This was a very interesting read. From the very start, I was intrigued and engrossed. I had never heard about this before, so I just had to read it as I just knew I would learn a lot. I just couldn't believe how much America was willing to spend on this mission. Also, not knowing how much intelligence they would gain from a cold war Russian submarine. You could tell that this book was well researched. It made for some shocking revelations. This book flowed so well, so it was easy to read and take in. It took me around a day and a half to finish, but there was never a dull moment. I learnt so much from reading it and was shocked that the Russians never fought back. It was brilliant learning about how they managed to build this ship and keep it secret. It was fascinating how they used a billionaire to hide it all. Then, when he relationship broke down with a manager, how much chaos decended. Leading to interesting court cases. Robberies of important paperwork eek so much conspiracy and controversy. I loved it all. I really do recommend reading this if you are interested in learning about what was once very secret files.

So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this fascinating intricate case. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this fantastic author.
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog today https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/neither-confirm-nor-deny-by-m-todd-bennett-columbia-university-press-4-stars under ladyreading365

Many, many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this new work. This is the story of the 1974 Hughes Glomar Explorer that was secretly looking for a sunken Russian Submarine that had sunken about 6 years prior. The stated mission of the Explorer was something else. The goal was to gain intelligence that could help win the Cold War. This is an incredible story that would make a great fiction thriller but this is a true story. The title of the book is the expression (concerning government secrets) that become a cliche now. But this is where the expression originated from. What a treat this was -- and I ate it up! Well done, highly-recommended.