An absorbing read. A penetrating true story of intrigue, uncertainty, fear and loneliness depicting a pernicious lifestyle with overtones of tragedy. There are no James Bond figures here and all the better for it...

I'm not a big non-fiction reader but this book had me hooked from chapter one, which involves a risky caper on the streets of Moscow involving misdirection, disguises, and cutting-edge technology to evade detection. From there it's a heart-in-the-mouth journey through the history of Cold War spies, with the bulk of the book devoted to Adolf Tolkachev, the titular Billion Dollar Spy. The detail given is remarkable; the lengths Tolkachev and his handlers went to extraordinary. Secrets, lies, betrayal... several times my pulse was racing and I found myself really rooting for Tolkachev to triumph against adversity. This is an absolutely enthralling read, and I loved it despite not having a particular interest in espionage or history; as such, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a captivating tale. As thrilling as a le Carré novel, only every word is true.

The blurb on this book unusually lives up to the hype, very unusual. The book reads like an excellent spy thriller the only difference this being the truth. The Billion Dollar Spy is a true story of Cold War espionage and betrayal. This book was painstakingly researched, Hoffman is a meticulous researcher and write and it is clear that he understands the clandestine intelligence gathering world. The book is the evidence of this. When the spy disappeared in the middle of 1985, he had already become one of the most successful agents that had ever been run inside the Soviet Union. He had delivered for the CIA a wealth of secrets about the Soviet Union’s radar system and sensitive plans for military research. The kind of information the USA’s military machine became hungry for and all this under the very noses of the KGB. For many years after the Second World War the CIA had not had any success in running agents within the Soviet Union. The country had been a dead zone for information gathering but that changed in the late 1970s when a Russian offered his services. At first the CIA thought he was a KGB ‘dangle’ a setup to capture American agents. Adolf Tolkachev had volunteer to commit espionage against his own country he had not been turned by an American agent, but it was his anger towards his country with communism. While the Soviet Union could build multiple military machines, but it could not build an economy to fund, clothe or keep its citizens. Tolkachev was an eager spy who had access to so much information he became a vital cog in American war planning. He was an engineer with an eye for detail and his notes and technical drawings were second to none. He delivered page after page of unknown information and by the 1980s the CIA and military planners really knew what the Soviet Union’s war capabilities really were. Tolkachev lived in a world of constant watch and suspicion and that was just with his neighbours, the government was another matter. The KGB loomed large in everyday life of the Soviet citizen but none of this affected him. Even though he was captured, put on trial and executed in 1985. The KGB would never be able to have found it but it was a Russian agent inside the CIA who gave him up eventually. This is just an amazing story and very much a forgotten history which deserves a wider audience. Tolkachev was a very brave man who gave up his life while aiding peace.

It’s hard to believe this isn’t fiction, Hoffman’s writing is pacy and compelling, with all of the tropes of a great spy novel yet it chronicles the genuine contributions of a brave, reckless Soviet whose intel saved the USA billions of dollars and countless lives. An incredible read, and deeply sad by the time the story reaches its end.

Non-fiction is usually out of my comfort zone, because it is usually my last resort unless it is a topic that I am passionate about. So, if I have other reads I will just prioritise them before the non-fiction. Spies and espionage is not a topic I am passionate about, but it is something that catches my interest in terms of curiosity and wanting to know more. This was a very easy read to be fair. It is pretty much narrated as a thriller, so although it is factual history, keeps you guessing and wondering what is going to happen to the main characters. It´s not heavy on the data, nor the chronological timeline, it avoids the “info dump” going for a more narrative style that makes the reading much easier to get into. There was a moment where I stopped caring about the history and learning more about a topic and started worrying about the real human beings behind those words. On those lines, I would recommend the book if you are interested in those topics. It is very interesting how espionage worked in those times, how things were getting done, and how the whole mechanics of the art of espionage evolved through years and was applied to these people. I have always found spies very interesting, as you have to be made of a special stuff to be able to handle it. And this is not how spies are trained, this is about how normal people end up being the most incredible and well paid spies of the history of espionage.