In the Enemy's House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies

by Howard Blum

 The New York Times bestselling author of Dark Invasion and The Last Goodnight once again illuminates the lives of little-known individuals who played a significant role in America’s history as he chronicles the incredible true story of a critical, recently declassified counterintelligence mission and two remarkable agents whose story has been called "the greatest secret of the Cold War."In 1946, genius linguist and codebreaker Meredith Gardner discovered that the KGB was running an extensive network of strategically placed spies inside the United States, whose goal was to infiltrate American intelligence and steal the nation’s military and atomic secrets. Over the course of the next decade, he and young FBI supervisor Bob Lampshere worked together on Venona, a top-secret mission to uncover the Soviet agents and protect the Holy Grail of Cold War espionage—the atomic bomb.

Opposites in nearly every way, Lampshere and Gardner relentlessly followed a trail of clues that helped them identify and take down these Reds one by one, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But at the center of this spy ring, seemingly beyond the American agents’ grasp, was the mysterious master spy who pulled the strings of the KGB’s extensive campaign, dubbed Operation Enormoz by Russian Intelligence headquarters. Lampshere and Gardner began to suspect that a mole buried deep in the American intelligence community was feeding Moscow Center information on Venona. They raced to unmask the traitor and prevent the Soviets from fulfilling Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s threat: "We shall bury you!"

A breathtaking chapter of American history and a page-turning mystery that plays out against the tense, life-and-death gamesmanship of the Cold War, this twisting thriller begins at the end of World War II and leads all the way to the execution of the Rosenbergs—a result that haunted both Gardner and Lampshere to the end of their lives.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Espionage, Audiobook, Russia, American History, War

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 20, 2018

About the author

Howard Blum is the author of New York Times bestsellers including Dark Invasion, the Edgar Award–winner American Lightning, as well as Wanted!, The Gold Exodus, Gangland, and The Floor of Heaven. Blum is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. While at the New York Times, he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is the father of three children, and lives in Connecticut.

Get in touch!
Website: www.HowardBlum.com
Email: Howard@HowardBlum.com
Facebook: Like Howard Blum on Facebook
Twitter: @HowardBlum and @FloorOfHeaven

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Enemy's House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies by Howard Blum, The New York Times bestselling author of Dark Invasion and The Last Goodnight once again illuminates the lives of little-known individuals who played a significant role in America’s history. He chronicles the incredible true story of a critical, recently declassified counterintelligence mission and two remarkable agents whose story has been called "the greatest secret of the Cold War." In 1946, genius linguist and codebreaker Meredith Gardner discovered that the KGB was running an extensive network of strategically placed spies inside the United States, whose goal was to infiltrate American intelligence and steal the nation’s military and atomic secrets. Over the course of the next decade, he and young FBI supervisor Bob Lamphere worked together on Venona, a top-secret mission to uncover the Soviet agents and protect the Holy Grail of Cold War espionage—the atomic bomb. Opposites in nearly every way, Lamphere and Gardner relentlessly followed a trail of clues that helped them identify and take down these Soviet agents one by one, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But at the center of this spy ring, seemingly beyond the American agents’ grasp, was the mysterious master spy who pulled the strings of the KGB’s extensive campaign, dubbed Operation Enormoz by Russian Intelligence headquarters. Lamphere and Gardner began to suspect that a mole buried deep in the American intelligence community was feeding Moscow Center information on Venona. This twisting thriller begins at the end of World War II and leads all the way to the execution of the Rosenbergs—a result that haunted both Gardner and Lamphere to the end of their lives. Well researched and written based on newly declassified and released documents.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a book! Especially in light of the years of Cold War that continued for half of a century with the U.S.S.R., and now the "all of a sudden" renewed enlightened interest to Russian espionage.

It's a hard book to enter. The first 100 pages are so difficult and personality placement heavy that I would guess, just a guess, but I would guess not one in 3 or 4 would proceed to get through it all. It also includes explanation for the triple lock key processes of coding that the Russian units and headquarters in Moscow developed during the late 1930's, during WWII, and far into the 1950's. It's a coding system that I do not half understand (maybe just about half). And after reading this, still do not grasp fully at least a 1/3rd of the progressions to the "3rd" lock. Especially using that one-use only code book translating key during the final stages. And I am primarily a numbers person- so this is quite, quite difficult. Not only to use, but also to explain. It's all numbers in 5 set units.

By comparison the Japanese, German codes of the same WWII period were mere Sanskrit in comparison. They were all broken in a matter of weeks, and for a few times, just days. While Russian code systems although intercepted "whole piece" were unable to be read for 4 or 5 or even 7 years afterwards. So time is up and back constantly in this book- it's extremely difficult to follow what context is "known" at any one period.

But primarily this book is cored on the partnership of Meredith Gardner and Bob Lamphere who did break those Russian codes. Two men in one small office that could hardly be more dissimilar. Not only in physical appearance but in temperament, background etc. etc. etc. Meredith was the desk man (a genius plus called "the legend") and Bob was the field man who tested his decoded results in the real world.

The only thing that kept me from giving this book 5 stars is the complexity of the subject matter and the time principles involved. They are fluid. As code name or tag changes to another for the same agent or cell group they are using 4 to 7 year old back encryption. So what they know as Mlad in 1945 is something else completely by 1948. And in 1950 that mover/player might be Wasp or Liberal. But they do know almost from the get go that the key player and oversight core for the Enormoz (fusion nuclear research stolen information) has a wife with the Christian name of Ethel.

