Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring-Fast Shipping

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Turn: Washington’s Spies, now an original series on AMC

Based on remarkable new research, acclaimed historian Alexander Rose brings to lifethe true story of the spy ring that helped America win the Revolutionary War. Forthe first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworldof double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasksthe courageous, flawed men who inhabited this wilderness of mirrors—including thespymaster at the heart of it all.

In the summer of 1778, with the war poised toturn in his favor, General George Washington desperately needed to know where theBritish would strike next. To that end, he unleashed his secret weapon: an unlikelyring of spies in New York charged with discovering the enemy’s battle plans and militarystrategy.

Washington’s small band included a young Quaker torn between politicalprinciple and family loyalty, a swashbuckling sailor addicted to the perils of espionage,a hard-drinking barkeep, a Yale-educated cavalryman and friend of the doomed NathanHale, and a peaceful, sickly farmer who begged Washington to let him retire but whoalways came through in the end. Personally guiding these imperfect everyday heroeswas Washington himself. In an era when officers were gentlemen, and gentlemen didn’ t spy, he possessed an extraordinary talent for deception—and proved an adept spymaster.

The men he mentored were dubbed the Culper Ring. The British secret service triedto hunt them down, but they escaped by the closest of shaves thanks to their ciphers,dead drops, and invisible ink. Rose’s thrilling narrative tells the unknown storyof the Revolution–the murderous intelligence war, gunrunning and kidnapping, defectorsand executioners—that has never appeared in the history books. But Washington’s Spiesis also a spirited, touching account of friendship and trust, fear and betrayal,amid the dark and silent world of the spy.