Johnson's Spy

by Noel Hynd

Johnson’s Spy is the fourth in a series of espionage novels that follow the life and career of professional investigator, Thomas Buchanan. Readers first met Buchanan in Truman’s Spy , originally published by Kensington. The second and third books in this well-reviewed series were Eisenhower’s Spy and Kennedy’s Spy .

Buchanan has worked on special assignments for Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. He is a solid, incorruptible and independent investigator, a man whom American Presidents summon when they must have the unvarnished truth about specific situations of immediate concern – domestic or foreign.

Following a covert assignment that took him in and out of Cuba in 1962, Buchanan returned to work on financial fraud and smuggling investigations in the FBI’s Miami office. By the end of 1963, he was living comfortably in Florida with his wife, Ann, and had little desire to work again in Washington.

But by early 1964, Lyndon Johnson, who abruptly succeeded John F. Kennedy in November of 1963, already faced urban riots and economic unrest at home and crises in western Europe, Central America and southeast Asia.

Buchanan now receives a back-channel invitation to meet with President Johnson.
Much to the consternation of his wife, Buchanan visits the White House for a briefing. Johnson, an overbearing and persuasive man in person, is impossible to refuse when he offers an historic mission.

Buchanan agrees to the assignment, one that is delicate, classified and far more dangerous than billed. Tom cannot even tell his wife that he is going to the most dangerous city in the war-torn Saigon. And he will follow in the footsteps of the two men who already undertook this assignment and failed. Neither of Buchanan’s predecessors was ever heard from again.

Buchanan promises Ann that he will retire from such Presidential assignments on his return and leave the Bureau itself after qualifying for his twenty-year pension in 1966. Ann remains displeased. But Buchanan leaves.

Ann stays in Miami for her own safety. Friends surround her. But danger, temptation and betrayal beckon for her, too. An attractive woman who is resentful of her husband’s continuing absences, Ann falls in with the tough but glittery horse racing, jai alai and boxing crowd in Miami. Mutual friends facilitate key celebrity introductions. A gorgeous young heavyweight named Cassius Clay leaves her breathless when they meet in person. The Clay entourage draws her in. She easily draws the attention of more than a few men.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, Tom confronts a horrifying array of war profiteers, spies, counterspies, gamblers, smugglers, disgruntled soldiers, military outlaws and political traitors. Worse, temptations are bar girls, sexual traps and seducers working for the enemy. Today’s trusted friend is tomorrow’s lethal adversary.

This mission is unlike anything Buchanan has ever experienced. It also defies easy answers or acceptable resolutions. Meanwhile, the White House phones him weekly to demand results. Johnson is increasingly agitated and impatient for answers.

Even if Tom Buchanan can survive his assignment to South Vietnam, his decade-long marriage to Ann may perish. Truth is the first casualty and the ongoing collateral damage is beyond measurement. Times are changing, but so are partners and loyalties.

Johnson’s Spy is not a cozy tale. It is a blunt, powerful and uncompromising story of espionage and war, love and lost love, and of personal sacrifice, integrity and betrayal, all wrapped within the real events of 1964 and 1965. It is the most hard-hitting book in this series.

Gripping and memorable, it is also historical/espionage fiction at its absolute best.

465 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 7, 2026

About the author

I've been a published novelist for longer than I care to admit, since 1976. I'm frequently asked, however, how I first got published. It's an interesting story and involved both Robert Ludlum and James Baldwin, even though neither of them knew it --- or me --- at the time.

My first agent, a wonderful thorughly perofessional gentleman named Robert Lantz was representing Mr. Baldwin at the time. This was around 1975. Balwin, while a brilliant writer, had had some nasty dealings with the head of Dell Publishing. Dell held Jimmy's contract at the time and he could not legally write for anyone else until he gave Dell a book that was due to them. Nonetheless, he refused to deliver a manuscript to Dell and went to Paris to sit things out.

The book was due to The Dial Press, which Dell owned. Baldwin was widely quoted as saying....and I'm cleaning up the quote here, "that he was no longer picking cotton on Dell's planatation."

The book was due to The Dial Press. The editor in chief of The Dial Press was a stellar editor who was making a name for himself and a fair bit of money for the company publishing thriller-author Robert Ludlum. A best seller every year will do that for an editor. Anyway, Baldwin fled New York for Paris. The editor followed, the asignment being to get him to come happily back to Dial. As soon as the editor arrived, Baldwin fled to Algeria. Or maybe Tunisia. It hardly mattered because Baldwin was furious and simply wouldn 't do a book for Dell/Dial. The editor returned to NY without his quarry. Things were at a standstill.

That's where I entered the story, unpublished at age 27 and knowing enough to keep my mouth shut while these things went down. I had given 124 pages of a first novel to Mr. Lantz ten days eariler. Miraculously, his reader liked it and then HE liked it. It was in the same genre that Ludlum wrote in and which the editor at Dial excelled at editing and marketing.

My agent and the editor ran into each other one afternoon in July of 1974 in one of those swank Manhattan places where people used to have three martinis for lunch. The agent asked how things had gone in Europe. The editor told him, knowing full well that the agent already knew. The next steps would be lawyers, Baldwin dragged into US Courts, major authors boycotting Doubleday/Dell, Dial, maybe some civil rights demonstrations and.......but no so fast.

Mr. Lantz offered Dial the first look at a new adventure/espionage novelist (me). IF Dial wanted me after reading my 124 pages, he could sign me, but only IF Baldwin was released from his obligations at Doubleday. I was the literary bribe, so to speak, that would get Jimmy free from Dial. It seemed like a great idea to everyone. It seemed that way because it was. Paperwork was prepapred and paperwork was signed. Voila!...To make a much longer story short, Dial accepted my novel. The editor instructed me on how to raise it to a professional level as I finished writing it over the next ten months. I followed orders perfectly. I even felt prosperous on my $7500 advance. He then had Dial release Mr. Balwin from his obligation. Not surpringly, he went on to create fine books for other publishers. Ludlum did even batter. Of the three, I'm the pauper but I've gotten my fair share and I'm alive with books coming out again now in the very near future, no small accmplishment. So no complaints from me.

That''s how I got published. I met Ludlum many times later on and Baldwin once. Ludlum liked my name "Noel" and used it for an then-upcoming charcter named Noel Holcroft. That amused me. I don't know if either of them even knew that my career had been in their orbits for a month 1975. They would have been amused. They were both smart gifted men and fine writers in dfferent ways. This story was told to me by one of the principals two years later and another one confirmed it.

Me, I came out of it with my first publishing contract, for a book titled 'Reve

Reviews

[Don Baskerville · Rating 5 out of 5]

compelling

I had to keep reading through clever plots that twisted but joined up. Excellent book with interesting historical details intertwined.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful read

Gripping novel of President Johnson and events surrounding Vietnam war. Another home run by Noel Huns. Hope he writes another novel, maybe events surrounding 9/11.