This also colors the Russian duo agents (Moscow side KGB) who send and receive. Also their other assignments/ assigners who operated on the "receiving" end of all this scientific and chemical information which was highly, highly top secret. These two also- they are quite friends from the first KGB schools of near childhood years' experiences, but it follows them until this 21st century and into middle aged placements until old age for one of them. They become know in this book, as well.

So much exposed. And the depth of information given to Russia within the 1942-1952 decade especially? It probably changed entire threads of actual human history for the latter 1/2 of the last century. No, not probably. It did.

It also highlights in the beginning of the book and at the very end, the ultimate Rosenberg paths, as well. If for nothing else, that alone is worth this read. And he questions Ethel's involvement degree, not only the author but others. That's the only thing for all of these 100's of persons' tales that I think they left quite open to a "fact" interpretation upon the reader's part. There certainly
is disagreement. Meredith thinks she was too sick to become heavily involved. Others think she was the supreme residenza (cell and all its tributaries of spies where they ultimately feed the gathered information to send to Moscow) of the entire.

If you have patience, read this. Keep an open mind and really consider too the actual roles of the FBI as cited and as they self-identity. Before their expansion, during this WWII into 1960 period, now- and how their internals work from Hoover days inceptions. This demonstrates that context perfectly for that pondering of their lawful "place" and evolving. I don't think I have ever come across another book that did carve that nuance as well to practical applications for the FBI (and CIA is some respects too) as this one did. Consider how they name those D.C. headed offices- "the Dreamland".

And also consider the ages of all these people. A lawyer at 21 (Bob) and a central Los Alamos agent at 19 (one of the Russian spies). And also that the #2 in position man for the entire (only 15 men total)for the first A bomb scientific group taken from Europe to work on that project from its get-go year was handing over detail upon detail small and large, plus sketches (bomb mechanics) and factors to process inputs. His name was Kraus Fuchs. I never heard of him. He was another large key.

That's what floored me the most. Of all these names, the only ones you ever hear in a greater historical memory have been the Rosenbergs. While at the same time there were dozens of Communist spy cells and tributaries of cells in the USA. And I was taught as a grammar school girl in the 1950's and 1960's that the Rosenbergs were "spies" and their death penalties harsh but earned and almost nothing more about them. Really never taught why this depth of information was treason.

They never taught me what they had organized and accomplished for a long period of time. At their sentencing I had to read the judge's declaration about 3 times slowly (I copied it below this review). Because I do feel that Ethel should have gotten life or 30 years as Sobell and others received. The author seems to think this, as well. Because her parts to deceptions were horrific but not as fully proven to material placements in factual copy. While others who did equal to Julius got off with running away to South America and all kinds of shorter incarcerations. I believe they wanted the maximum just to become martyrs, because they never confessed, as dozens of others did when proofs and photos were shown to them.

Judge's declaration:

"I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb, years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb, has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding fifty thousand, and who knows but what millions more innocent people may pay for the price of your treason? Indeed, by the cause of your betrayal, you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country."

The biographic information for all of the code breakers and the spies of both sides, about 75% of the players from all of those years, is also included at the end. As is a large section of his research methods and contacts.

This is a book that truly opens some eyes to a "window". More than a half a dozen countries, and especially England/ the USA- they have been paranoid in certain eras for very real reasons.

[Cold War Conversations Podcast · Rating 4 out of 5]

As good as any fictional spy thriller

Howard Blum tells the fascinating story of the race to capture the Soviet spy ring that passed the secrets of the atom bomb to the Soviet Union. The main characters are codebreaker Meredith Gardner and FBI agent Bob Lamphere, and Blum details how Gardner cracked fragments of the key Soviet codes, with Lamphere piecing them together to capture the Soviet spies.

The book reads like a novel and at places I did question how much this was based on fact or the authors suppositions, but at the end of the book Blum does assure the reader that all conversations or thoughts in the characters heads are backed up by documentary evidence.

It’s a pacey read, and to use a cliché quite a page turner. Although I was aware of many of the characters such as Klaus Fuchs, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Blum does provide rich character background that give more depth and insight than a dry analytical account of the process involved.

The book ends with the execution of the Rosenbergs which Lamphere and Gardner were unable to prevent without disclosing that the codes had been broken.

A fascinating account of the early days of espionage in the Cold War.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher, but was not required to provide a positive review.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A riveting account of the hunt for, and capture of, the Rosenberg spy ring, also know as the Venona Project.

[Natali Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A riveting non-fictional spy thriller.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was growing up in Ohio in the 1950s, one of the biggest stories in the news was the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They had been convicted of helping spirit scientific details about the construction of the atomic bomb from American scientists and engineers to KGB officers stationed in New York. Ironically, as we learn in Howard Blum's new book, In the Enemy's House, they personally had little or nothing to do with funneling that information to the Soviet Union. Julius was involved because he ran a spy ring that included couriers who had been in contact with some of the nuclear scientists. Though Ethel was aware of her husband's role, she herself played no active part in the affair. The man most clearly responsible for providing the Soviet Union with information about how to build an atomic bomb was a German emigré scientist named Klaus Fuchs, who was convicted and imprisoned in Britain in 1950.

