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Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA
The thrilling never-before-told story of Agent Sniper, one of the Cold War's most effective counter-agents
Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper, was one of the most important spies of the early Cold War. For almost three years, as a Lieutenant Colonel at the top of Poland’s espionage service, he smuggled thousands of top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents, as well as 160 rolls of microfilm, from behind the Iron Curtain. Then, in January 1961, he abandoned his wife and children to make a dramatic defection across divided Berlin with his East German mistress to the safety of American territory. There, he exposed more than 1,600 Soviet bloc agents operating undercover in the West―more than any single spy in history.
The CIA called Goleniewski “one of the West’s most valuable counterintelligence sources,” but in late 1963, he was abandoned by the US government because of a split inside the agency, and over questions about his mental stability and his trustworthiness. Goleniewski bears some of the blame for his troubled He made baseless assertions about his record, notably that he was the first to expose Kim Philby. He also bizarrely claimed to be Tsarevich Aleksei Romanoff, heir to the Russian Throne who had miraculously survived the 1918 massacre of his family.
For more than fifty years, American and British intelligence services have sought to erase Goleniewski from the history of Cold War espionage. The vast bulk of his once-substantial CIA and MI5 files remain closed. Only fragments of his material crop up in the de-classified dossiers on the KGB spies he exposed or the memoirs of CIA officers who dealt with him, but his newly-released Polish intelligence file reveals the remarkable extent of his espionage on behalf of the West.
A never-before-told story that brings together love and loyalty, courage and treachery, betrayal, greed and, ultimately, insanity, Tim Tate's Agent Sniper is a crackling page-turner that takes readers back to the post-war world and a time when no one was what they seemed.
Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper, was one of the most important spies of the early Cold War. For almost three years, as a Lieutenant Colonel at the top of Poland’s espionage service, he smuggled thousands of top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents, as well as 160 rolls of microfilm, from behind the Iron Curtain. Then, in January 1961, he abandoned his wife and children to make a dramatic defection across divided Berlin with his East German mistress to the safety of American territory. There, he exposed more than 1,600 Soviet bloc agents operating undercover in the West―more than any single spy in history.
The CIA called Goleniewski “one of the West’s most valuable counterintelligence sources,” but in late 1963, he was abandoned by the US government because of a split inside the agency, and over questions about his mental stability and his trustworthiness. Goleniewski bears some of the blame for his troubled He made baseless assertions about his record, notably that he was the first to expose Kim Philby. He also bizarrely claimed to be Tsarevich Aleksei Romanoff, heir to the Russian Throne who had miraculously survived the 1918 massacre of his family.
For more than fifty years, American and British intelligence services have sought to erase Goleniewski from the history of Cold War espionage. The vast bulk of his once-substantial CIA and MI5 files remain closed. Only fragments of his material crop up in the de-classified dossiers on the KGB spies he exposed or the memoirs of CIA officers who dealt with him, but his newly-released Polish intelligence file reveals the remarkable extent of his espionage on behalf of the West.
A never-before-told story that brings together love and loyalty, courage and treachery, betrayal, greed and, ultimately, insanity, Tim Tate's Agent Sniper is a crackling page-turner that takes readers back to the post-war world and a time when no one was what they seemed.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published December 14, 2021
56 people are currently reading
3014 people want to read
About the author
Tim Tate
25 books67 followersTim Tate is a multiple award-winning British documentary film-maker and bestselling author.
His films - mostly investigative, always campaigning - have been honoured by Amnesty International, the Royal Television Society, UNESCO, The Association for International Broadcasting, The International Documentary Association, the New York Festivals and the US National Academy of Cable Programming. He often speaks at international conferences and university seminars.
He is also the author of fifteen published non-fiction books. These include the best-selling "Slave Girl" which told the true story of a young British woman sex-trafficked to Amsterdam; "Girls With Balls" which uncovered the secret history of women's football; "Hitler's Forgotten Children", which tells the extraordinary and harrowing story of a woman who was part of the Nazi Lebensborn programme to create an Aryan master race; and "Yorkshire Ripper - The Secret Murders" which reveals long-suppressed evidence showing that Peter Sutcliffe killed 23 more victims.
His 2017, "Pride", tells the extraordinary true story behind the hit movie of the same name. In 1984,in the depths of the bitterly-fought miners' strike, a group of very cosmopolitan London gay men and women made common cause with the very traditional communities of a remote south Wales valley - and helped keep its mining families alive at at a time when the British government was trying to starve them into submission.
His latest book - The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Crime, Conspiracy and Cover-Up (Thistle Publishing) is the result of 25 years investigation by Tim and his co-author, former CNN journalist Brad Johnson. It presents detailed forensic, ballistic and eyewitness testimony showing that the convicted assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, could not have shot Kennedy. It reveals that Los Angeles Police disregarded and then suppressed clear evidence of a conspiracy behind the assassination and makes a compelling case for a new official inquiry.
His films - mostly investigative, always campaigning - have been honoured by Amnesty International, the Royal Television Society, UNESCO, The Association for International Broadcasting, The International Documentary Association, the New York Festivals and the US National Academy of Cable Programming. He often speaks at international conferences and university seminars.
He is also the author of fifteen published non-fiction books. These include the best-selling "Slave Girl" which told the true story of a young British woman sex-trafficked to Amsterdam; "Girls With Balls" which uncovered the secret history of women's football; "Hitler's Forgotten Children", which tells the extraordinary and harrowing story of a woman who was part of the Nazi Lebensborn programme to create an Aryan master race; and "Yorkshire Ripper - The Secret Murders" which reveals long-suppressed evidence showing that Peter Sutcliffe killed 23 more victims.
His 2017, "Pride", tells the extraordinary true story behind the hit movie of the same name. In 1984,in the depths of the bitterly-fought miners' strike, a group of very cosmopolitan London gay men and women made common cause with the very traditional communities of a remote south Wales valley - and helped keep its mining families alive at at a time when the British government was trying to starve them into submission.
