The Billion Dollar Spy

A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal

By: David E. Hoffman

Narrated by: Dan Woren

Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Dead Hand comes the riveting story of the CIA's most valuable spy in the Soviet Union and an evocative portrait of the agency's Moscow station, an outpost of daring espionage in the last years of the Cold War.

While getting into his car on the evening of February 16, 1978, the chief of the CIA's Moscow station was handed an envelope by an unknown Russian. Its contents stunned the Americans: details of top-secret Soviet research and development in military technology that was totally unknown to the United States.

From 1979 to 1985, Adolf Tolkachev, an engineer at a military research center, cracked open the secret Soviet military research establishment, using his access to hand over tens of thousands of pages of material about the latest advances in aviation technology, alerting the Americans to possible developments years in the future. He was one of the most productive and valuable spies ever to work for the United States in the four decades of global confrontation with the Soviet Union. Tolkachev took enormous personal risks, but so did his CIA handlers. Moscow station was a dangerous posting to the KGB's backyard. The CIA had long struggled to recruit and run agents in Moscow, and Tolkachev became a singular breakthrough. With hidden cameras and secret codes, and in face-to-face meetings with CIA case officers in parks and on street corners, Tolkachev and the CIA worked to elude the feared KGB.

Drawing on previously secret documents obtained from the CIA, as well as interviews with participants, Hoffman reveals how the depredations of the Soviet state motivated one man to master the craft of spying against his own nation until he was betrayed to the KGB by a disgruntled former CIA trainee. No one has ever told this story before in such detail, and Hoffman's deep knowledge of spycraft, the Cold War, and military technology makes him uniquely qualified to bring listeners this real-life espionage thriller.

©2015 David E. Hoffman (P)2015 Random House Audio

Awesome

Telling the story of the CIA's best agent on the height of cold war and how it changes the american strategic defense planners.

Very interesting true story

Very much enjoyed listening to this book. Loaded with lots of interesting detail and intrigue (literally). Very much recommend it.

Great book, horrible Russian accent

The book itself was really interesting and the narrator did a great job. The two star score is aimed at the producer, the director or whoever is responsible for the idea of reading all the comments from Russian people in a silly Russian accent.

Eye opening and fantastic

I loved this.
Memorable moments are the spy tech.
Didn't struggle to finish at all. Enthralled the entire time. No dull moments.
Narrator, as always with Dan Woren, was incredible, great inflections, and should voice for the major TV stations.

Outstanding!

Fantastic story, fantastic writing and kept the reader involved. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the Cold War or espionage.

liked it a lot!

informational and revealing of child war espionage wars and all that goes along with it

Fascinating

Having just finished the beautifully written Gentleman in Moscow I was at first struck by the dry prose of this book. Soon thereafter I was hooked by the narrative of this incredible non fiction story. I am glad I read it.

Informative and entertaining

Not a story in the traditional sense. More of a post facto reporting of events. I really enjoyed learning a piece of history I knew very little about.

An amazing story

If you could sum up The Billion Dollar Spy in three words, what would they be?

Greatest Spy ever

Who was your favorite character and why?

Adolph Tokachev- he was indeed a soviet spy who saved the US billions and made our war planes more effective.

Which character – as performed by Dan Woren – was your favorite?

none

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was amazed at the amount and value of the information the spy gave the US.

Any additional comments?

The first and last thirds of the book were fast paced and very interesting. The middle third had a bit too much detail about the meetings with the spy.

factual but repetitive.

interesting but repetitive. good factual history of this period. one sided view. cia informants are traitors and ussr informants are heroes.