Eva Dillon

Interesting non-fiction written by the daughter of a CIA agent about United States and Russian spies during the Cold War. She focuses on her father, Paul Dillon, and Russian double agent Dmitri Polyakov. We gain insight into their private lives, along with the tools and methods they used to transfer information. It is filled with subterfuge, betrayal, and intrigue. It also serves as a bit of a travelogue due to Dillon’s transfers around the globe, including Germany, Mexico, Burma, India, and Italy. The book vividly depicts the challenges of life in Soviet Russia during the Cold War.

Overall, I enjoyed this reading experience and cared about what happened to these two men. My issues with it relate to the presentation, in the Kindle edition, more than the content (typo, not linking the index to the page referenced, back cover photo credit given, but not shown). I also found the synopsis and sub-title of the book somewhat misleading, as the friendship is a very small portion of the story and it is not written as a thriller. Attention to such details often separate the great from the good in my opinion.

If you enjoy spy stories, you can’t beat the real thing!… (mere)