Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163213 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-06
• Released on: 2002-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
By the time fellow FBI agents arrested Robert Hanssen in February 2001, he'd been spying for the Russians off and on for two decades. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post scribe Vise attempts to explain why Hanssen did it and how he got away with it in this comprehensive account. Hanssen, says Vise, was a highly intelligent but socially inept loner who felt "overlooked and underappreciated" by his colleagues at the Bureau. Determined to prove he was better than them and eager to profit from his superiority Hanssen decided to begin passing classified documents to his KGB counterparts in exchange for diamonds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. He also revealed the names of at least nine U.S. spies working in the KGB, several of whom were subsequently executed. But the FBI, Vise writes, was so blind to its own vulnerabilities that it ignored the warning signs even when Hanssen's brother-in-law (also an FBI agent) reported that Hanssen was hiding huge sums of cash at home. Vise adheres to a plain newspaper style in his account, which steals some of the excitement from Hanssen's dramatic spy craft; he also includes long, needless digressions on the career of FBI Director Louis Freeh. But Vise's research and reporting are first-rate and his sources (Hanssen's wife, mother and best friend, as well as other FBI agents and ex-KGB operatives) are excellent. This is a chilling portrait of a man who betrayed his country simply to see if he could. (Jan.) Forecast: This is one of a trio of books on Hanssen, including The Spy Who Stayed Out in the Cold (Forecasts, Oct. 1), one of which came in too late for review (see note, The Spy Next Door, page 59). The market may be too crowded for Atlantic's optimistic 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post, Vise cracks the code on a stellar FBI agent turned Russian informant. Sounds good, so don't wait for the film, due out from Jerry Bruckheimer.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The story seems to come straight out of a cold-war spy novel. In February 2001, FBI special agent Bob Hanssen was arrested as a double agent for Russian intelligence in what turned out to be the biggest sellout of U.S. national security secrets in the long history of the bureau. Why would someone spy on his own country? Vise, a Pulitzer Prize winner who broke the Hanssen story in the Washington Post, details how Hanssen did it and how he got caught but also offers a credible psychological profile. Hanssen grew up at the mercy of an abusive father who completely stripped his son of confidence and self-respect. As an FBI agent, Hanssen acted out the results of his boyhood abuse by fanning a growing resentment for the bureau. "His 'rage' at the FBI erupted each time he was passed over for promotion," the author reveals. "He fought back by attempting grand, daring feats of espionage. He failed to recognize that his progress at the FBI was inhibited by his [difficult] personality." This dramatic account--one more indictment of the FBI's record of late--is certain to be requested at the circulation desk. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Poor writing
I expected a lot from this book and was disappointed. The book is a strong example of a great topic with a horrible delivery. Hanssen betrayed our country' secrets and the best the author can do is bore us with how Louis Freeh should be our hero. After finishing the book I was struck by the feeling that the author had not done much research, as there was little substantive information about Hanssen's spying. It would have been more aptly titled, "A short book in praise of Louis Freeh".

Mediocre at best
I was pretty much disappointed. Most of the book dealt with Hanssen's psychological problems, and the immediate political impact of his capture, rather than the historical or political implications on US intelligence.

Was author David Vise pressed for time? Or was there simply limited information available? I can't believe a pulitzer prize winner was just lazy, but I saw lots of high school term-paper tricks: a small book with wide margins, extra line spacing, and long block quotes and appendices.

Half the book was devoted to FBI director Louis Freeh-- a man I certainly find fascinating, but not germaine to the Hanssen case. Verbatim publication of Hanssen's explicit internet posts about his wife fail to titalate, though certainly they succeed in further humiliating her and her family. They don't shed any light that paraphrasing or summarizing doesn't.

Basically, I see a man who lacked either time or unclassified information, and resorted to fluffing up the page count. It gets two stars only because what information it did have appeared accurate.

Very well written
I personally enjoyed this book. Why did I enjoy it? Here's why-

1. It provides a very provacative way to look at the inside of an outsider.
2. We can all relate to it one way or another (even though we are ashamed to admit it).
3. You get to see to men fighting their own battles but it a similar way.

The reason I docked it down a star is because the author could have gone into more in depth descriptions on somethings but at the same time not could have been as descriptive on other topics (especially the sexual related areas)

In Conclusion, If you enjoy a spy/biographical account of one of the most notorious spies ever recorded, this is the way to go.