Blum's book is subtitled The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies. That's accurate. The central characters in this engrossing account are FBI agent Bob Lamphere and Meredith Gardner, a polyglot linguist widely regarded as a genius who worked as a codebreaker for the forerunner of the NSA. This is "a story of two very different and very unlikely friends who had teamed up to chase down the most consequential spy ring in American history . . . one the prideful brawler and elbow-on-the-bar carouser, the other the devotee of unfathomable puzzles who hid behind an armor of social inhibition." Gardner's contribution was to break the unbreakable Soviet diplomatic code, which was far more sophisticated and complex than either the much-better-known German Enigma or Japanese Purple codes, which had been broken by others before and during World War II. (The Soviet code was, in fact, unbreakable; Gardner succeeded only because he gained access to documents that provided a route in.) Lamphere turned Gardner's discoveries into actionable investigations.

Blum also reports extensively on the Soviet side of the story, focusing on the prominent Soviet spymaster Alexander ("Sasha") Feklisov.

Lamphere and Gardner worked together for seven years, from shortly after the conclusion of World War II until the Rosenbergs were sent to the electric chair at Sing Sing prison in 1953. Interestingly, both men were guilt-stricken over the results of their work. Neither had wanted either of the two to be executed, and both felt strongly that it was wrong to kill Ethel Rosenberg for what at best was a tangential connection to the conspiracy.

Throughout In the Enemy's House, Blum directly quotes Lamphere, Gardner, Feliksov, and several others and relates their thoughts at the time. In a Note on Sources at the conclusion of the book, the author insists "they are products of the historical record and my research. They can be substantiated by official government records, documents, and reports; bookshelves filled with volumes of Cold War histories; memoirs; personal notebooks; contemporaneous newspaper reports; previously transcribed conversations; and, not least, lengthy interviews I conducted with the close relatives of the main actors in this story (Bob Lamphere and Meredith Gardner are deceased)." The result is that Blum manages to make the story read like a novel. It's a police procedural translated into the realm of espionage.

Howard Blum, formerly a reporter for the Village Voice and the New York Times, is the author of twelve previous nonfiction books.

[Maine Colonial · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot about the Rosenberg atomic spy case over the years, but this book is different from most. Its focus is the two FBI agents, Meredith Gardner and Bob Lamphere, who teamed up to crack Soviet codes and track down the US citizens who betrayed atomic secrets to the USSR during World War II and later.

Gardner was a genius-level linguist and cryptanalyst, while Lamphere was a dogged and insightful investigator. While their partnership didn’t get off to the most promising start, eventually they became a solid team and were the keys to unveiling Klaus Fuchs, Morton Sobel, Harry Gold, David and Ruth Greenglass and, finally, Julius Rosenberg.

Are you wondering why I didn’t say Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? The reason is author Blum states that Gardner had decrypted spy ring messages that he felt proved that Ethel wasn’t part of the work. But because the fact he had cracked the Soviet code was top secret, he wasn’t able to convey that to anyone in a position who could save Ethel—if not from prison, at least from the electric chair.

Blum also notes that the memoir of Sasha, Julius Rosenberg’s handler, claims that there were voices in the KGB wanting to get the word to the Rosenbergs that they were free to reveal everything to the FBI. For whatever reason, that never happened, and neither of the Rosenbergs ever revealed anything, which is a large part of the reason both were executed. It didn’t help that Ethel’s brother and sister-in-law, David and Ruth Greenglass, were part of the spy ring and testified against the Rosenbergs. I’ve read elsewhere that they attributed to Ethel the actions of Ruth, to save themselves. David was imprisoned for a few years, while Ruth was never even charged.

Gardner and Lamphere were dismayed by the execution of the Rosenbergs and appalled by the rise of McCarthyism. Lamphere left the FBI to work at the Veterans Administration. It’s not entirely clear what Gardner, with his extreme skills at cryptography, did with the rest of his career. The two old colleagues and friends both died in 2002.

This is a fascinating and well-written story, providing a different angle to the well-known history of the Rosenberg case.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I was familiar with the Soviet efforts and successes in acquiring US nuclear weapon technology, this was still interesting to read and had a lot of details that I was unfamiliar with, like exactly how the Soviets encoded their messages and how the US broke that code. Also, how bad at counter-espionage the FBI was at the beginning of the game. I mean, following people around while in the black suits and fedoras? Good try, flatfoots. Heh.

This is the second of Blum's books I have read and, while I liked Dark Invasion better, I will probably read more of his in the future. I have reached the point where I refuse to read fiction that is dry and laborious and Blum is good at making history alive and enjoyable to read.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. Non-fiction, spy biography. 3 Stars
I did learn a few new things-Finland entered WWII on the side of the Nazis, for one.
The thorough description and explanations of spycraft from this era was also informative. Yes, I've heard of dead drops and one time pads but never really got a full education on the ins and outs of it. Turns out, it's mostly boring and tedious. I guess I did know that before, but so many of the other stories (fictional and real) are summed up in a way that the boring in-between details are lost.
Maybe a different narrator would have held my interest more, but this was very dragged out at times for me.

