Publishers Weekly
★ 03/28/2022
Bestseller Wiehl (Hunting the Unabomber: The FBI, Ted Kaczynski, and the Capture of America’s Most Notorious Domestic Terrorist) more than justifies another book about Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who had been a spy for the former Soviet Union for decades until his arrest in 2001. She uses new interviews, including with Hanssen’s brother-in-law, and extensive research to flesh out the story of Hanssen’s consequential betrayals. Those included high-level asset Dmitri Polyakov, a Soviet general who had provided the U.S. with essential intel since the 1960s and who was tortured and executed after Hanssen informed the Soviets of his activities. The collateral consequences of Hanssen’s treachery make this anything but a cold-blooded account. Among his unintended victims was CIA officer Brian Kelley, who was falsely suspected of being the Russian mole and who suffered psychological brutalization by his employers, who subjected him to harsh interrogations, and whose family members also were suspected of complicity and stigmatized while the criminal case against Kelley was still pending; the case was ultimately dismissed; the author’s access to Kelley’s emails makes that experience vivid. Wiehl closes with a valuable section exploring whether America’s national security apparatus is better prepared today to prevent such an event from happening again, concluding, disturbingly, that another Hanssen is possible. This is likely the definitive look at a spy case that continues to shock years later. Agent: Todd Schuster, Aevitas Creative. (May)
Linda Fairstein
Hunting Charles Manson the best true crime book you will ever read. Lock your doors, keep the night lights on, and read this book.
From the Publisher
Praise for Lis Wiehl:
Kate White
Lis Wiehl’s real-life page-turner is jam-packed with new, fascinating, thoroughly researched, and relevant-today details about the making of a monster, the evolution of his dangerous charisma, and how he was finally brought to justice."
Valerie Plame
A riveting story of one of America’s most notorious spies. Like the former federal prosecutor she was, Lis Wiehl has uncovered damning new evidence and chilling first-hand accounts of how Robert Hanssen was able to elude the FBI for twenty years. More alarming still, Wiehl shows how Hanssen’s story illustrates the very real and present danger within the FBI today. A must-read.
Booklist
Wiehl relates Hanssen’s treachery in vivid, emotionally laden prose, sparing no judgment [regarding] Hanssen's outward religiosity, sexual escapades, and utter disdain for the oaths he had taken to protect the U.S. Fans of spy stories will revel in Wiehl’s recounting of deadly serious real-life espionage.
Booklist (starred)
A powerful dual narrative of the unfolding investigation and the life story of Ted Kaczynski. The action progresses with drama and nail-biting intensity, the conclusion foregone yet nonetheless compelling. A true-crime masterpiece."
Steve Berry
Lis Wiehl is a pro who does her homework and knows what she’s talking about. She’s a storyteller extraordinaire and this one, though non-fiction, reads like a thriller. She gives voice and life to a troubling aspect of our history, one that is definitely worth remembering.
Gregg Olsen
You think you know everything about an infamous criminal case until brilliant writers and researchers like Lis Wiehl and Caitlin Rother come along to expose new layers and new insights. This is a must-read for true crime fans—and those who think they know everything about the Manson case."
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-01-25
Perhaps the best of the many books on Robert Hanssen (b. 1944), the agent who, for more than 20 years, sold American secrets to Russia.
The daughter of an FBI agent, Wiehl, a former federal prosecutor and legal analyst for a variety of networks, delivers a fine account that will make readers squirm but not put it down. Most Americans associate espionage with the CIA, but the FBI is responsible for intelligence within the U.S. and has a considerable presence abroad. Burned repeatedly, the CIA had tightened security by the end of the 20th century, but as the author shows, “the FBI—one of the world’s most honored and famous investigative bodies—has almost no capacity to investigate itself.” Hired in 1976, Hanssen was first posted to Indianapolis and then to New York City. FBI agents are not highly paid, and, of course, the cost of living in NYC is far higher than in Indiana. Soon after being assigned to Soviet counterintelligence in 1979, Hanssen, married with three children, walked into a local Soviet office and offered to sell his services. Not a field agent but a computer specialist, he took advantage of access to the FBI’s electronic record system as well as its far-too-trusting culture. Until his arrest in 2001, he handed over a steady stream of secrets that crippled U.S. intelligence and resulted in the deaths of many American assets behind the Iron Curtain. An exhaustive researcher, Wiehl seems to have interviewed everyone in Hanssen’s family and his professional life, and she contributes her own expertise to deliver a fascinating, detailed chronicle of her subject’s crimes and personality. The author does not take the easy route by assuming that the FBI was staffed by dimwits, and her unnerving final chapter concludes that, despite some reforms, other Hanssens are not only possible; they’re probably already at work.
A superb account of a long-running intelligence disaster.
