First published 2019
Antonio Mendez works deep in Soviet territory during the late 1970s, when the KGB tracks every foreign visitor and plants listening devices inside the American Embassy itself. The Soviets maintain detailed files on all foreigners, monitor their daily routines, and tap their communications. Intelligence gathering has become nearly impossible. Antonio and his future wife Jonna, both CIA operatives specializing in disguise, must find ways to outmaneuver their surveillance. They create new operational methods that include Hollywood-style identity changes, document forgery, and sophisticated evasion techniques. The Office of Technical Services provides them with miniature cameras, suitcase body doubles, and wall climbing equipment. With these tools and tactics, Antonio and Jonna work to establish American intelligence operations in one of the most hostile environments of the Cold War. Their mission becomes a race against time as the Soviet threat grows stronger and the margin for error shrinks to nothing.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, espionage, political-thriller, russia
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: cat-and-mouse, deception, race-against-time
Setting: Moscow, Soviet Union
Period: 1970s
273 pages · Kindle Edition · PublicAffairs