[Elizabeth Theiss Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A geeky code breaker at the US Signal Security Agency teams up with a an ambitious, young FBI agent to work on the “Blue Problem,” that is, trying to break the secret code the Soviets used to send messages around the world. This was not a priority toward the end of World War II, as the Soviets were allied with the US. As the Cold War began advancing, cracking those codes belatedly became more important.

Howard Blum has written a rich history of how the messages were decoded and the friendship between the two men who worked together awkwardly but successfully to get it done. More than that, he has brought to life a fascinating account of how they pieced together a picture of how a network of Soviet spies managed to obtain plans for making and detonating nuclear devices and transmit them to Soviet scientists.

I read the bulk of this in just a few days. It reads like a suspense novel, but it’s all true. I can’t recommend this more highly to those who are curious about the KGB. the Cold War, or the clandestine arts.

[Bleu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great telling of actual events through a fiction lens!

[Liz V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of the search for the spies who stole atomic secrets, and so much more, for the putative WWII ally, the USSR, focusing on a cerebral, ivory tower, codebreaker and an FBI agent. The underlying premise is that both became disillusioned because of the execution of Ethel Rosenberg, whom the USSR did not use actively because of her ill health. She was, however, charged and convicted of conspiracy based on the specific act of urging her sister-in-law to recruit her husband. The sympathy of the author is clear and distracting.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

Didn't enjoy this one as much as I have other works by this author. The topic was a bit drier and I found myself needing to focus on details closer than I have in his other works because I wasn't retaining due to lack of interest in the topic. Nevertheless, I still rounded up to four stars due to the quality of writing."

[CASPER HILEMAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

The spy hunt to uncover the full Soviet penetration of the Manhattan Project. Mr. Blum tells us about the unique combination of a straight-as-an-arrow g-man and a quiet cerebral codebreaker responsible for cracking the Soviet Cypher and finding the spies that passed on the secrets that allowed the Soviet Union to develop the Nuclear bomb.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I stood in the vestibule of the enemy’s house, having entered by stealth…I held in my hand a set of keys. Each would fit one of the doors of the place and lead us, I hoped, to matters of importance to our country.” -FBI agent Bob Laphere

WHAT IS THIS BOOK ABOUT?
- In 1946, genius linguist and codebreaker Meredith Gardner discovered that the KGB was running an extensive network of strategically placed spies inside the United States, whose goal was to infiltrate American intelligence and steal the nation’s military and atomic secrets. Over the course of the next decade, he and young FBI supervisor Bob Lamphere worked together on Venona, a top-secret mission to uncover the Soviet agents and protect the Holy Grail of Cold War espionage—the atomic bomb.

CODEBREAKERS WORKED AT ARLINGTON HALL
- The nation’s premier code-breaking facility, the Signal Security Agency, was nearly entirely staffed by female civilians. (It would be renamed in 1945, with proprietary pride, the Army Security Agency—ASA—but the intelligence mandarins before and after referred to it simply as Arlington Hall.)

MEREDITH WAS A GENIUS
- did not know a single word of Japanese. So, to the amazement of his superiors, while he was also busily laboring away on the German messages, in his spare time, hunched day and night over his monastic desk in the main building, in three months he taught himself Japanese. As if in an instant, he was fluent.

“THE BLUE PROBLEM”
- The messages had been encoded in an unbreakable code. It was by shrewd design, much more sophisticated, much more ingenious than either the German or Japanese systems.

- classified Navy investigation of Russian radio networks known as “Blue Caesar,” now referred to the cracking of the Russian code with a cover name: “the Blue Problem.”

SOVIET UNION’S ‘OPERATION ENORMOZ’
- Viktor’s decision was motivated by a single argument: nothing could be allowed to jeopardize Operation Enormoz. Of all the Center’s ongoing plots against America, Enormoz was the crown jewel.

- He knew Moscow Center was getting closer and closer to stealing America’s greatest prize—the mystery of how to build an atom bomb.

SLOW PROGRESS IN BREAKING SOVIET CODES THROUGH PATTERNS
- The key to making headway, he’d discovered after all his late nights, was to focus on repetitions: a word or phrase appearing in one dialect would have approximately the same meaning in another. It was a tool he employed time after time to wrench open whole sentences. And as he began to grapple with the Russian cables—blocks of numbers that were, at first perplexed glance, more abstruse than any language conceived by the ancients—he was guided by his own self-taught wisdom: hunt down the repetitions.

SOVIETS USED ONE-TIME PADS TO ENCRYPT…OR WERE SUPPOSED TO
- With that bit of time-saving, the one-time pads became another casualty of the war. Since there were duplicates, the blocks of additives no longer formed an unbreakable wall around the encoded message. And a few years later the Arlington Hall code breakers would begin tearing the wall down, brick by loose brick.

- Thanks to brains, ingenuity, and an incredible stroke of luck—the Russians having committed the sin of all cryptological sins by reusing their one-time pads—the encipherment had been wiped away.

FINNS HAD GOTTEN A HOLD OF RUSSIAN CYPHER BOOKS
- But even as the bullets flew about, the Finns were determined to claim their prize. Four singed Russian coding books, one after another, were gingerly plucked from the flames.

- The victorious Finns dutifully shared photostats of the Petsamo haul with their new ally, the Germans. And then—nothing. The Wehrmacht did not attempt to exploit the secrets the codebooks held.