His latest book - The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: Crime, Conspiracy and Cover-Up (Thistle Publishing) is the result of 25 years investigation by Tim and his co-author, former CNN journalist Brad Johnson. It presents detailed forensic, ballistic and eyewitness testimony showing that the convicted assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, could not have shot Kennedy. It reveals that Los Angeles Police disregarded and then suppressed clear evidence of a conspiracy behind the assassination and makes a compelling case for a new official inquiry.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
November 27, 2021
I received a free digital advance review copy from the publisher, via Netgalley.
Author Tim Tate’s subject is “Sniper,” an agent in the KGB and Polish intelligence services, who defected to the US and identified dozens of Communist Bloc spies who had infiltrated the British, German and American intelligence services and governments. In the late 1950s, while still working for the KGB and Polish UB, Michał Goleniewski gave reams of Polish and Soviet secrets to the US. When he learned that one of the moles he identified as being in MI6 (the famous George Blake) had told his Soviet handlers that the Americans had a well-placed informant in Poland, Goleniewski knew it was time to get out. He left his Russian wife and three children, picked up his young East German mistress, and they went to the US Embassy in Berlin. Fortunately for Goleniewski, this was 1961, a couple of years before the Berlin Wall went up, so no heroics were required for him to defect.
The unfortunate thing about being a spy seems to be that it makes you mentally and emotionally unstable. The stories are legion. Agent Sniper—a/k/a Michał Goleniewski. a/k/a Roman Tarnowski, a/k/a Jan Roman, a/k/a Herr Kowalski, a/k/a Franz Roman Oldenburg and, finally, a/k/a Aleksei Nicholaevich Romanoff, claimant to be the surviving son of the Last Tsar of Imperial Russia—is a case in point. He had decided when he first started turning over information, that he would send it to the FBI, because he knew the CIA was riddled with KGB moles. Unfortunately for him, the CIA intercepted his letters, so it wasn’t long before the KGB and Polish UB were alerted.
James J. Angleton, CIA head during much of the Cold War, was famously paranoid, but tended to trust all the wrong people, like the Cambridge Spy Ring’s Kim Philby, for example. Angleton had his own pet defector, Golitsyn, who claimed that all other defectors were fakes. According to Tate, although Golitsyn didn’t perform well on the tests of whether he was a legitimate defector (versus a KGB-sent diversion), he didn’t have a particularly good position in the KGB before his defection (unlike Goleniewski), and Golitsyn’s information didn’t pan out anywhere near as well as Goleniewski’s, Angleton accepted Golitsyn, together with his insistence that other defectors were fakes.
As a result, Goleniewski fell out of favor with the CIA within three years of his defection to the US, and the support he relied on was stopped. He became paranoid himself, and delusional. This is when he began making the lunatic claim that he was actually the Tsarevich Aleksei, son of the last Tsar. He probably thought it was a good way of making money, since Russian emigrés loved to support people claiming to be Alexei or the Tsar’s daughter Anastasia, and there was ostensibly a cache of hundreds of millions in inheritance awaiting the Tsarevich Alexei.
Despite his mental and emotional instability, one thing Goleniewski had was a phenomenal memory. He was able to provide encyclopedic information about Soviet and Polish intelligence, and identify many traitors in the western intelligence services. It’s odd that the CIA decided to cut him off, considering how much good information he provided, but the CIA doesn’t come off well at all in this book. Unsurprising to anyone who has read much about the agency during the Cold War, they are bumblers, full of internal fighting, and riddled with Soviet moles. Still, Tate maybe overplays his hand against Golitsyn and for Goleniewski; it’s just hard to believe that the CIA could be quite as wrongheaded as he paints them in the G-versus-G issue. Tate is a bit hamstrung by the fact that most of the intelligence agencies’ files on Goleniewski remain secret, but having unresolved this central puzzle of exactly what lay behind Goleniewski’s treatment left me feeling unsatisfied by the history.
While this is an interesting look at a little-known bit of Cold War espionage history, Tate also isn’t the best storyteller. He has a whole raft of riveting facts, but he tends to present them in a dry way. He could take a lesson from Ben Macintyre about how to turn history into a tale as thrilling as an adventure/spy novel.
Author Tim Tate’s subject is “Sniper,” an agent in the KGB and Polish intelligence services, who defected to the US and identified dozens of Communist Bloc spies who had infiltrated the British, German and American intelligence services and governments. In the late 1950s, while still working for the KGB and Polish UB, Michał Goleniewski gave reams of Polish and Soviet secrets to the US. When he learned that one of the moles he identified as being in MI6 (the famous George Blake) had told his Soviet handlers that the Americans had a well-placed informant in Poland, Goleniewski knew it was time to get out. He left his Russian wife and three children, picked up his young East German mistress, and they went to the US Embassy in Berlin. Fortunately for Goleniewski, this was 1961, a couple of years before the Berlin Wall went up, so no heroics were required for him to defect.
The unfortunate thing about being a spy seems to be that it makes you mentally and emotionally unstable. The stories are legion. Agent Sniper—a/k/a Michał Goleniewski. a/k/a Roman Tarnowski, a/k/a Jan Roman, a/k/a Herr Kowalski, a/k/a Franz Roman Oldenburg and, finally, a/k/a Aleksei Nicholaevich Romanoff, claimant to be the surviving son of the Last Tsar of Imperial Russia—is a case in point. He had decided when he first started turning over information, that he would send it to the FBI, because he knew the CIA was riddled with KGB moles. Unfortunately for him, the CIA intercepted his letters, so it wasn’t long before the KGB and Polish UB were alerted.
James J. Angleton, CIA head during much of the Cold War, was famously paranoid, but tended to trust all the wrong people, like the Cambridge Spy Ring’s Kim Philby, for example. Angleton had his own pet defector, Golitsyn, who claimed that all other defectors were fakes. According to Tate, although Golitsyn didn’t perform well on the tests of whether he was a legitimate defector (versus a KGB-sent diversion), he didn’t have a particularly good position in the KGB before his defection (unlike Goleniewski), and Golitsyn’s information didn’t pan out anywhere near as well as Goleniewski’s, Angleton accepted Golitsyn, together with his insistence that other defectors were fakes.
As a result, Goleniewski fell out of favor with the CIA within three years of his defection to the US, and the support he relied on was stopped. He became paranoid himself, and delusional. This is when he began making the lunatic claim that he was actually the Tsarevich Aleksei, son of the last Tsar. He probably thought it was a good way of making money, since Russian emigrés loved to support people claiming to be Alexei or the Tsar’s daughter Anastasia, and there was ostensibly a cache of hundreds of millions in inheritance awaiting the Tsarevich Alexei.
