For the last 17 years, the country of Iraq has known almost constant violence and political upheaval — the only change being the shifting face of the enemy, blowing in violently like the whipped-up sands of its trackless deserts. Its most recent wars against Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) involve a daily struggle to stay one step ahead of the machinations of radicalized terrorists seeking to maim and kill Iraqi citizens and those designated to protect them. In an increasingly technologically advanced age, meeting the enemy on the battlefield is an anachronism; today, victory requires one of the oldest and most effective tools of warfare — espionage.

In The Spymaster of Baghdad: A True Story of Bravery, Family, and Patriotism in the Battle Against ISIS, Margaret Coker reveals a little-known unit of Iraqi counterintelligence operatives who ...