- They were found [by the US] buried in a pile of abandoned papers in the damp basement of a medieval German castle.

BUT ALL THIS STILL WASN’T ENOUGH TO CRACK THE CODE
- All the Petsamo codebook could offer was insight; a familiarity with the structure of a Soviet codebook, with its vocabulary. It was as if someone had given an aspiring writer a copy of Moby-Dick and said, “This is what a novel looks like. Now go write one.”

EVENTUALLY THEY WERE ABLE TO SEE THAT THE SOVIETS HAD INFILTRATED THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
- Their identities, as well as their top-secret laboratories, had been so classified that they were only referenced even in U.S.-government documents by their cover names. Yet the Soviets had penetrated the Manhattan Project.

THE FBI AGENT AND THE CODEBREAKER WORKED WITH LITTLE ENCOURAGEMENT
- The bosses, he’d recall with despair, “believed little would come of the work and the research.”…No word of encouragement made its way down from the fifth floor.

SOVIETS SUCCESSFULLY TEST THEIR OWN NUCLEAR BOMB
- On September 3, 1949, one of the squadron’s B-29s flying east of the Kamchatka Peninsula gathered evidence that set off the plane’s red warning lights. Back at the base, measurements of the filter paper residue confirmed what had previously been unthinkable: radioactivity that was the result of atomic fission.

- “It became immediately obvious to me,” he’d say, the words crackling with resolve and anger, “that the Russians had indeed stolen crucial research from us and had undoubtedly used it to build a bomb.”

DO SOMETHING; KEEP MOVING FORWARD
- And experience had taught him that was all a fieldman could ever do: keep putting one foot in front of the other until he reached his destination. Standing still killed more investigations than anything else.

THE MEMBERS OF THE SPY RING BEGIN TO BE DISCOVERED
- “Yes, I am the man to whom Klaus Fuchs gave the information on atomic energy,” Gold said, the words a soft, doleful surrender.

- “Cases developed from the confession of Harry Gold were breaking everywhere—dozens of them every day,” he recalled.

THE SOVIETS UNDERESTIMATED THEIR ADVERSARY
- The FBI was a collection of clumsy farmhands. They would never succeed in breaking our networks.

MORE THAN JUST NUCLEAR SECRETS WERE STOLEN
- The Center had designated information about the Americans’ proximity fuse a high priority. This was the device that initiated an explosion when a surface-to-air missile approached its target; a direct hit was no longer required to destroy a plane. Liberal had delivered not a schematic but the actual device, brand-new and in working order.

IT WAS DIFFICULT TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE WITHOUT REVEALING VENONA CODE DECRYPTS AS THE SOURCE
- Bob shuffled off in disgust. He had the evidence to convict Rosenberg. It was there in the cables that Meredith had decoded. The incriminating words screaming at him. Only the government wouldn’t allow the decrypted messages to be introduced as evidence in court.

- The intelligence brass would rather the ringleader of a KGB spy network escape than let the Russians know we had read their mail.

PERSISTENCE
- The task of finding them would be, he realistically conceded, “almost impossible.” Nevertheless, with a perfunctory diligence, he sent instructions to the Bureau liaison officer in Mexico City to be on the lookout for Sobell. And they found him. Sobell was subsequently spotted leaving the Soviet embassy in Mexico City.

CREATIVITY
- In sworn testimony before a grand jury on August 18, 1950, Perl denied knowing either Julius Rosenberg or Morton Sobell. Gotcha! Bob told himself with a genuine satisfaction. He immediately went to work building a perjury case—a crime punishable by five years’ imprisonment for each count—against Gnome.

SOME SOVIET SPIES GOT AWAY
- In the days after Greenglass’s arrest, the KGB had swiftly guided Barr to Switzerland, and then put him on a train that carried him deep behind the Iron Curtain, into the safety of Prague.

SOME SPIES WERE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY
- The government had decreed that the continued secrecy of the covert work at Arlington Hall was still a higher priority for the nation’s security than any of the secrets it had uncovered. Hall and Sax would be allowed to live out their lives without paying penalty for their treason.

LEARNING TO LIVE WITH IMPERFECTION, UNFINISHED BUSINESS
- And Bob, despite all his years of striving to stem the flow of evil, would have to live with an awareness of his inability to fulfill his mission. In his struggle to defeat the nation’s enemies, he was beginning to suspect that there would always be unfinished business.

BOB AND MEREDITH WERE AN ODD COUPLE BUT MADE A GOOD TEAM
- Yet despite only the flimsiest of shared motives, they had managed to find a way to work in tandem, each growing to appreciate the other’s judgment and cunning. Against all odds, or even logic, they had conspired together to do the impossible, day after day.

HAHA
- If his wife could not be ready on such short notice, he must depart without her. Sasha patiently explained that would not be a problem. He wasn’t married. Budkov turned somber; and then let loose with a long incredulous whistle. “How can you recruit any agents if you can’t recruit a wife?”

- Phillips took a short IQ test, responded that of course he knew what the word “cryptography” meant (his parents had bought him a Little Orphan Annie Decoder Pin as a present for his eleventh birthday), and on the spot he was offered a job at Arlington Hall.

