JANUARY 2016 - AudioFile
Narrator Dan Woren’s bass voice fits this thrilling account of how the CIA gained totally unexpected information about Soviet technology during the Cold War. In February 1978, agents in Moscow were approached by military technology researcher Adolf Tolkachev, who subsequently transferred tens of thousands of pages of military secrets to the U.S. The story does not end well for Tolkachev—sloppy counter-espionage work by the U.S. led to his betrayal and eventual execution. Woren’s pacing, inflection, and Russian accents are all well done. Those familiar with the Russian language may cringe a bit at his pronunciation of Russian words, but this is a minor hitch in an otherwise splendid production. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
Praise for David E. Hoffman’s The Billion Dollar Spy
“The Billion Dollar Spy is one of the best spy stories to come out of the Cold War and all the more riveting . . . for being true. It hits the sweet spot between page-turning thriller and solidly researched history (even the footnotes are informative) and then becomes something more, a shrewd character study of spies and the spies who run them, the mixed motives, the risks. . . . This is a terrific book.” —Washington Post
“A true-life tale so gripping at times it reads like spy fiction.” —Los Angeles Times
“Engrossing. . . . Mr. Hoffman’s book particularly shines in cinematic accounts of . . . anxious encounters.” —The New York Times
“A rare look at the dangerous, intricately choreographed tradecraft behind old-school intelligence gathering. . . . What [Hoffman]’s accomplished here isn’t just a remarkable example of journalistic talent but also an ability to weave an absolutely gripping nonfiction narrative.” —The Dallas Morning News
“This riveting drama. . . . packs valuable insights into the final decade of the cloak-and-dagger rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union. . . . A must-read for historians and buffs of that era, as well as aficionados of espionage.” —The Christian Science Monitor
“Hoffman excels at conveying both the tradecraft and the human vulnerabilities involved in spying.” —The New Yorker
“Gripping and nerve-wracking. . . . Human tension hangs over every page of The Billion Dollar Spy like the smell of leaded gasoline. . . . [Hoffman] knows the intelligence world well and has expertly used recently declassified documents to tell this unsettling and suspenseful story. . . . The Billion Dollar Spy reads like the most taut and suspenseful parts of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Smiley’s People. It’s worth the clenched jaw and upset stomach it creates.” —USA Today
“Suspenseful. . . . Hoffman is a scrupulous, meticulous writer whose pages of footnotes and references attest to how carefully he sticks to his sources. . . . His book’s value is in its true-life adventure story and the window it offers into a once-closed world.” —The Columbus Dispatch
“Hoffman viscerally evokes the secret, ruthless Cold War battle between the American Central Intelligence Agency and the Soviet KGB in his true-life espionage thriller. . . . An exciting, revealing tale with a courageous, sympathetic protagonist.” —Tampa Bay Times
“The fine first sentence of The Billion Dollar Spy could almost have been written with an icicle. A work of painstaking historical research that’s paced like a thriller.” —Departures
“Hoffman [proves] that nonfiction can read like a John le Carré thriller. . . . This real-life tale of espionage will hook readers from the get-go.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Fascinating. . . . Hoffman’s revealing of [Adolf Tolkachev] as a person and a spy is brilliantly done, making this mesmerizing true story scary and thrilling.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Hoffman ably navigates the many strands of this complex espionage story. An intricate, mesmerizing portrayal of the KGB-CIA spy culture. . . . A thoroughly researched excavation of an astoundingly important (and sadly sacrificed) spy for the CIA.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A fabulous read that also provides chilling insights into the Cold War spy game between Washington and Moscow that has erupted anew under Vladimir Putin. . . . It is also an evocative portrait of everyday life in the crumbling Soviet Union and a meticulously researched guide to CIA sources and methods. I devoured every word, including the footnotes.” —Michael Dobbs, author of One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
