Thanks to this lucid English translation, originally published in Turkish as Sultanın Casusları, English-language readers can appreciate how the early modern Ottomans successfully navigated multiple challenges posed by their European rivals. At the heart of this interesting, if theoretically muted, work are details about the Ottoman Empire's numerous intelligence gathering programs. By way of patronage networks set up by regional governors scattered throughout the empire and various espionage resources recruited by Christian clergy, sailors and merchants helped the Sublime Porte draw strategies that proved essential for the empire's survival. Processing the disparate information gathered from these various sources proved equally impressive. Readers ultimately learn from this rich, fluid story that the Ottoman Empire's myriad authorities translated intelligence into policies that empowered factions (i.e., "interests groups") as much as the state. The resulting use of information (and disinformation)—ostensibly an operation that outsourced intelligence gathering—reflects an early modern example of how external actors, as much as those embedded in power, can induce state policies beneficial to them. The Ottoman state proved its very survival was predicated on incorporating these disparate and often rival constituencies, many of which straddled the different empires of the Mediterranean world. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.