Smith isn't the most reliable narrator, but she weaves a great yarn, one that suggests a jaw-dropping conspiracy, sprinkled with cameos from Francis Ford Coppola, Keith Richards and Andy Warhol. It's a trip.

A pretty entertaining history of counterculture and espionage... It is intriguing and humorous, [although] sometimes a little too rambling.

Harcourt-Smith's narrative is at times a rambling one, with rehearsed flourishes that don't always land as they should.