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.
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