Despite his mental and emotional instability, one thing Goleniewski had was a phenomenal memory. He was able to provide encyclopedic information about Soviet and Polish intelligence, and identify many traitors in the western intelligence services. It’s odd that the CIA decided to cut him off, considering how much good information he provided, but the CIA doesn’t come off well at all in this book. Unsurprising to anyone who has read much about the agency during the Cold War, they are bumblers, full of internal fighting, and riddled with Soviet moles. Still, Tate maybe overplays his hand against Golitsyn and for Goleniewski; it’s just hard to believe that the CIA could be quite as wrongheaded as he paints them in the G-versus-G issue. Tate is a bit hamstrung by the fact that most of the intelligence agencies’ files on Goleniewski remain secret, but having unresolved this central puzzle of exactly what lay behind Goleniewski’s treatment left me feeling unsatisfied by the history.
While this is an interesting look at a little-known bit of Cold War espionage history, Tate also isn’t the best storyteller. He has a whole raft of riveting facts, but he tends to present them in a dry way. He could take a lesson from Ben Macintyre about how to turn history into a tale as thrilling as an adventure/spy novel.
February 7, 2022
I was invited to read and review this book by Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press. I accepted because I do love a good spy story, and there aren’t many of them being published at this time. Tim Tate has had a long, illustrious career as a documentary filmmaker and as an author, but is new to me.
So, when I began reading and found my attention wandering, I thought it was a personal problem. Too many distractions. I tried again, and when that didn’t go well, I procured the audio version and listened to it while I prepared dinners during the week. Eventually, I threw in the towel and admitted that this is simply not an engaging book. The topic sounds fascinating, but just as a gifted, dedicated author can spin dull material to gold, so can an indifferent one tell an electrifying spy story in a way that leaves the reader checking the page numbers and the clock—is this thing over yet?
It's not all bad news: the research here is top drawer. For the researcher, this book has use, although I would caution the uninitiated into reading carefully, because history is always politically charged. Every fact that is included, and every fact that is not; the interpretation; the language used, all give a biased account, even when a researcher and writer is endeavoring to be as balanced as possible. I don’t care for this writer’s interpretation, which makes him sound like a hardened right winger, but I have no doubt that the facts that he uses are accurate ones.
Then we come to the audio, and I must wonder why, if we’re primarily dealing with the CIA and its agents, we have a narrator with a clipped English accent (and a few pronunciations that sounded very odd to me,) telling the story. I found it disorienting, but if this had been a more engaging story, I would have overlooked it.
Ultimately it comes down to wordsmithery, and I didn’t find much of it. Those interested in dabbling in this genre would do better to read Ben McIntyre and Tim Weiner.
This book is for sale now.
So, when I began reading and found my attention wandering, I thought it was a personal problem. Too many distractions. I tried again, and when that didn’t go well, I procured the audio version and listened to it while I prepared dinners during the week. Eventually, I threw in the towel and admitted that this is simply not an engaging book. The topic sounds fascinating, but just as a gifted, dedicated author can spin dull material to gold, so can an indifferent one tell an electrifying spy story in a way that leaves the reader checking the page numbers and the clock—is this thing over yet?
It's not all bad news: the research here is top drawer. For the researcher, this book has use, although I would caution the uninitiated into reading carefully, because history is always politically charged. Every fact that is included, and every fact that is not; the interpretation; the language used, all give a biased account, even when a researcher and writer is endeavoring to be as balanced as possible. I don’t care for this writer’s interpretation, which makes him sound like a hardened right winger, but I have no doubt that the facts that he uses are accurate ones.
Then we come to the audio, and I must wonder why, if we’re primarily dealing with the CIA and its agents, we have a narrator with a clipped English accent (and a few pronunciations that sounded very odd to me,) telling the story. I found it disorienting, but if this had been a more engaging story, I would have overlooked it.
Ultimately it comes down to wordsmithery, and I didn’t find much of it. Those interested in dabbling in this genre would do better to read Ben McIntyre and Tim Weiner.
This book is for sale now.
December 18, 2021
The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA
This is the story of one of the Cold War’s most effective counter-agents Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper. Citing from declassified sources and British and American materials the author details the amazing career of a lieutenant colonel in Poland’s intelligence service and KGB spy who defected to the US in 1961.
This is well-researched but tedious Cold War espionage saga that exposed more than 1600 Soviet bloc spies operating undercover in the West after WW11. From April 1958 to December 1960 Gloleniewski risked his life to smuggle thousands of top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents and in 1961 with the Polish agents hard on his heels he made a dramatic defection across divide Berlin. To the CIA, he was one of the West’s most valuable counterintelligence sources and the best defector the CIA ever had. But CIA chief James Angleton believed that the Soviet spy was passing bogus leads and distrusted him. By the end of 1963 Goleniewski was abandoned by the US Government and the CIA reneged on its agreement to pay and protect him and secretly briefed journalists that he had lost his mind. But what is the truth...In the final 100 pages; Mr. Tate chronicles 30 years of bizarre behavior until the sniper’s death in 1993 and alternates his narrative with the dysfunctional CIA behavior thus revealing fascinating dirt from the early years of the Agency.
Although filled with riveting facts the account is told with a dry tone and without cinematic punch or thrilling scenes. It is overflowing with minutia details and extensive use of quotes. The pace slows down in the later years after the Sniper’s defection and I found what came next less interesting but in all, this is an account that will arouse our curiosity...
In exchange for an honest and unbiased review I received a copy of this book from St-Martin Press and Netgalley
This is the story of one of the Cold War’s most effective counter-agents Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper. Citing from declassified sources and British and American materials the author details the amazing career of a lieutenant colonel in Poland’s intelligence service and KGB spy who defected to the US in 1961.
