial mindset of the Soviet Intelligence favoured this kind of operation and how the openness of the West facilitated it, while conveying the psychological stress on those leading double lives. A valuable and still relevant contribution to Intelligence history.

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