This is an account of the life of Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, Hitler's military intelligence service. Canaris was born in 1887. He was an intelligence officer aboard the Dresden at the beginning of the First World War. He was appointed to head the Abwehr in 1934, a post he held for 9 years. Although he had been an early convert to National Socialism he became disillusioned and struggled to strike a balance between his position in the Nazi network and his beliefs. Canaris was implicated in the plot to kill Hitler in 1944 and was executed in April 1945. The book has numerous black and white photographs, extensive notes, a bibliography and an index.