• Into the Lion's Mouth

  • The True Story of Dusko Popov: Word War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration for James Bond
  • By: Larry Loftis
  • Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
  • Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (229 ratings)

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Into the Lion's Mouth  By  cover art

Into the Lion's Mouth

By: Larry Loftis
Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
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Publisher's summary

James Bond has nothing on Dusko Popov. A double agent for the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6, and the FBI during World War II, Popov seduced numerous women, spoke five languages, and was a crack shot, all while maintaining his cover as a Yugoslavian diplomat....

On a cool August evening in 1941, a Serbian playboy created a stir at Casino Estoril in Portugal by throwing down an outrageously large baccarat bet to humiliate his opponent. The Serbian was a British double agent, and the money - which he had just stolen from the Germans - belonged to the British. From the sideline, watching with intent interest, was none other than Ian Fleming.

The Serbian was Dusko Popov. As a youngster he had been expelled from his London prep school. Years later he would be arrested and banished from Germany for making derogatory statements about the Third Reich. When World War II ensued, the playboy became a spy, eventually serving three dangerous masters: the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6, and the FBI.

On August 10, 1941, the Germans sent Popov to the United States to construct a spy network and gather information on Pearl Harbor. The FBI ignored his German questionnaire, but J. Edgar Hoover succeeded in blowing his cover. While MI5 desperately needed Popov to deceive the Abwehr about the D-day invasion, they assured him that a return to the German secret service headquarters in Lisbon would result in torture and execution. He went anyway....

Into the Lion's Mouth is a globe-trotting account of a man's entanglement with espionage, murder, assassins, and lovers - including enemy spies and a Hollywood starlet. It is a story of subterfuge and seduction, patriotism, and cold-blooded courage. It is the story of Dusko Popov - the inspiration for James Bond.

©2016 Larry Loftis (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Into the Lion's Mouth

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A boring account of exciting events.

The real life adventures of the "real" James Bond as told in quite possibly the most boring way. The writing was bad enough, it reads like a history book, the monotone presentation completely ruins it. I finished it only because I wanted to learn about the subject, not because the author engaged me.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • tp
  • 07-07-19

Better than Bond

Very interesting read, have to say I like the real bond better than the Hollywood version. However, was a difficult book to read. Almost like a text book. Learned a lot and glad I read it, but was not one I will read again.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I didn't get past the introduction..

The narrator's voice is soooo annoying. I couldn't get past the introduction, which made me very disappointed.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator

I could imagine this book being read with a calmer, deeper voice. A little too animated a narration for my taste. The book itself is written with fine drama.
I didn’t see the need to amp it up with narration

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator is unlistenable

This guy is bizarre. He reads every single sentence in the book with the same intonation pattern, which happens to be completely unnatural and not how anyone actually talks. Rise in pitch for the beginning of sentence, dip down low at the end, doesn’t matter what the meaning of the words are, just use the same robotic intonation for every single sentence.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen and inspired story

Superb telling of an amazing life. Thank you. He was the man needed for that time in history.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A matter of style...

The story is awesome. There is no shortage of intrigue and detail lining up to the timeline of WW2. Very cool to learn about the swirling currents of the less obvious way the war was waged. Also very interesting to learn about the total ineptitude of Hoover. However, the writing style is very punchy and comes at you in bursts of dates and names that are a challenge to keep track of.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Where was the editor during this performance??!!

I wanted to love this book, because I have encountered the subject, Mr. Popov in other books and was looking forward to him being the sole focus. Larry Loftis wrote well about a fascinating personality, but then the narrator, Eric Dove ruined it with repeated , terrible mispronunciations of dozens of names of people and places. Not just the French, German or Yugoslav names and places, but the British & American, too! I actually yelled at my IPad . I am fairly certain that robotic Alexa would have done a better job. Doesn't anyone edit the audio version of a book? If a editor makes a writer spell word properly, someone needs to make sure the narrator pronounces them properly. Where was George Guidal or James Gillies or Simon Vance?

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

in-depth understanding world war II double agent

I was totally fascinated with this book. it opened up a whole new thought pattern for how spies worked during world war II. it also opened up the idea double-crossing one's country, in ways that I have never even contemplated. gives me a lot of understanding of why the the u.s. Democrats act the way they do. this book opens a political avenue that I never even thought existed and needs to be read by every single Republican in the United States. the Democrats are the Nazis in to USA. and if you look at the parallel of tricycle and the totalitarian regime in Germany and compare it to the Democrats of Nancy pelosi you have an in-depth learning experience.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

An interesting look into the life of a British double agent during WWII. A scorecard was sometimes necessary as the cast of characters grew extensive, especially for an audiobook. Still, it was as fun to listen to as a fictional thriller. Worth the listen.

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