For years, readers have been asking if I am going to start a new series.
I am. Sort of.
Spy School Secret Files is an offshoot of the Spy School series — but instead of telling made up stories about spies, I and sharing true stories.
Yes, this is my first non-fiction book. It came about as a result of my visit to CIA headquarters. While there, I head so many fascinating true stories of espionage that I asked if I could share them and the CIA eagerly agreed. There were so many stories that I realized there would have to be more than one book, so I decided to focus the first book on tales from World War II, which really was the beginning of the modern CIA. (Yes, that means there will be at least one more book in this series.)
To tie this to Spy School, I have Ben Ripley narrate the stories. So I hope you will enjoy reading as Ben shares the true stories behind World War II’s courageous spies, their inventive commanders, and the incredible things they did, like commando raids, code-breaking, double-crosses, disinformation, and inventing shark repellant and exploding pancake batter (really). There are amazing stories about famous spies like Julia Child, John Ford, and Sterling Hayden, plus countless others who risked their lives and took great risks to keep the world safe from evil.
Can’t wait to see this book along with Spy School Goes East. I may have read this wrong but would this be the next book after Spy School Goes East ? And also would they go back into time or were they already in that time? Sorry for so many questions I am very interested in this because- I actually don’t know. Anyway Congrats!!!
– Zyrah
Zyrah –
This book is non-fiction, so it is not in the SS series, exactly. It is part of a new series, but is narrated by Ben. So no time-travel.
Awww it comes 8 days after my birthday.
Dear Mr Gibbs,
I never thought that you would be making a spin-off series of Spy School so this is really impressive! A lot of people I know have been asking for something like this so thank you!
Do you ever stress about a book doing well?
Hey, Mr. Gibbs,
I’ve got 2 questions and as for my first one, I’m not sure how to word this but I was wondering how the book is structured. Like is the book just purely Ben sharing stories and facts about WWII in no particular way or would it for instance let’s say follow one of the real life character (as Ben narrates it) or maybe something like the story transitions in chronological order from one character to another like few of the other WWII books I’ve seen. I honestly don’t know how to word what am asking so those examples are just me trying to trying to get my point across, I do doubt it’s either of those.
My second question is sort of unrelated but I was wondering if you knew who John Kiriakou is. He’s a former CIA officer who got jailed for exposing the torture program and now he’s sharing more and more stuff about the CIA that sounds too much, like they should be kept secret. For some reason I thought about him instantly when you mentioned that you asked them if it was fine for you to share the things you learnt. I wonder if the CIA hates him lol.
Gabriel –
All authors want our books to do well. I’m not really stressed about that, but it’s more fun when a book does well than if it doesn’t.
yourandom
Ben tells the stories in an order that made the most sense to me from a storytelling perspective. There is a lot of information to convey and I tried to find the best way to do that.
I don’t know who John Kiriakou is but everything the CIA shared with me has been declassified, meaning that the public is welcome to know about it. They didn’t;t give me any classified information.
Are you going to make one on WW1
Mr Gibbs,
In SS Secret Service it’s shown that Mike has explosives homework that involves him defusing a bomb inside of his dorm. But later in SS Project X, Zoe says that students don’t get to defuse bombs until their 6th year. Mike was only in his first.
Noah
It just occurred to me Ape Escape comes out 4 days after the release of the movie Project Hail Mary(I’m not advertising it) which I have been waiting 3 months to see so that’s cool.
Charles Dougherty –
Since WWII was really the start of the CIA, I am not planing on a WWI spy book at this point.
Noah –
Well, sometimes when authors write books many years apart they can;t remember every single detail that they wrote and make a mistake.
Gabriel –
My kids and I are also very excited for PHM because we all loved the book.