RESULTS OF THE SPY TRIAL
- Morton Sobell received a thirty-year prison term. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were both condemned to die in the electric chair.

MORAL DILEMMA OVER THE RESULTS
- They had embarked on their shared quest, determined to stop the progress of evil. But if they did nothing when they possessed the truth, if they allowed a woman, a mother of two young sons, to die, they would be reinforcing all that they knew was wrong. And with their inaction they would be condemning themselves to another sort of death sentence.

*** *** *** *** ***

FACTOIDS
- In a chunk of natural uranium, less than one percent of the entire element would be the sleek U-235. The remainder was the heavier, inert U-238.

- Moscow Rules—The term refers to the careful procedures used by spies throughout the Cold War when working in enemy territory—

GOOD QUOTES
- “If you have the law on your side, hammer the law. If you have the facts, hammer the facts. If you have neither, hammer the table.”

*** *** *** *** ***

BONUS
- How the VENONA PROJECT cracked Soviet cables: https://youtu.be/27JpF9GtfzY?si=OK8LC...

- Gouzenko Affair: https://youtu.be/pFmEswtFlaQ?si=p-r-k...

- Elizabeth Bentley: https://youtube.com/shorts/qVSoSXFVIe...

- Kuchatov (Soviet physicist): https://youtube.com/shorts/GMr0BUwCCa...

- Klaus Fuchs (spy who gave atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets): https://youtu.be/kCJeMRlnUE0?si=F5o3c...

- Spy Harry Gold: https://youtu.be/73i62ArEIhk?si=Cn46V...

- Arlington Hall (where codebreakers worked): https://virginialiving.com/culture/so...

[Susan Baranoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This is the story of the ultimate theft of the US atomic secrets that led to the execution of the Rosenbergs. Howard Blum gives us a narrative history of the Soviet efforts to infiltrate the US atomic bomb program and the US's belatedly breaking the Soviet codes to figure out who the spies in our midst were. Julius Rosenberg was one, his wife, Ethel, may not have been, but there were many, many more. Blum connects the dots from the inception of signal intelligence at Station Arlington Hall in the early 1940s and its connection to the FBI hunt for spies among us, through the early years of NSA to the 2000s when much of this effort and information has finally been declassified.

52BookClub 2025 Reading Challenge
Prompt #5: Plot includes a heist

[Susan]

Interesting

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

they had me in the third act with the gay allegations and roasting the hell out of this guy’s forehead

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

WWII, Cold War Espionage. Interesting, but a bit of a slog to get through all the details. This is definitely a book that you need to keep track of the characters if you want to fully follow the espionage. The author assists by reminding the reader of code name changes and sometimes repeating the role of the character. Time periods alternate which in most cases is helpful, but it requires a careful read. If you don't read a lot of espionage, which I don't, it does offer an insiders look on the process of catching a spy.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Not for the first time he wondered how much of what was done in life, good or bad, was a result of self-delusion."

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling and well-written work.

Blum covers the Soviets’ success in penetrating the Manhattan Project early on (Operation Enormoz), and how Meredith Gardner and the FBI’s Bob Lamphere gained an early glimpse into the operation from intercepted Soviet cables through VENONA. He covers the challenges of breaking the Soviet code, as well as the how the effort was aided by the Gouzenko and Bentley defections and by the FBI’s investigation into Soviet espionage at Los Alamos.

Blum does a great job conveying the thankless and laborious effort that goes into counterintelligence, and the humanity of the people involved, while keeping the story going at a fast pace. The writing is clear and concise (if a little glib or breathless at times), and the narrative is well-paced and does a great job building up suspense.

Still, Blum’s apparent sympathy for Ethel Rosenberg seems like a bit much at times, given that the VENONA cables confirmed her role, as did the testimony of Russian defectors. The Rosenbergs could have avoided their fate by spilling the beans on what they did to the FBI and the prosecution, but didn’t; Blum doesn’t touch on this much. Also, his portrait of Lamphere is a little cartoonish; sure, he didn’t care for bureaucracy and red tape too much, but did that really make him a rebellious lone crusader? Blum seems to think so. He also portrays the FBI as naive regarding the possibility of the Russians spying on their allies, but the Bureau was already investigating Russian espionage in America during the war (like at the Comintern and the Berkely radiation lab) The coverage of KGB ciphers could also have been more detailed.

There are also a couple errors: At one point Zalmond Franklin is called “Franklin Zelman,” and he is called a KGB spy, even though he was just a courier. Elsewhere, when discussing the Rosenbergs, Blum writes that there were only three witnesses that testified against them (really?), and that the FBI agent investigating Theodore Hall was unaware of VENONA, even though he did know. Blum also harps on Lamphere’s “guilt” over Ethel Rosenberg’s fate, but this seems exaggerated. Blum writes that this supposed guilt influenced his decision to quit the Bureau, even though Lamphere later joined NSA, and even though Lamphere himself wrote that the decision was more about his career.

A good book overall, but it could have been researched a little better.

[John McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mildly interesting account of the capture of Klaus Fuchs and the Rosenbergs, those thieves of America's atomic secrets and processed during the post-WWII cold war period when it came as a surprise to both the CIA and the FBI that those atomic secrets were being stolen by Americans and delivered to Russian secret services, then known as the KGB.

