Uncovering Russia's role in the US elections

Why is it that this year's election feels encrusted with such déjà vu? Is it the outsize presence of Nate Silver? Former President Donald Trump's presence on the ticket? Or maybe it's because Kremlin interference appears to have been ramping up in recent months. In September, the US State Department announced it was pulling out all the stops, offering $10 million for information on a group called Russian Angry Hackers Did It.

- NICOLAS NIARCHOS

UNREDACTED: Russia, Trump, and the Fight for Democracy Author: Christopher Steele Publisher: Mariner Pages: 318 Price: $32.50

Ah, the bad old days. And while you're trying to remember how you felt seven or eight years ago, take a moment to pity poor Christopher Steele. The British ex-spook hasn't had it easy since January 10, 2017, when an explosive dossier he'd prepared alleging Russian interference in the 2016 election was published by BuzzFeed News (“without our knowledge or permission,” he'll have you know). As he reminds us in Unredacted, a memoir of his struggles in spycraft, Steele immediately became a man hunted by journalists, excoriated by oligarchs and by Trump, whom the dossier fingered as familiar with Russian sex workers — the accusation has never been confirmed — and a cultivated and supported Kremlin stooge. (Trump denied all of this.)

In Unredacted, Steele is a convincing narrator, taking us through the twists and turns that led him to become a British intelligence officer (though, for arcane reasons, he can't directly fess up to having been one) and then a spy-for-hire. The final section of the book is given to his work since the publication of the dossier.