This is well-researched but tedious Cold War espionage saga that exposed more than 1600 Soviet bloc spies operating undercover in the West after WW11. From April 1958 to December 1960 Gloleniewski risked his life to smuggle thousands of top-secret Soviet bloc intelligence and military documents and in 1961 with the Polish agents hard on his heels he made a dramatic defection across divide Berlin. To the CIA, he was one of the West’s most valuable counterintelligence sources and the best defector the CIA ever had. But CIA chief James Angleton believed that the Soviet spy was passing bogus leads and distrusted him. By the end of 1963 Goleniewski was abandoned by the US Government and the CIA reneged on its agreement to pay and protect him and secretly briefed journalists that he had lost his mind. But what is the truth...In the final 100 pages; Mr. Tate chronicles 30 years of bizarre behavior until the sniper’s death in 1993 and alternates his narrative with the dysfunctional CIA behavior thus revealing fascinating dirt from the early years of the Agency.
Although filled with riveting facts the account is told with a dry tone and without cinematic punch or thrilling scenes. It is overflowing with minutia details and extensive use of quotes. The pace slows down in the later years after the Sniper’s defection and I found what came next less interesting but in all, this is an account that will arouse our curiosity...
In exchange for an honest and unbiased review I received a copy of this book from St-Martin Press and Netgalley
August 23, 2021
An intensively researched book on Michael Goleniewski, aka Agent Sniper, a Polish intelligence agent who defected to the US. The book’s early chapters discusses how the intelligence provided by Goleniewski helped identify Soviet spies working in a variety of countries, such as Sweden, the UK, the US, and Israel. The middle part of the book talks about the CIA, the agency that exfiltrated Goleniewski, got cold feet because of a second defector, Antoliy Golitsyn, who worked under the CIA counter-intelligence head James Angleton. The last part of the book describes the downward spiral of Goleniewski’s life through mental illness brought about by his paranoia and being discarded by the CIA.
The book has several strengths.
• As noted above, the reader benefits from the author’s tremendous research about the individual and how his revelations revealed spies in several agencies.
• The reader learns of the politics inside the CIA and MI5, and how that paralyzed the agencies for many years.
• It highlights Goleniewski’s increasingly bizarre machinations as he was pushed out into the cold.
• It highlights an agency’s promises are words, not deeds.
• Finally, given both the CIA and MI5 have more documents that are still not public some 60 years after Goleniewski’s defection (where the Polish authorities have released all of theirs), one has to wonder what is so damaging in those files.
Perhaps, considering the book, Goleniewski’s contributions will be looked at in a new light.
However, after reading the book, I wanted to know more about James Angleton, head of counterintelligence, who, as the book’s American subtitle states, despised Goleniewski, as well as Anatoliy Golitsyn, an Angleton whisperer. While that information is available online (see links below), covering this in the book would allow the author to wrap up the story in a more satisfying manner for this reader.
Also, while the book stays focused on Goleniewski and his actions, there are times I would have appreciated a slightly broader perspective of what else was happening in the world that may have played into CIA’s concerns. On the other hand, the book’s focus keeps the length shorter.
Finally, more as a matter taste, some readers might think the extensive use of quotes in text is excessive. Others will appreciate the fullness of those quotes.
Disclaimer: I was given access to a pre-publication version (in the US) by the publisher, with the hope for a review (above).
For additional information, see the following links
Tim Tate, author.
https://timtate.co.uk/.
James Jesus Angleton, head of counterintelligence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J...
Anatoliy Golitsyn, defector
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli...
Michael Goleniewski, Agent Sniper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael...
The book has several strengths.
• As noted above, the reader benefits from the author’s tremendous research about the individual and how his revelations revealed spies in several agencies.
• The reader learns of the politics inside the CIA and MI5, and how that paralyzed the agencies for many years.
• It highlights Goleniewski’s increasingly bizarre machinations as he was pushed out into the cold.
• It highlights an agency’s promises are words, not deeds.
• Finally, given both the CIA and MI5 have more documents that are still not public some 60 years after Goleniewski’s defection (where the Polish authorities have released all of theirs), one has to wonder what is so damaging in those files.
Perhaps, considering the book, Goleniewski’s contributions will be looked at in a new light.
However, after reading the book, I wanted to know more about James Angleton, head of counterintelligence, who, as the book’s American subtitle states, despised Goleniewski, as well as Anatoliy Golitsyn, an Angleton whisperer. While that information is available online (see links below), covering this in the book would allow the author to wrap up the story in a more satisfying manner for this reader.
Also, while the book stays focused on Goleniewski and his actions, there are times I would have appreciated a slightly broader perspective of what else was happening in the world that may have played into CIA’s concerns. On the other hand, the book’s focus keeps the length shorter.
Finally, more as a matter taste, some readers might think the extensive use of quotes in text is excessive. Others will appreciate the fullness of those quotes.
Disclaimer: I was given access to a pre-publication version (in the US) by the publisher, with the hope for a review (above).
For additional information, see the following links
Tim Tate, author.
https://timtate.co.uk/.
James Jesus Angleton, head of counterintelligence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J...
Anatoliy Golitsyn, defector
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli...
Michael Goleniewski, Agent Sniper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael...
December 13, 2021
In 1958 an American embassy received a package from someone who identified himself as Heckenschuetze (Sniper). A letter requested that the enclosed intelligence be forwarded to FBI Director Hoover, fearing the infiltration of Soviet moles in the CIA. However, for almost three years it was the CIA that handled communication with their agent in place. When Russia received notice of a mole in 1961 Sniper took actions to defect to the West through Berlin. Identified as Lt. Col. Michal Goleniewski, he was also known as Herr Kowalski, Roman Tarnowski, Franz Roman Oldenburg, Martin Cherico and later identified himself as Aleksei Romanoff, heir to the Russian throne. He had provided a significant amount of information identifying spies who had infiltrated American and British Intelligence as well as a member of Ben Gurion’s inner circle in Israel and a high ranking Swedish naval officer.
Tim Tate takes the reader through Sniper’s revelations, but he also explores the early years of post-WWII espionage, the rivalries between the FBI and the CIA and the suspicions and paranoia that later paralyzed the intelligence community’s ability to function in the 1960s. Agent Sniper is a fascinating display of behind the scenes actions that showed courage and loyalty, but also treachery. While Tate’s exploration of the intelligence community is often gripping, there were also several sections that were somewhat dry. This is a book that is well worth reading for fans of history or for those looking for the background stories behind the Cold War. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book for my review.