There really is little new of note here to anyone familiar from those who read history or intelligence operations, but kudos for it being well-written, if not sometimes too adoring of Bob Lamphere and Meredith Gardner, his code-breaking partner. I was surprised, though, that the Venona project, the code-breaking effort Gardner and, at one time, his wife, were engaged in, was unknown to the President and other agencies. So top-secret was the project that evidence that would have brought the Russian espionage to an end was not used as a way to protect the project's secrecy.

I also thought that more description of Gardiner's wife would have been interesting and relevant. From the minor description that was given, it sounded as though she was every bit as intelligent as Meredith, who was somewhat of a social dimwit, and who was outgoing and beautiful to boot. The author and his editors had an opportunity here, and they cast it aside. Too bad for the reader.

SECOND READING: Even more interesting than the first read. I would like to have known more about Meredith Gardiner's wife, who in her own right, was brilliant, a codebreaker, and beautiful to boot.

[Debbie Eubanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thrilling history

I've gotten on a Howard Blum kick of late, and I can't recommend him highly enough. This one reads like a spy novel from a master, but with the added advantage of being true.

The characters are perfectly drawn and Blum's ability to write time and place gives you a sense of noir that makes this story fly by like a movie. I couldn't put it down.

Also, the bureaucratic pettiness and political dynamics of the FBI and intelligence agencies remind the reader that brute ineptitude is nothing new, and the best people are often driven mad by the thick morass of our federal government.

In short, this is how history should be taught; how it should be presented and learned by young and old. Names and dates are only important if you understand the stories, the motivations, the struggles, tragedies and triumphs. Once those elements are established, the names, dates and events are easily remembered.

Read this one, and make room on your bookshelf for more of Blum's work.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling history of the early US Intelligence communities breaking of the code used by the Soviets to communicate with Moscow. An middling FBI agent fighting to make his career relevant, an Aspergery linguist in the NSA join together as an unlikely team to break an uncrackable code. Reads like a Le Carre novel.

The code was used during the Second World War, when the US and the USSR were ostensibly allies, but Moscow was, at the time, running agents in the US, stealing nuclear secrets. The Rosenburgs were the most well-known, but others around them (CUNY, it turns out, was a nest of commie spies), were working for the Soviets.

I had trouble putting this book down.

[Yibbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it about 1/3 of the way through this book before I gave up. Until then it was a rather slow moving but interesting book. The author has painstakingly compiled the stories of the main characters involved in the KJB's spy rings focusing on the atomic bomb program and the cryptographers and FBI agents bent on stopping them. At the spot where I quit, the Americans were just starting to make progress toward breaking the Soviet codes. That was when the language got too foul for me.

[Neal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
I’d probably give this book closer to 3.5 stars, whatever that means. The subject matter is fascinating. The stories are interesting, but the author’s interest in the way he wants to tell the story sometimes gets in the way of the story itself.

The book is a narrative non-fiction story about two men in post-WWII America working to uncover a Soviet spy ring through codebreaking and good, old-fashioned investigation and about the men (and women) on the other side of that fight.

The story unfolds compellingly. In general, the reader learns information such as the identity of a spy we’ve already met only when the spy hunters unmask them in the narrative. While certainly exciting and intriguing, this occasionally leads to brief periods of confusion. Unfamiliar names for tertiary characters we’ve only sort of met.

The second thing that pulled me out of the story at times was the author’s making a conclusory statement for literary flourish that seemed at odds with the evidence actually provided in the book. Near the end of the book, for example, when speaking about the central characters, the author says that “[n]either of the men [Bob and Meredith] had any misgivings about rooting out traitors. Justice, they felt with a patriotic certainty, demanded that...the members of [the spy] ring be punished.” But less than a page earlier, one of them had just been painted as a brainiac who viewed this all as an abstract puzzle and was completely disconnected from the real-world consequences of his work. In fact, the author says, “Meredith was stunned. ‘I never wanted to get anyone in trouble.’”

Lastly, I’d rarely mention typos in an I corrected proof—especially when I haven’t been able to review the final version—but this is a big one. In the beginning of the book, in a section meant to give the reader an understanding of how the Soviets were encoding their messages, there is a typo in the example of the encoding that makes it impossible to actually understand! It’s quite possible they’ve caught and fixed this, like I’m sure they caught all of the missing spaces and typeface errors, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this one may slip through...

Those little critiques aside, I really did enjoy this book and learning the underlying stories, and I think it’s worth a read if you have any interest in this type of history.

**Note: this review is based on an uncorrected proof that I received for free as part of a Goodreads Giveaway. While receiving the book for free may have influenced my decision to read it, the opinions above are my honest impressions of the book.**

[Kieran Healy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enter the dawn of the cold war from the shadows, where the opening salvos of the cold war are not with guns and bombs, but spies and moles. Where an innocuous all-girls school campus houses the most secret code-breaking team in the United States. When a hot-headed FBI agent (Bob Lamphere) and a socially awkward academic (Meredith Gardner) team up to try and take down the extensive Soviet spy network inside the United States, but in a way that (mostly) upholds law and order instead of the KGB-style disappearance or execution.

