Spooked

A Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist’s journey

into a billon-dollar secret industry that is shaping our world – the

booming business of private spying, operatives-for-hire retained by companies,

political parties  and the powerful to dig

up dirt on their enemies and, if need be, destroy them. 

For decades, private eyes from Allan Pinkerton, who formed

the first detective agency in the U.S., to Jules Kroll, who transformed the

investigations business by giving it a corporate veneer, private spies were

content to stand in the shadows. Now, that is all changing. High-profile stories

grabbing recent headlines – the Steele Dossier, Black Cube, the Theranos

scandal, Harvey Weinstein’s attacks on his accusers –  all share a common thread, the involvement of private

spies.

Today, operatives-for-hire are influencing presidential

elections, the news media, government policies and the fortunes of companies..

They are also peering into our personal lives as never before, using off-the

shelf technology to listen to our phone calls, monitor our emails, and decide

what we see on social media. Private spying has never been cheaper and the

business has never been more lucrative—just as its power has never been more

pervasive.
 

Spooked is a fast-paced, disturbing and, at times, hilarious

tour through the shadowlands of private spying and its inhabitants, a grab-bag

collection of ex-intelligence operatives, former journalists and lost souls. In

this hidden world, information is currency, double-crosses are commonplace, and

hacking can be standard procedure.  Drawing

on his journalistic expertise and unique access to sources, Barry Meier uncovers

the secrets private spies want to keep hidden.