Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage

There has to be something wrong with you if you don’t like submarine movies. Hunt for Red October, Das Boot, Crimson Tide, even relatively schlocky like K-19 is solid in my book. Take a bunch of men, cram them in a steel tube deep beneath the waves, throw in a nuclear reactor and a dozen ways to end the world, and you have instant drama.

Well, sometimes the truth surpasses fiction. Blind Man’s Bluff covers some of the most harrowing intelligence battles of the Cold War from the point of view of American submariners, and the scientists and engineers who supported them in trailing Russian missile subs, recovering lost warheads, and tapping cables in the Soviet Navy’s backyard. The book is gripping, detailed both personally and technically, and simply an amazing piece of history.

This book has earned a well-deserved place on my “you will never be this badass shelf.”