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Into the Mirror: The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen
From the bestselling author of American Tragedy & Perfect Murder, Perfect Town comes another portrayal of America's dark side. Into the Mirror is the story of FBI Special Agent Robert P. Hanssen, the master spy who singlehandedly created the greatest breach of security in the country's history. Written in novelistic prose, Schiller creates a gripping portrait of Hanssen, who for 22 years was a loving husband, devoted father of six, devout Catholic & member of Opus Dei, passionate anticommunist, dedicated FBI agent & a traitor. On 2/18/01, the FBI arrested Hanssen & charged him with selling to the Russians--over a period of more than 20 years--top-secret, classified information. Nothing reported to date about this ordinary-looking but tormented man has revealed the facts that Schiller & Norman Mailer--collaborators on the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Executioner's Song & Oswald's Tale--uncovered during their 9-month investigation into the life of this man. Seeking to solve this mystery, they spent hundreds of hours interviewing members of his family as well as his closest friends, colleagues & fellow church members. They traveled to Moscow to interview a key member of the KGB who had handled the spy they knew only as "Ramon Garcia." Into the Mirror gets inside the mind of a devious & dangerously brilliant man & creates a portrait of someone so caught up in the struggle with his own personal demons that he would betray everything he held sacred: his wife, family, religion & country.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
21 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Schiller
41 books22 followersThe ubiquitous Lawrence Schiller was born in 1936 in Brooklyn, and grew up in San Diego. After graduating from Pepperdine College, he went to work for Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post as a photojournalist. His photographic abilities, both technical and artistic, laid the foundation for what has become nothing less than an astonishing career.
Schiller first made his name by photographing popular culture icons such as Sophia Loren, Richard Nixon, Timothy Leary, O.J. Simpson, James Earl Jones, Barbara Streisand, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio, and Clint Eastwood, just to name a few.
He moved easily through contrasting public worlds, developing stories for Life magazine while shooting nude photographs for Hugh Heffner and Playboy magazine. Schiller was always at the forefront, and always at the right place at the right time, experiencing historical events and developing relationships that would launch his career onto a path of success in a variety of mediums.
He published his first book, LSD, in 1966. Since then he has published eleven books, including W. Eugene Smith's Minamata and Norman Mailer's Marilyn. He collaborated with Albert Goldman on Ladies and Gentleman, Lenny Bruce and with Norman Mailer on The Executioner's Song and Oswald's Tale. He has directed seven motion pictures and mini-series for television.
From 1996 through 2002, Mr. Schiller published four books that became national bestsellers: American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Into the Mirror, and Cape May Court House. All made the New York Times Bestseller List. American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and Into the Mirror were made into television mini-series for CBS. Mr. Schiller produced and directed each of the motion pictures.
Other motion picture credits are: Double Jeopardy, The Plot to Kill Hitler, The Executioner's Song, Peter the Great, Murder: By Reason of Insanity, Her Life As a Man, The Patricia Neal Story, Child Bride of Short Creek, Marilyn, The Untold Story, The Winds of Kitty Hawk, Hey, I'm Alive, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, and The Man Who Skied Down Everest.
Lawrence Schiller's projects have won countless awards, including seven Emmys and an Oscar for his work over the years. He is a consultant to NBC News and has recently written for The New Yorker and George magazines.
Schiller's haunting and beautiful portfolio of photographs of Marilyn Monroe is from the last professional photo session of the sex goddess, while making Something's Got to Give in 1962. She was fired from the movie and was dead two months later. Almost a half a century has passed since May 1962, and still these astonishing, daring, and beautifully crafted photographs—never available as limited editions, until now—continue to captivate and enthrall us.
His collection of images chronicling America in the 1960s is an important document of our time. With daring forthrightness, a decade of turmoil, creativity and entertainment is unrolled before our eyes. Schiller's uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, affords us the privilege of surveying all of this history, captured with succinct and powerful images that have defined and continue to define the national conversation.
Schiller first made his name by photographing popular culture icons such as Sophia Loren, Richard Nixon, Timothy Leary, O.J. Simpson, James Earl Jones, Barbara Streisand, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Joe DiMaggio, and Clint Eastwood, just to name a few.
He moved easily through contrasting public worlds, developing stories for Life magazine while shooting nude photographs for Hugh Heffner and Playboy magazine. Schiller was always at the forefront, and always at the right place at the right time, experiencing historical events and developing relationships that would launch his career onto a path of success in a variety of mediums.
He published his first book, LSD, in 1966. Since then he has published eleven books, including W. Eugene Smith's Minamata and Norman Mailer's Marilyn. He collaborated with Albert Goldman on Ladies and Gentleman, Lenny Bruce and with Norman Mailer on The Executioner's Song and Oswald's Tale. He has directed seven motion pictures and mini-series for television.
From 1996 through 2002, Mr. Schiller published four books that became national bestsellers: American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Into the Mirror, and Cape May Court House. All made the New York Times Bestseller List. American Tragedy, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town and Into the Mirror were made into television mini-series for CBS. Mr. Schiller produced and directed each of the motion pictures.
Other motion picture credits are: Double Jeopardy, The Plot to Kill Hitler, The Executioner's Song, Peter the Great, Murder: By Reason of Insanity, Her Life As a Man, The Patricia Neal Story, Child Bride of Short Creek, Marilyn, The Untold Story, The Winds of Kitty Hawk, Hey, I'm Alive, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, and The Man Who Skied Down Everest.
Lawrence Schiller's projects have won countless awards, including seven Emmys and an Oscar for his work over the years. He is a consultant to NBC News and has recently written for The New Yorker and George magazines.