“One of the best real-life spy stories ever told. This is a breakthrough book in intelligence writing, drawing on CIA operational cables—the holy grail of the spy world—to narrate each astonishing move. Hoffman reveals CIA tradecraft tricks that are more delicious than anything in a spy novel, and his command of the Soviet landscape is masterful. Full of twists so amazing you couldn’t make them up, this is spy fact that really is better than fiction.” —David Ignatius, author of The Director
“The Billion Dollar Spy reads like the very best spy fiction yet is meticulously drawn from real life. It is a gripping story of courage, professionalism, and betrayal in the secret world.” —Rodric Braithwaite, British Ambassador in Moscow, 1988-1992
“A scrupulously researched work of history that is also a gripping thriller, The Billion Dollar Spy by David E. Hoffman is an unforgettable journey into Cold War espionage. This spellbinding story pulses with the dramatic tension of running an agent in Soviet-era Moscow—where the KGB is ubiquitous and CIA officers and Russian assets are prey. I was enthralled.” —Peter Finn, co-author of The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book
Library Journal
05/15/2015
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hoffman's (The Dead Hand) gripping and informative history covers U.S. espionage against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Focusing on Adolf Tolkachev, who served as a spy inside the Soviet Union for more than 20 years before being betrayed, the author sets out to write the story of a spy and in so doing, chronicles Cold War espionage and an overall compelling tale that draws on secret documents from the CIA as well as interviews with surviving participants. Hoffman succeeds on both accounts. VERDICT This well-written volume will be of interest to many, from general readers interested in espionage to academics looking for research on either espionage or the history of Cold War-era international relations, in particular the long-unavailable history of Cold War spy tactics and the people who took part in them. [See Prepub Alert, 1/5/15.]—John Sandstrom, New Mexico State Univ. Lib., Las Cruces
JANUARY 2016 - AudioFile
Narrator Dan Woren’s bass voice fits this thrilling account of how the CIA gained totally unexpected information about Soviet technology during the Cold War. In February 1978, agents in Moscow were approached by military technology researcher Adolf Tolkachev, who subsequently transferred tens of thousands of pages of military secrets to the U.S. The story does not end well for Tolkachev—sloppy counter-espionage work by the U.S. led to his betrayal and eventual execution. Woren’s pacing, inflection, and Russian accents are all well done. Those familiar with the Russian language may cringe a bit at his pronunciation of Russian words, but this is a minor hitch in an otherwise splendid production. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2015-03-28
A thoroughly researched excavation of an astoundingly important (and sadly sacrificed) spy for the CIA during the low point of the 1970s. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his previous book, The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2009), Washington Post contributing editor Hoffman has strong credentials to tell the unheralded story of Adolf Tolkachev (1927-1986), a radar engineer who offered invaluable information on the state of arms technology in the Soviet Union until he was snagged by the KGB in 1985 and executed soon after. The CIA was scrambling to make a connection in the Soviet Union after the loss of the extremely productive spy Oleg Penkovsky for clandestine acquisition of technology for the West in the 1960s, though the agency was hampered by the "long shadow" cast by ultraparanoid chief of Moscow counterintelligence James Angleton, who believed the KGB was employing a "vast ‘master plan' of deception," and thus he trusted no one. Once he left in 1975, a younger generation of more enterprising officers trained in Berlin and other Eastern Bloc cities—e.g., Burton Gerber, who advocated for rigorous sifting of genuine sources from phony ones. Consequently, when a Russian engineer at Moscow's Scientific Research Institute for Radio Engineering repeatedly approached American diplomats with his declared access to the development of a "look-down, shoot-down" radar system, they finally paid attention. Given the code name CKSPHERE, Tolkachev was motivated to photograph reams of priceless documents out of deep resentment of the "impassable, hypocritical demagoguery" of the Soviet state. Inspired by famous defectors Viktor Belenko and Andrei Sakharov, Tolkachev also wanted money—the "six figures" that Belenko reportedly got, as well as rock albums for his teenage son, all of which would push him to take too many risks. Hoffman ably navigates the many strands of this complex espionage story. An intricate, mesmerizing portrayal of the KGB-CIA spy culture.
