
In True Face
A Woman's Life in the CIA, Unmasked
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Narrated by:
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Barbara Benjamin-Creel
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By:
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Jonna Mendez
The bestselling coauthor of The Moscow Rules and Argo tells her riveting, courageous story of being a female spy at the height of the Cold War
Jonna Hiestand Mendez began her CIA career as a “contract wife” performing secretarial duties for the CIA as a convenience to her husband, a young officer stationed in Europe. She needed his permission to open a bank account or shut off the gas to their apartment. Yet Mendez had a talent for espionage, too, and she soon took on bigger and more significant roles at the Agency. She parlayed her interest in photography into an operational role overseas, an unlikely area for a woman in the CIA. Often underestimated, occasionally undermined, she lived under cover and served tours of duty all over the globe, rising first to become an international spy and ultimately to Chief of Disguise at CIA’s Office of Technical Service.
In True Face recounts not only the drama of Mendez’s high-stakes work—how this savvy operator parlayed her “everywoman” appeal into incredible subterfuge—but also the grit and good fortune it took for her to navigate a misogynistic world. This is the story of an incredible spy career and what it took to achieve it.
©2024 Jonna Mendez (P)2024 PublicAffairsListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
“Mendez details her fascinating career in this gripping memoir… an entertaining and enlightening glimpse inside the opaque world of spycraft.” —Publishers Weekly
“Fans of true espionage will enjoy Mendez’s stories of a formative era in intelligence history.” —Kirkus
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Ms. Mendez did start out shifting papers and taking dictation, but she went on to travel the world, protect the vulnerable, practice and teach mad photography skills, and become a master (and chief) of disguise. She also paved the way for the generations of women who came and will come after her.
There's a lot that she really couldn't reveal about her time in the CIA, but she did share quite a bit. It seems as if it was an exciting, but also isolated way to live. Even with a partner in the same business.
No spoilers from me. I recommend this read and/or listen.
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I love traveling to the cities mentioned in this book and I occasionally work on movie sets so I’m familiar with disguises and reading the energy of the room in scenes, just like field agents do. It’s hard to believe the cia doesn’t employ more female agents as we can easily shift the energy of any room full of men, just like Jonna did when she was caught in the alley way with drug cartels and escaped effortlessly with her aura.
Thank you for sharing your stories, Jonna! I really enjoyed this book!
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