100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Thanks for supporting our 100% NZ-owned independent bookstore ❤️ Overnight NZ-wide Delivery 🚀

The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception

By Robert Wallace and H Keith Melton
0.0 (0 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception uncovers a top-secret 1950s CIA training manual once used to instruct field agents in espionage tactics during the Cold War. Created by celebrated magician John Mulholland, this declassified handbook reveals tradecraft techniques including sleight of hand, covert communications, and methods to secretly handle substances. It offers rare insight into both spycraft and the CIA's controversial MK-ULTRA mind-control programme, making it a unique historical document.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$5300

International Supplier

This title is in-stock with overseas suppliers. While it is not available locally, we fly books in weekly from the US and UK to our Auckland warehouse for immediate dispatch.

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 2-3 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for enthusiasts of espionage history, Cold War politics, magic and illusion, and those interested in intelligence tradecraft and covert operations.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A once top-secret manual for training CIA field agents in deception and sleight-of-hand techniques had been thought lost forever--until a single copy was discovered in the agency's archives and published.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Once a top-secret training manual for CIA field agents in the early Cold War Era of the 1950s, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception is now available to the general public. An amazing historical artefact, this eye-opening handbook offered step-by-step instructions to covert intelligence operatives in all manner of spycraft, sleight of hand, and trickery designed to thwart the Communist enemy.

Part of the Company's infamous MK-ULTRA—a secret mind-control and chemical interrogation research programme—this legendary, now declassified document, the brainchild of John Mulholland, then America's most famous magician, was believed lost forever. But thanks to former CIA gadgeteer Bob Wallace and renowned spycraft historian H. Keith Melton, The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception is now available to everyone, spy and civilian alike.

This landmark document reveals the secret tradecraft of clandestine operations:

  • Cold War Espionage: Uncover the methods developed to thwart the Communist enemy during one of the most dangerous periods in U.S. history.
  • Surreptitious Delivery: Learn step-by-step sleight of hand instructions for covertly handling tablets, powders, and liquids, designed by America's most famous magician, John Mulholland.
  • Deception Techniques: Master the arts of misdirection, secret communication, and surreptitious removal of objects from the perspective of a master illusionist.
  • MK-ULTRA Secrets: Gain insight into the CIA's infamous mind-control research programme and the legendary, long-lost manual that was part of it.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780061725906

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 November 2010

Country: United States

Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 122.0mm

Height: 213.0mm

Weight: 204g

Pages: 272

Collections

Education & Reference H Keith Melton Non-Fiction Politics & Current Affairs Robert Wallace

About the Author

H. Keith Melton, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, is an intelligence historian and a specialist in clandestine technology and espionage "tradecraft." He is the author of several books, including CIA Special Weapons and Equipment, Clandestine Warfare, and The Ultimate Spy Book. Robert Wallace retired from the CIA in 2003 with thirty-two years of service as an operations officer and senior executive, including an assignment as director of the Office of Technical Services. Wallace is coauthor, with H. Keith Melton, of Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda.

Also by Robert Wallace

View all
  • Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece
    Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece
    This book presents a state-of-the-art debate about the origins of Athenian democracy by five eminent scholars. The result is a stimulating, critical exploration and interpretation of the extant evidence on this intriguing and important topic. The authors address such questions as: Why was democracy first realised in ancient Greece? Was democracy "invented" or did it evolve over a long period...
    By Josiah Ober and Kurt A. Raaflaub and Robert Wallace
    Paperback
    $6099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

More from Politics & Current Affairs

View all
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    One Last Question, Prime Minister
    From Muldoon to Luxon, untold stories from the House of Parliament Barry Soper has spent close to five decades questioning New Zealand's prime ministers.From the imposing, larger-than-life characters of Rob Muldoon and David Lange, to the golden age of Helen Clark and John Key, and the post-Covid era of Jacinda Ardern and the 'Chrises', Soper's insight and nose for a...
    By Barry Soper
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Regime Change
    From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House and the first year of his second presidency. Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader into...
    By Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A Different Kind of Power
    #1 New Zealand bestseller #1 Amazon bestseller #2 Audible bestseller #3 New York Times bestseller #3 Sunday Times bestseller #4 Australian bestseller From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to...
    By Jacinda Ardern
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • A Different Kind of Power
    Ockham Winner
    A Different Kind of Power
    What if we could redefine leadership? What if kindness came first? Jacinda Ardern grew up the daughter of a police officer in small-town New Zealand, but as the 40th Prime Minister of her country, she commanded global respect for her empathetic leadership that put people first. This is the remarkable story of how a Mormon girl plagued by self-doubt made...
    By Jacinda Ardern
    Hardback
    $4799
    Elsewhere:
    $5999
    (7)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Suicidal Empathy
    The bestselling author of The Parasitic Mind shows why empathy in politics leads to civilizational collapse. What happens when a society elevates victimhood to a virtue and decides that punishment is cruel? You get the disease Dr. Gad Saad calls suicidal empathy. And the West may be terminally infected. In his new book, Suicidal Empathy, Saad unleashes a blistering critique...
    By Gad Saad
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Signed Copy
    Go Hard or Go Home
    From the front bench to rock bottom: Go Hard or Go Home is Kiri Allan's fearless memoir of ambition, disruption and survival in NZ politics and beyond. Kiri Allan's six-year political career spanned some of the most challenging times in recent history. Events a government might encounter once in a generation stacked up: a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, destructive and deadly...
    By Kiritapu Allan
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Pre-order
    Out 4 Aug 2026
  • New Release
    The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post-Trump World
    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen explores how Republicans have abused power, how Democrats have refused to exercise power when they held it, and how progressives should wield power if they are fortunate enough to win a free and fair election in a post-Trump world. The Day After: How to Wield Power in...
    By Brian Tyler Cohen
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Careless People
    Shocking and darkly funny, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to the decisions that are shaping our world and the people who make them. Welcome to Facebook. Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook's potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there...
    By Sarah Wynn-Williams
    Paperback
    $2800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Discipline
    Silence is complicity, but how do we confront the cost of speaking up? Sydney, May 2021. Ashraf is an academic whose career and personal life are in freefall. Hannah is a young journalist struggling to honour the voices of her community. When a Year 12 Al-Bayinnah College student is arrested for protesting a university's ties to an Israeli weapons manufacturer,...
    By Randa Abdel-Fattah
    Paperback
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Shattered Lands
    'A sparkling debut by an outstanding young historian' – PETER FRANKOPAN 'This book is a revelation … both original and important' – MISHAL HUSAIN A history of modern South Asia told through five partitions that reshaped it. As recently as 1928, a vast swathe of Asia – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Bhutan, Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and...
    By Sam Dalrymple
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
    'A howl from the heart of our age' — Richard Flanagan 'A unique and urgently needed book.' — Naomi Klein 'A powerful, uncomfortable but thought-provoking read.' — Dua Lipa 'Clear, elegant and devastatingly truthful... Read this shatteringly honest book.' — Max Porter From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, an urgent and necessary reckoning with what it means to...
    By Omar El Akkad
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • The Handmaid's Tale
    The bestselling dystopian classic that became a cultural phenomenon and inspired an award-winning TV series. THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it.' Guardian I believe in the resistance as I believe there can be no...
    By Margaret Atwood
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

The Latest at Book Hero

View all