Schiller's haunting and beautiful portfolio of photographs of Marilyn Monroe is from the last professional photo session of the sex goddess, while making Something's Got to Give in 1962. She was fired from the movie and was dead two months later. Almost a half a century has passed since May 1962, and still these astonishing, daring, and beautifully crafted photographs—never available as limited editions, until now—continue to captivate and enthrall us.
His collection of images chronicling America in the 1960s is an important document of our time. With daring forthrightness, a decade of turmoil, creativity and entertainment is unrolled before our eyes. Schiller's uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time, affords us the privilege of surveying all of this history, captured with succinct and powerful images that have defined and continue to define the national conversation.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 13, 2022
This book is an extrapolation based on a screenplay, with some dialog generated and assumed. The writing is simplistic, and the dialog, simply odd in places. Only a third of this book is about the spying, much of it is guesswork and assumptions with possible dialog and situations. I was hoping for a profile of Hanssen, his actual misdeeds and the results.
March 4, 2020
This man made my skin crawl. I found the writing almost melodramatic and soap opera and I really wanted him to get caught. The arrest was glossed over and there didn't seem to be anything interesting about the intelligence he traded.
October 24, 2022
I enjoyed the book enough. The arrest is was simplified and was expecting more traded intelligence that had an impact. However think that was more my personal opinion alongside expectation. Three and a half. Would I read it again? Probably not.
October 9, 2025
Chronologically told story of a Chicago area born man who becomes an FBI agent and then sells secrets to the Soviets. Well told. His personal sexual habits and his devout Catholicism/Opus Dei membership are an important part of the story and his psychopathology. A hard book to put down.
June 7, 2013
Based on a screenplay written by Norman Mailer, Schiller's novelistic biography of Robert Philip Hanssen is, despite many flaws, a page-turner. The appeal is manifold for this is not only a spy story, but it is also an attempt to get at the genesis of evil and the psychopathology of a sexual pervert--all of which is heightened by the vast gulf between what Hanssen espoused (patriotism, political conservatism, catholicism) and what he actually did. For me the appeal also included the fact that Hanssen grew up not far from my home, went to a local high school and belonged to a local parish.
The flaws of this book derive from its indefinite nature, from its being novelistic-but-based-on-facts. It certainly isn't a good biography. Conversations are certainly invented and one wonders how many events are products of the authors' imaginations. The distinction between fact and invention is entirely murky in that no notes are provided. After finishing it I watched a television documentary on the case which made it clear that much was left out of the story, here novelistic aspirations seeming to distort historical retelling.
The flaws of this book derive from its indefinite nature, from its being novelistic-but-based-on-facts. It certainly isn't a good biography. Conversations are certainly invented and one wonders how many events are products of the authors' imaginations. The distinction between fact and invention is entirely murky in that no notes are provided. After finishing it I watched a television documentary on the case which made it clear that much was left out of the story, here novelistic aspirations seeming to distort historical retelling.
August 5, 2009
Non-Fiction. Double agent Robert P. Hanssen works for the FBI and sells classified info to the Russians for 15 years and is finally caught. This book is a very easy read. It is written like a novel. The conversations that are written about are not exactly what took place and neither are some of the events in the book however the author has done much research regarding Mr. Hanssen. Based on his research he has developed a story that reveals the type of person Mr. Hanssen was based on the things that were discovered about him during the investigation. It makes you realize how easy it is for someone to have a double life, to hide things that people would think are impossible to hide.
December 16, 2008
Ah fascinating..I love this CIA-KGB stuff..love reading abut people who present the perfect man/woman/family/ facade and are as crooked as a winding road.
Well I learned that the KGB..became the GRU..so that when I read another novel "Ground Zero" I knew what the author was referring to, since it was not clarified in the "Into the Mirror" true story.
Well I learned that the KGB..became the GRU..so that when I read another novel "Ground Zero" I knew what the author was referring to, since it was not clarified in the "Into the Mirror" true story.
March 16, 2013
This is a book I found on my husband's book shelf. I'm interested in what moves people to commit espionage so I picked it up, but it's hard to rate a book when you find the subject matter so despicable. The authors did a good job relating the story, but it's hard for me to believe people like Robert Hanssen exist. I hope his family has healed.
November 24, 2009
This book was fascinatinating to me and was something that really held my interest. Prior to reading it, I was not familiar with Robert Hanssen. However, the book did a nice job of allowing readers inside his mind and gave a glimpse of the spy's psyche.
March 30, 2016
More like a 3.4 :-). Interesting read. Embarrassing for the FBI, but a few months later was 9/11. Obviously there's some better protocols now. My second book by Schiller, he is a good story teller.
March 26, 2007
My wife called me a perv for choosing this book and recetly found out they are making a movie out it. Nice to listen to on our trip
January 7, 2008
Interesting story, fast read, poorly written.
July 4, 2016
real interesting - the spy life
January 3, 2010
There may be better accounts, but this is a very interesting account the life of the Soviet spy, Robert Hansen, who worked for the FBI.
February 3, 2013
IT'S A VERY GOOD BOOK THAT I HAD TROUBLE PUTTING DOWN, SAD THAT IT'S A TRUE STORY THO. VERY WELL WRITTEN.
January 4, 2015
Excellent book am re reading this as I am amazed that Hanson got away with espionage for such a long time. I wonder if the CIA has reviewed it,s security
April 29, 2017
Maybe should deserve 4 stars. Amazing how this nut job made it to a top ranking job in the FBI and spied for Russia and the KGB for years undetected. Maybe they need more psycho testing for their agents. The guy only had 1 friend in his whole life and almost no one besides his wife and kids even liked him. A fanatically religious wacko who preached Opus Dei beliefs to everyone but had no issues with his spying for money and his porno obsessions.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews