King-makers - Conspirators - Criminals - Nobles - Seducers
'A riveting story, splendidly told' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Gripping and gruesome' BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH
'Fascinating close-ups of outlandish Tudor behaviour' DAILY MAIL
The Howard family - the Dukes of Norfolk - were the wealthiest and most powerful aristocrats in Tudor England, regarding themselves as the true power behind the throne. They were certainly extraordinarily influential, with two Howard women marrying Henry VIII - Anne Boleyn and the fifteen-year-old Catherine Howard. But in the treacherous world of the Tudor court no faction could afford to rest on its laurels. The Howards consolidated their power with an awesome web of schemes and conspiracies but even they could not always hold their enemies at bay.
This was a family whose history is marked by treason, beheadings and incarceration - a dynasty whose pride and ambition secured only their downfall.
'Blaine Harden's King of Spies is jaw-droppingly good - a quirky, unlikely, thrilling true story of intrigue and daring and depravity told by a master of the genre' David Maraniss, author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit City
Donald Nichols was 'a one man war', according to his US Air Force commanding general. With a chest full of medals for valour and initiative in the Korean War, commanders described him as the most effective spymaster of the conflict. But there is far more to Nichols's story than first meets the eye . . .
Based on long-classified government records, unsealed court documents and interviews in Korea and the US, King of Spies tells the gripping story of the reign of an intelligence commander who lost touch with morality, legality and possibly even sanity. A seventh-grade dropout, he created his own empire in Korea, commanding a small army of hand-selected spies, deploying a makeshift navy and ruling as a clandestine king with absolute power over life and death. He claimed a 'legal license to murder' and inhabited a world of mass executions and beheadings.
Then, finally, the US government decided to end Nichols's reign . . .
'A thrilling real-life spy story told by a terrific writer' Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
