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Munier provides a vivid and solidly researched account of how the world’s great powers have battled for black gold. Both winners and losers in this war have unscrupulously deployed all means possible to achieve their ends: corruption, treason, seduction, manipulation, double-agents, and the exploitation of Arab idealism. All this is remarkably described in a highly readable account which, with each page, opens new perspectives and leads to surprising questions. Indeed, Munier’s account is so intriguing that the reader will yearn to interrogate the author! So who, in November 1948, killed Marguerite Andurain, the beautiful Basque viscomtesse and femme fatale, suspected of being a double-agent by both the British and the French? Did the Nazis kill her or was it the Israelis, fearing that the weapons on her yacht were destined for the Palestinians? Was Lawrence of Arabia really killed in a motorbike accident? Or was his death somehow linked to his position on Nazi Germany? What of St John Philby, father of the famous Soviet double-agent Kim? Was he, too, a traitor, but one who favoured the Americans, urging the Saudi king to favour them to the detriment of British interests? With the exception of T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, the names of those who fought in the shadows for the control of the Middle East and its oil fields were once familiar only to a select circle of experts. Examples include Wilhelm Wassmuss, the Kaiser’s elusive spy who attempted to incite an uprising against the British in southern Persia; Conrad Kilian, the French geologist who discovered the oil fields in the Sahara and then “committed suicide”; and Captain William Shakespear, the British agent who valiantly fought alongside Ibn Saud’s troops. Munier unlocks the door to their secret world, detailing their covert activities and highlighting their links with underground organisations, such as the clandestine Arab nationalist groups. We also encounter highly singular individuals with great ambitions, such as John Eppler and William Cohen Palgrave. Eppler, Rommel’s spy in Cairo, entered into contact with the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna, and teamed up with a famous belly-dancer to plot against the British in Egypt. Napoleon III’s agent William Palgrave, though Jewish at birth, had converted to Catholicism and planned to convert the Wahhabi tribes to Christianity! In all cases, we are surprised to see that these special agents were often led to cross paths with historical leaders, who attempted to use them in order to attain their geopolitical goals. Stripping away the romantic aspect of these black gold spies leaves us with a series of murderous military operations, motivated by greed and the desire to dominate foreign nations. Indeed, as Munier states in his preface “though this saga is akin to an adventure story, the immense misfortunes which have fallen upon the oil-possessing nations for over a century are far from the stuff of dreams... Given that the Western powers are not about to drop their double standards when it comes to the protection of their oil interests, the future does not look too bright.” If we are to understand the next war, Munier’s account of the unbreakable bond between espionage and energy is required reading.