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.