The men and women who slip beneath the world's radar and risk their lives for a cause - be it government, belief, country or money - command an irresistible hold over the imagination. In Nine Lives, Fitzroy Maclean brilliantly tells the true stories of nine remarkable spies. Among them, there is the captivating Mata Hari: the exotic dancer and courtesan, who was executed by firing squad for allegedly spying for Germany during World War I; Richard Sorge: a legend among spies - leader of the Tokyo Espionage Ring and the man who informed Stalin of the German attack on Russia in 1941 weeks before it happened; and Kim Philby - the 'third man' - a prominent member of British Intelligence, a communist and a spy for the KGB.Brimming with drama and adventure, Nine Lives separates myth from reality and vividly brings alive the characters and events that surrounded these nine legendary spies.