George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger

Title: George Washington’s Secret Six:  The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution
Author: Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
Read by: Brian Kilmeade

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Length: 5 CDs, approximately 6 hours
Source: Review Copy from Penguin Audio.  Thank-you!

Brian Kilmeade is a passionate narrator of this audiobook that he co-wrote with Don Yaegar.  The story is riveting and one to get passionate about.  It starts off with a quote from the British military saying that General Washington didn’t beat them with military might, but because of his superior spy network.  This was a view of the Revolutionary War that I did not know about, and find very fascinating.

After General Washington had to retreat from New York City, he had to work to put together a spy ring on the inside that could feed him with information.  His first attempt with poor infamous Nathanial Hale was a failure, but also a valuable lesson to General Washington.  He couldn’t send a spy in from the outside, he needed an insider.  Soon a spy network for six spies was formed, known as a Culper Ring.  With codes and invisible ink, they were the epitome of what a spy ring should be and were so secret that one member is still unknown.  They were also one of the major reasons that the Americans won the Revolutionary War by providing information that was necessary for the victory.

This audiobook was moving and very, very interesting.  I greatly enjoyed it.  Kilmeade veered a bit from strict non-fiction by having some of the characters have conversations that it is unknown whether they had or not.  It worked really well listening to it as an audiobook however.  My only complaint is that I want more, especially more detail on the Culper Ring after the Revolution.  I definitely need to look for more books on this topic.  I highly recommend this audiobook.