Tim Tate takes the reader through Sniper’s revelations, but he also explores the early years of post-WWII espionage, the rivalries between the FBI and the CIA and the suspicions and paranoia that later paralyzed the intelligence community’s ability to function in the 1960s. Agent Sniper is a fascinating display of behind the scenes actions that showed courage and loyalty, but also treachery. While Tate’s exploration of the intelligence community is often gripping, there were also several sections that were somewhat dry. This is a book that is well worth reading for fans of history or for those looking for the background stories behind the Cold War. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this book for my review.
December 11, 2021
I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from the publisher and NetGalley.com in return for a fair review. They say 'truth is stranger than fiction' and in the case of author Tim Tate's 'Agent Sniper', this nonfiction book rivals even the best spy novel or action adventure story. Just who was Agent Sniper? Well as far as we know, he was a Polish spy by the name of Michael Goleniewski. He began sending letters to J. Edgar Hoover during the Cold War, but his correspondence was intercepted by the CIA. For several years, he smuggled over 100 rolls of microfilm and thousands of documents from Communist Europe into the hands of the CIA. He also identified moles who were working in U.S. and British government jobs. When he believed his superiors were on to him, he suddenly decided to leave his wife and children and defect to the United States taking his German mistress with him. From there, his story grows even more complicated as America and British intelligence scramble to uncover the traitors. It came to a point when no one knew whom they could trust from the top brass on down. Most bizarre of all was the claim Goleniewski made to be heir to the Russian throne--Aleksei Romanoff. His ultimate dissent into madness shrouded his allegations of espionage and Russian royalty with questions. Tate did a fine job telling a very complicated story. If you fancy, a good spy story with a lot of twists and turns--this one just may be for you. Just remember...I warned you...truth is stranger than fiction.
August 20, 2021
Well written and very interesting portrait of a brilliant espionage agent who believed his own press and the western spy organizations he both provided incredible intel and embarrassed them with his abilities.
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you.
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Thank you.
November 17, 2022
Spy or counterspy? Michal Goleniewski, cover name Sniper, was both, working simultaneously for both Poland and the United States until his cover was about to be blown and he had to be extracted from Poland by his American handlers. This is a fact-filled look at Goleniewski's life as well as one take on why the spymaster James Jesus Angleton, chief of CIA counterintelligence, distrusted him and sought to discredit him. The author did careful, thorough research, and Goleniewski's eventual descent into a world of conspiracy theories and possible madness is a sad but fascinating ending to the tale. Recommended for history buffs, particularly students of the Cold War era.
December 3, 2021
4 stars
A well researched biography on a high profile soviet block defector I hadn’t read about before! Golienewski played an important role in early-cold war counter espionage, & had a tragic ending. I really enjoyed & learned from this account.
[What I liked:]
•This book is thoroughly researched, & the writer notes when accounts conflict or information is unavailable (many documents pertaining to Sniper haven’t been declassified by the US & UK governments).
•It’s interesting seeing how the interpretations of the Polish UB (Soviet-era intelligence agency) on Sniper & his activities intersect & sometimes conflict with those of the CIA, MI5, & MI6.
•Gee, I knew James Jesus Angleton got paranoid in his later years & made several strategic mistakes as head of the CIA because of it, but Golienewski’s story is a painful case study on just how horribly he got things wrong. It’s very illuminating how the writer uses Sniper’s story to illustrate the tensions & dynamics between US & UK intelligence, & even within factions of the CIA itself.
[What I didn’t like as much:]
•The pace of the book slows in the second half, after Sniper’s defection. This isn’t the fault of the writer, it’s just that the subjects later years, while interesting, aren’t as exciting as his career as an agent in place.
CW: infidelity, mistreatment of prisoners, mental illness
[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]
Bonus quote, from one of Sniper’s anonymous letters addressed to “Herr Direktor” J Edgar Hoover while he was still behind the iron curtain:
“…I will be forcibly included in the ranks of singing angels if there is the slightest negligence on your part in maintaining the proper cover. As is generally known, such a summons is connected with a certain operation called ‘being stood against the wall’”.
A well researched biography on a high profile soviet block defector I hadn’t read about before! Golienewski played an important role in early-cold war counter espionage, & had a tragic ending. I really enjoyed & learned from this account.
[What I liked:]
•This book is thoroughly researched, & the writer notes when accounts conflict or information is unavailable (many documents pertaining to Sniper haven’t been declassified by the US & UK governments).
•It’s interesting seeing how the interpretations of the Polish UB (Soviet-era intelligence agency) on Sniper & his activities intersect & sometimes conflict with those of the CIA, MI5, & MI6.
•Gee, I knew James Jesus Angleton got paranoid in his later years & made several strategic mistakes as head of the CIA because of it, but Golienewski’s story is a painful case study on just how horribly he got things wrong. It’s very illuminating how the writer uses Sniper’s story to illustrate the tensions & dynamics between US & UK intelligence, & even within factions of the CIA itself.
[What I didn’t like as much:]
•The pace of the book slows in the second half, after Sniper’s defection. This isn’t the fault of the writer, it’s just that the subjects later years, while interesting, aren’t as exciting as his career as an agent in place.
CW: infidelity, mistreatment of prisoners, mental illness
[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]
Bonus quote, from one of Sniper’s anonymous letters addressed to “Herr Direktor” J Edgar Hoover while he was still behind the iron curtain:
“…I will be forcibly included in the ranks of singing angels if there is the slightest negligence on your part in maintaining the proper cover. As is generally known, such a summons is connected with a certain operation called ‘being stood against the wall’”.
December 24, 2021
This was a very informative book and well researched. I learned a lot about this topic which was my goal as i was not very knowledgeable about it at all. And learning about this particular person, the Sniper, we particularly interesting. My main critique would be how very dry it was. If was very difficult to read for very long. #netgalley #agentsniper
December 15, 2021
Agent Sniper is the reading of textbook material by a master storyteller. The detail, the information, the sequence ..... it's all there ...... but presented in a very interesting manner. This isn't just any spy story because there are so many layers to peel away. The author has put a lot of research and time into the accuracy while also adding his opinion and insight. An exceptional lesson in history.
