The Man Who Never Was by Ewen Montagu, 4/5

This is the definitive and first-hand account of a real-life wartime deception that bears more similarity to a fictional spy/thriller story than to reality.  During WWII, the author was in charge of a scheme to float a corpse bearing falsified military papers off the coast of Spain, in an attempt to trick the Germans into diverting resources from the impending Allied invasion of Sicily.  The narrative is simply-told and well-illustrated with numerous photos.

[Why I read it: the retro design on the spine caught my eye at the thrift store and I was somewhat familiar with the historical event the book describes so I bought it for my brother’s library.]