Mirror, mirror on the wall

Nair's, Raman's and Rajeshwar's books are barren in every possible way you can imagine

There are spies, and books about spies and books written by spies. I know nothing of spies. But I do know that of the remaining two the last can be very boring because, obviously, they can’t match the books that are about spies. 

One reason for this, of course, is that while fiction writers have a free hand, writers who have served intelligence agencies don’t. But another, perhaps equally important reason is the need of former officials — spies and the rest — to tell the world how good they were and how bad things have become since they retired. 

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