January 23, 2025
One of those events in American history that you never hear about. It shows again how inept the Soviet and American spy masters really were during the Cold War.
August 30, 2021
Agent Sniper by Tim Tate
1st off, I think this is an excellent book to add to one’s library if you are interested in non-fiction espionage. The complete story of Michal Goleniewski aka Agent Sniper. Goleniewski was a Polish intelligence officer wwhose primary job was as a double agent to spy on the Polish Intelligence Agency for the KGB. Married to a Russian woman with three children, he would seem to be a stable character and not likely to cause trouble. However, what came first I am not sure, (1) matrimonial problems or (2) philosophical issues with the communist system. Mr. Tate does not answer this issue. But Goleniewski ends up with an East German woman, transferring documents to the US which he thinks is the FBI but instead is the CIA as well as transferring funds from the Polish Agency to support his mistress in East Berlin.
Eventually the Soviets or the Polish Intelligence Agency become aware and he is able to escape with his mistress through the US Embassy in Berlin. This happens about 8 months before the Berlin Wall is built.
Now in the US he is able to detail the number of Western Intelligence people who are in fact working for the Soviets. Perhaps the most significant person he reveals is George Blake. There are many others as well and Mr. Tate does a very good job of describing many of these cases which will be familiar to one who is interested in this field. If there was one case, I wish he would have given more information on was Col. Stig Wennerstrom a quadruple spy!
Trouble finally occurs when James Angleton head of the Counter Intelligence Dept within the CIA begins to question everything about the intelligence provided by Sniper. This results in the CIA reneging on their contract with Sniper essentially giving him no way to earn a living in the US while the Polish and Soviet Intelligence Agencies are trying to track him down to kill him.
Goleniewski mentally breaks and believes he is the lost son of the last Czar of Russia! It is all downhill from there and for me this part was less interesting but also frustrating that the US did this to him.
If there was one area, I wish Mr. Tate could have provided more explanation it would have been the reasoning into Sniper choosing to spy on the Soviets and the Poles. And why the Russians and Poles did not see the breakdown in his home life and mistress and embezzling money. I know this is hard to impossible to do but it would have made this book a must won and read. As it is, this is a great addition to anyone who enjoys non-fiction espionage.
1st off, I think this is an excellent book to add to one’s library if you are interested in non-fiction espionage. The complete story of Michal Goleniewski aka Agent Sniper. Goleniewski was a Polish intelligence officer wwhose primary job was as a double agent to spy on the Polish Intelligence Agency for the KGB. Married to a Russian woman with three children, he would seem to be a stable character and not likely to cause trouble. However, what came first I am not sure, (1) matrimonial problems or (2) philosophical issues with the communist system. Mr. Tate does not answer this issue. But Goleniewski ends up with an East German woman, transferring documents to the US which he thinks is the FBI but instead is the CIA as well as transferring funds from the Polish Agency to support his mistress in East Berlin.
Eventually the Soviets or the Polish Intelligence Agency become aware and he is able to escape with his mistress through the US Embassy in Berlin. This happens about 8 months before the Berlin Wall is built.
Now in the US he is able to detail the number of Western Intelligence people who are in fact working for the Soviets. Perhaps the most significant person he reveals is George Blake. There are many others as well and Mr. Tate does a very good job of describing many of these cases which will be familiar to one who is interested in this field. If there was one case, I wish he would have given more information on was Col. Stig Wennerstrom a quadruple spy!
Trouble finally occurs when James Angleton head of the Counter Intelligence Dept within the CIA begins to question everything about the intelligence provided by Sniper. This results in the CIA reneging on their contract with Sniper essentially giving him no way to earn a living in the US while the Polish and Soviet Intelligence Agencies are trying to track him down to kill him.
Goleniewski mentally breaks and believes he is the lost son of the last Czar of Russia! It is all downhill from there and for me this part was less interesting but also frustrating that the US did this to him.
If there was one area, I wish Mr. Tate could have provided more explanation it would have been the reasoning into Sniper choosing to spy on the Soviets and the Poles. And why the Russians and Poles did not see the breakdown in his home life and mistress and embezzling money. I know this is hard to impossible to do but it would have made this book a must won and read. As it is, this is a great addition to anyone who enjoys non-fiction espionage.
November 9, 2021
Received a copy from Goodreads Giveaways in record time. Sincerely appreciate!
This book is comprehensively researched. I thought it was very well written and highly captivating.
It gave a very telling picture of Goleniewski, the CIA and MI5. The first half of the book read like a spy novel and I breezed right through it. With many of the CIA and MI5 files still closed on this subject I am amazed at the amount of information Mr. Tate was able to obtain.
The use of quotes was a little excessive, but I understand the reasoning. The only portion of the book which brought down my rating was on Goleniewski's claim to be a Romanoff.
Great reading for anyone interested in cold war era espionage.
This book is comprehensively researched. I thought it was very well written and highly captivating.
It gave a very telling picture of Goleniewski, the CIA and MI5. The first half of the book read like a spy novel and I breezed right through it. With many of the CIA and MI5 files still closed on this subject I am amazed at the amount of information Mr. Tate was able to obtain.
The use of quotes was a little excessive, but I understand the reasoning. The only portion of the book which brought down my rating was on Goleniewski's claim to be a Romanoff.
Great reading for anyone interested in cold war era espionage.
August 23, 2021
An truly fascinating book regarding one of the biggest spy stories of the Cold War. It was disheartening to see how shamefully he was treated by the government after his defection to the United States. The story is gripping and keeps you at the edge of your seat. I could not put this book down. A must read for the fans of history and spy stories.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Currently reading
December 5, 2021Publisher invite through Netgalley
pub date Dec 14, 2021
St. Martin's Press
pub date Dec 14, 2021
St. Martin's Press
August 2, 2021
This book was very interesting and exciting. Kept my interest from start to finish. Would definitely recommend this to anyone.
January 4, 2022
For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com
Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA by Tim Tate tells of Michał Goleniewski, a Polish agent who volunteered to spy for the CIA. Mr. Tate id a British documentary film-maker, and a bestselling author.
The subject of Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA by Tim Tate is an agent working for the Polish Intelligence services and the KGB. Michał Goleniewski has decided that he can no longer support the regime he is serving. Calling himself “Sniper”, Goleniewski started feeding the American Intelligence Services valuable information.
