Igor Ljubuncic's Reviews > The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal

This is a great book. And as always, reality trumps fiction.

You've all seen spy movies. I've seen them. Some good ones, too. But when you actually read a story about an actual agent behind the enemy lines, then you realize how things are so vastly different and so much more interesting than the supposed glamor-and-guns nonsense you see on the screen, or even read in fiction books.

The story of Adolf Tolkachev is sad, fascinating, full of compelling detail. I was amazed by how much depth there is in the book, even though it essentially depicts a twenty-odd meetings between CIA operators in the Moscow station and the disgruntled Soviet engineer handing them secrets about Soviet latest aviation radar technology. The stuff that helped the Americans save billions of dollars, years of research, and gave them technological supremacy well into the 90s.

And yet there it is. Meetings between the handlers and Tolkachev. The secret signs, the notes, the letters, the personal items that Tolkachev would request - like toothpaste, pencils and erasers for his son's architectural projects, Western music, books by dissidents, and then some rubles after all. All of this adds a complex human dimension to the story of betrayal and intrigue.

You know how it all ends. Still, you read it and enjoy every page.

Highly recommended.

Igor