Overall, Blum does a fantastic job turning a complex code-breaking investigation into a readable cloak-and-dagger spy story. Meredith and Bob must decipher Russian codes from before the end of WWII to track down American moles inside the atomic and hydrogen bomb developments in 1946. Since it is told from Bob and Meredith's perspective, it requires some time jumping that some readers may find confusing but is necessary to tell the story in a context that makes sense from that perspective and to maintain the drama of what they are trying to find out.

In some ways I loved how, even though I knew some of the story about what was handed to the Soviets and how they used the information, the breadth of data stolen is remarkable. I found myself at times hoping against hope that they would find the moles in time, even though history proves they won't (for the most part).

It becomes a real page turner once the code is cracked and Bob is set loose trying to track everyone down. But then... it just kind of ends. Blum wants to instill some emotion into the story, showing how the fallout of the investigation adversely affected those involved, but the set up just isn't there for me, and because the emotion isn't carried throughout the book, or is inconsistent at the least, it falls a little flat. Essentially, I don't buy the guilt being sold in the last chapter. It's just not set up well in the body of the book. Because of that bit of deflation I knocked off a star.

But other than that I really enjoyed this and tore through it in no time. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in cold wart history, a passing interest in cryptography, and especially anyone who likes real (or invented) spy stories.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to give a lot of credit to the cover designers for this book and for many other works of narrative nonfiction. It only took me a glimpse of this cover to guess this was going to be the sort of historical narrative nonfiction I love. I’m happy to report that the cover was not misleading. The contents were exactly what I expected. The story itself is fascinating and it was told in an engaging way. The author did a great job focusing on a handful of key players. This kept the cast of the story from becoming overwhelming, even as the author gave us detailed backstories that made me feel more invested in the main people involved. Little details, like descriptions of locations or weather, also brought this story to life.

This author also did a nice job drawing on primary sources to share direct quotes and details of the interior lives of the people involved. I’m especially happy that a detailed note on sources (yay!) explained that these parts of the story were never just speculation. My only complaint with this book is that, having read Code Girls, I felt the author gave too little credit to the many women working on the code-breaking part of this story. Women had several of the key insights that allowed Gardner to finally crack the Russian codes. Despite this, the author describes the women as doing only supporting clerical work and emphasizes their basic training. See this excerpt of Code Girls for details. I debated knocking a star off for this, but I can’t actually say anything he wrote was inaccurate. It was just a little biased to support the typical lone genius narrative and minimize the contributions of others.

Despite my complaints about the author’s slant on the women code breakers, this is going to be my second five star read of the year. (Review of the first, Hunger, to come this Nonfiction Friday!). Overall, this was engaging narrative nonfiction, exactly what I’m looking for when I pick up a book like this. I’m surprised I’ve not heard of this Pulitzer nominated author before and will definitely be checking out his extensive backlist.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because of the difficulty of content described and how hard it was to get into the book, but the research was so well-done.

The fact that this information/criminal activity is still being researched now, 70 years after many of the events - surprising and eye opening. Clearly the events had a huge impact on history, and maybe this is still important because of Rosenberg's children's goals to get their names cleared. Even now, with the possibility that Biden could pardon them? WOW!

These names discussed are little-known unless it's something you study in college or are a history buff. Rosenbergs, yes, but the others? I did so much research to understand. I wanted to make sure I wasn't mixing up the Cambridge 5 with these American spies.

I am definitely interested in reading more books by this author, maybe on other topics, because I feel that there is so much research and great facts that give him credibility. I did learn a little bit about codebreaking, but decided it is too deep for me.

I thought it was interesting that spouses were so distrusted. I guess it makes sense - people give away secrets to those they are intimate with, whether best friends or lovers. I can't imagine choosing a job though and assuming or being told I should not have a spouse. I guess devotion to job and country is most important for some.

Lamphere and Gardner - interesting how opposite their skills and personalities were, and yet they worked well together. I guess that is important in any endeavor - to have someone who sees what you miss, or someone who will take the lead/is an extrovert.

I really found the end of the book interesting. The buildup of catching the spies was well-done. Seeing those spies who broke down and gave up or gave up their friends/family members - it was just so interesting how long people held out, and then what make them break.

So surprising about Ethel, and I think Bob and Meredith really were too. Having read all the history though - it is shocking who was punished and who didn't suffer as much.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blum does an excellent job telling the story of the Rosenberg spy ring from the perspective of the FBI, the KGB, and the agents in the ring. Blum provides a keen sense of how investigators and spies operate and think as they painstakingly carry out the tasks of their positions.

Blum does an excellent job of conveying the challenges of spying in investigating. Other books on spying, including biographies and novels, often focus either on the the extraordinary accomplishments of one or a few individuals or try to impress the reader with their insight into the craft of espionage. Blum's writing avoids these pitfalls by focusing on the main characters, but also emphasizing the supporting role dozens of other individuals played, many not named in the book. He also does an excellent job describing how the events played out, using and describing jargon as necessary. Blum also does an excellent job describing how each character faithfully carries out their tasks, giving enough details and respecting the reader to consider the dilemmas of spying and investigating for themselves.

This book should be appealing to anybody who is a fan of espionage or criminal stories. The dilemmas and themes facing the spies and investigators, and much of the tradecraft, is very similar to those of the 21st century. From techniques and limits of interrogation and surveillance to the painstaking tasks of reviewing records and decrypted intelligence, this book is rich in detail and thought-provoking anecdotes.