Over the course of three years, Sniper has passed loads of quality intelligence, identify moles in America, England, Sweden, Israel, and other countries. Once the Soviets were onto the fact that someone is passing information to the West, Goleniewski fled. Leaving his wife and three kids, he showed up at the US Embassy in Berlin with his mistress.
At first, the CIA welcomed Goleniewski, who kept on giving accurate information. However, politics, fiefdoms, egos, and incompetency got in the way. CIA director James J. Angleton had his own defector, Antoliy Golitsyn, who he considered more reliable, despite not being placed as high as Goleniewski.
Insisting that other defectors were fakes, Goleniewski fell out of favor, a vicitim to foe, and friendly, disinformation campaigns, as well as with it his status and financial support. Becoming paranoid, Agent Sniper became delusional making outrageous claims, such as being Tsarevich Aleksei, son of the last Tsar.
This is a fascinating book, trying to find the truth from a world built on lies. Question the odd choice of the CIA to cut Sniper loose despite the excellent, reliable, and truthful information he was providing.
This is one place, however, where the book falls short. There really isn’t a good answer of the CIA’s treatment of Goleniewski, for instance. Many of the files are, as per the author, are still classified, and his treatment remains a puzzle even after 350+ pages.
The book is an interesting piece of the Cold War, an espionage/cautionary tale of what happens when grey people living in a grey world start believing their own lies. Some of the book was certainly dry, but the excellent research – of available materials – is undeniably a tremendous achievement.
Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA by Tim Tate tells of Michał Goleniewski, a Polish agent who volunteered to spy for the CIA. Mr. Tate id a British documentary film-maker, and a bestselling author.
The subject of Agent Sniper: The Cold War Superagent and the Ruthless Head of the CIA by Tim Tate is an agent working for the Polish Intelligence services and the KGB. Michał Goleniewski has decided that he can no longer support the regime he is serving. Calling himself “Sniper”, Goleniewski started feeding the American Intelligence Services valuable information.
Over the course of three years, Sniper has passed loads of quality intelligence, identify moles in America, England, Sweden, Israel, and other countries. Once the Soviets were onto the fact that someone is passing information to the West, Goleniewski fled. Leaving his wife and three kids, he showed up at the US Embassy in Berlin with his mistress.
At first, the CIA welcomed Goleniewski, who kept on giving accurate information. However, politics, fiefdoms, egos, and incompetency got in the way. CIA director James J. Angleton had his own defector, Antoliy Golitsyn, who he considered more reliable, despite not being placed as high as Goleniewski.
Insisting that other defectors were fakes, Goleniewski fell out of favor, a vicitim to foe, and friendly, disinformation campaigns, as well as with it his status and financial support. Becoming paranoid, Agent Sniper became delusional making outrageous claims, such as being Tsarevich Aleksei, son of the last Tsar.
This is a fascinating book, trying to find the truth from a world built on lies. Question the odd choice of the CIA to cut Sniper loose despite the excellent, reliable, and truthful information he was providing.
This is one place, however, where the book falls short. There really isn’t a good answer of the CIA’s treatment of Goleniewski, for instance. Many of the files are, as per the author, are still classified, and his treatment remains a puzzle even after 350+ pages.
The book is an interesting piece of the Cold War, an espionage/cautionary tale of what happens when grey people living in a grey world start believing their own lies. Some of the book was certainly dry, but the excellent research – of available materials – is undeniably a tremendous achievement.
December 14, 2021
A Real Life Cold War Spy Tale
The tale begins with a package received by the American Embassy in Bern, Switzerland. The cover letter asked that the enclosed package be forwarded to J. Edgar Hoover. The choice of Hoover at the FBI was deliberate. Agent Sniper, otherwise known as Lt. Col. Michal Goleniewski, being a Soviet agent, knew the CIA had been infiltrated by Russian agents. However, it took three years for Goleniewski to be actively recruited and then the CIA was the contact.
Goleniewski as head of the Polish espionage service spied on the Poles and sent the information back to Moscow. Although it isn’t explained in the book, he somehow became disenchanted with the communists and decided to sell his services to the US instead. Over the years, Goleniewski provided extremely useful information to the CIA, but eventually the Russians were aware of his activities and he had to escape to the American Embassy in Berlin with his mistress.
The first half of the book is the story of Goleniewski’s activities as a spy. It is well researched, well paced and very entertaining if you enjoy spy stories. The second half of the book is equally well researched, but much drier. It is the story of his increasingly troubled relations with the CIA. He eventually became mentally disturbed calling himself the heir to the Russian throne, Aleksei Romanoff.
Unlike James Bond stories, this one doesn’t have a happy ending, but it is a realistic, detailed picture of spy-craft during the cold war and a behind the scenes look at Washington politics in the espionage world. If you’re interested in the cold war and particularly espionage, this is well worth reading.
I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.
The tale begins with a package received by the American Embassy in Bern, Switzerland. The cover letter asked that the enclosed package be forwarded to J. Edgar Hoover. The choice of Hoover at the FBI was deliberate. Agent Sniper, otherwise known as Lt. Col. Michal Goleniewski, being a Soviet agent, knew the CIA had been infiltrated by Russian agents. However, it took three years for Goleniewski to be actively recruited and then the CIA was the contact.
Goleniewski as head of the Polish espionage service spied on the Poles and sent the information back to Moscow. Although it isn’t explained in the book, he somehow became disenchanted with the communists and decided to sell his services to the US instead. Over the years, Goleniewski provided extremely useful information to the CIA, but eventually the Russians were aware of his activities and he had to escape to the American Embassy in Berlin with his mistress.
The first half of the book is the story of Goleniewski’s activities as a spy. It is well researched, well paced and very entertaining if you enjoy spy stories. The second half of the book is equally well researched, but much drier. It is the story of his increasingly troubled relations with the CIA. He eventually became mentally disturbed calling himself the heir to the Russian throne, Aleksei Romanoff.
Unlike James Bond stories, this one doesn’t have a happy ending, but it is a realistic, detailed picture of spy-craft during the cold war and a behind the scenes look at Washington politics in the espionage world. If you’re interested in the cold war and particularly espionage, this is well worth reading.
I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.
August 19, 2022
It was so refreshing to read a book, not about a KGB agent inside British or American Intelligence, but about a former Eastern European spy providing Soviet intelligence to the Americans. Agent Sniper appears thoroughly researched, and is well-written in smooth, easy-to-read prose. Goleniewski is a fascinating character and I was captivated by the details of his life, including his wilder claims.
My only gripe is that I'm not sure why he is continually referred to as being mad/insane. Did he really believe he was the Tsar's son or was that purely an attempted cash-grab? Maybe I just missed the details in the book, but that never felt clear. I'm a little leery of mental disorder diagnoses that come from journalists, not psychiatrists. Just because behavior is abnormal to the author (and I agree that Goleniewski does seem unhinged) doesn't mean that person has a diagnosable mental illness.
Disclaimer: I originally received an advanced digital copy from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Because I missed the publication date, I purchased the audiobook, so my review is based on the audiobook narrated by the author.
My only gripe is that I'm not sure why he is continually referred to as being mad/insane. Did he really believe he was the Tsar's son or was that purely an attempted cash-grab? Maybe I just missed the details in the book, but that never felt clear. I'm a little leery of mental disorder diagnoses that come from journalists, not psychiatrists. Just because behavior is abnormal to the author (and I agree that Goleniewski does seem unhinged) doesn't mean that person has a diagnosable mental illness.
Disclaimer: I originally received an advanced digital copy from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Because I missed the publication date, I purchased the audiobook, so my review is based on the audiobook narrated by the author.
December 26, 2021
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. This is a really enjoyable book about a Cold War spy I’d never heard of who contributed an incredible amount of intelligence to US and UK interests and led a fascinating life after he defected. It takes a wild twist that adds intrigue and sadness. I feel like the book is perhaps too critical of the CIA, which feels strange even to write, but I kept getting the feeling that the author was determined to paint the CIA in a terrible light. Perhaps I wanted more evidence of the CIA’s incompetence and awful behavior, even if I believe it is likely true, since the author went to such lengths to document so many of the facts offered. Maybe that hard evidence is in the pages still withheld by US and UK intelligence. Overall, a really good read and anybody who likes spy thrillers or Cold War history will probably love this.
January 20, 2022
Michal Goleniewski had been a valuable asset to the West, working behind the Iron Curtain for several years, before he defected in January of 1961. Even after "coming in from the cold," he provided the US and Britain valuable information. But after the defection of another Soviet agent, who fed the paranoia of James Jesus Angleton, Goleniewski was virtually abandoned by the CIA and exposed to great danger. Tate has written a fast-paced and entertaining book that explains a complicated story clearly. He keeps you entertained until the last, unbelievable twist. He does make a few factual errors, the biggest being his identification of Senator "James" Fulbright as a Republican. Fulbright was better known by his middle name, William, and, of course, was a Democrat from Arkansas back when the South still elected Democrats.
December 26, 2021
Why would anybody want to be a spy for the US?
The careless way the US and Brittan treaded the information given it’s a miracle Goleniewski survived.
I listened to this as an audio book which might have been a bit easier then reading the book which is rather lengthy, about 412 pages with a lot of detailed information occasionally repeating some of it to clarify a point. Reading it I might have gotten annoyed sometimes but listening to it enforced what I had been hearing. The narrator’s voice was easy to listen to. Some people might find the material presented a bit dry but I found it very interesting and learned a lot.
The careless way the US and Brittan treaded the information given it’s a miracle Goleniewski survived.
I listened to this as an audio book which might have been a bit easier then reading the book which is rather lengthy, about 412 pages with a lot of detailed information occasionally repeating some of it to clarify a point. Reading it I might have gotten annoyed sometimes but listening to it enforced what I had been hearing. The narrator’s voice was easy to listen to. Some people might find the material presented a bit dry but I found it very interesting and learned a lot.
January 9, 2022
I love this book. With all that has happened in my lifetime in America, the realization of how corrupt our government can be and is, is truly heartbreaking. To teach and lead men and women into the defense of their country and abandon them to chaos is evil, whether it be thru our FBI, CIA, or any other intelligence service. Although this is in the time of post-war world I would love to see Tim Tate's opinion of the tragedy that is America today.
All I can say is read this book, powerful, intriguing. eye-opening and downright candid.
All I can say is read this book, powerful, intriguing. eye-opening and downright candid.
January 16, 2022
A long and interesting read. The author took an historical series of events and presented what could have been a dry and boring read into a really good read. Just enough detail to fully understand what really happened based upon his research and presented in a logical manner. Personally, I find it hard to comprehend the ineptitude of the CIA and other major US agencies to fully realize the prize defector they had and their unrelenting actions to discredit him to protect their own institutions.
January 9, 2022
It started off kind of slow but around the half way point it got more intriguing. It started to get more into Goleniwskis personal life, his mental state etc. He claimed to be Alexi Romanov after the CIA began to doubt him and subsequently cut him off. At the end of the book the writer mentions how Moscow continues to use tactics it used during the Cold War to manipulate Washington and the United States and has “refined the methods of disinformation”
November 18, 2022
I found this book a very interesting insight into the whole spying culture. Doesn't portray a very positive view of the "industry" no matter the country involved. A whole lot of incompetence is portrayed which doesn't give you a very fuzzy feeling. Book was well written and reads like a novel. Follows the successes and travails of a particular "super spy". I would recommend this book to anyone who knows of this particular case or has any interest the spy world.
August 10, 2021
Took a while to get into, this book is full of interesting characters from the Spy world. Names like George Blake, Kim Philby and James Jesus Angleton. I found it to be informative but sometimes filled with too much minutiae. Overall, if you enjoy reading about real spies, this book is better than average. I received an e-book from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.
June 18, 2022
A well researched retelling of one of the most important and effective counter-intelligence spies of the Cold War. This historical work was rich with detail and kept the reader on the edge of their seat.
Sincere thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Sincere thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
December 21, 2021
Important subject matter for Cold War history buffs and fans of espionage tell all's. But it's a heavy lift as far as a general reading experience. 100 percent inside baseball re KGB, CIA, FBI, MI6 & MI5, etc. I'm glad to have read it. Happy to be finished.
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