The Falcon and the Snowman : A True Story of Friendship and Espionage

This fascinating account of how two young Americans turned traitor during the Cold War is an “absolutely smashing real-life spy story” (The New York Times Book Review). At the height of the Cold War, some of the nation’s most precious secrets passed through a CIA contractor in Southern California. Only a handful of employees were cleared to handle the intelligence that came through the Black Vault. One of them was Christopher John Boyce, a hard-partying genius with a sky-high IQ, a passion for falconry, and little love for his country. Security at the Vault was so lax, Boyce couldn’t help but be tempted. And when he gave in, the fate of the free world would hang in the balance. With the help of his best friend, Andrew Daulton Lee, a drug dealer with connections south of the border, Boyce began stealing classified documents and selling them to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City. It was an audacious act of treason, committed by two spoiled young men who were nearly always drunk, stoned, or both—and were about to find themselves caught in the middle of a fight between the CIA and the KGB. This Edgar Award–winning book was the inspiration for the critically acclaimed film starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn—a true story as thrilling as any dreamed up by Ian Fleming or John le Carré. Before Edward Snowden, there were Boyce and Lee, two of the most unlikely spies in the history of the Cold War. Tense, intriguing, and darkly compelling, The Falcon and the Snowman is a uniquely American story of betrayal. On the face of it, there was nothing to indicate that Andrew Dalton Lee and Christopher James Boyce were anything but two devout Catholic boys growing up in happy, warm families in one of the most affluent suburbs in America, living one version of the American Dream and facing nothing but the best of futures.Bright and idealistic, the son of a former FBI agent, 21-year-old Boyce was adrift in the malaise and disenchantment of the late 1960s. His high school friend Dalton Lee had wandered from his childhood days as an altar boy to become a successful drug dealer in trouble with the law and looking for the big score. In July of 1974 Boyce's father used his influence to help his son get a job at TRW, a Southern California aerospace company that was developing and manufacturing satellites used by the CIA. Less than a year later Boyce and Lee launched a plan to sell the CIA's secrets to the Russians and began a career as Soviet agents, complete with international intrigue, secret codes, clandestine meetings, and miniature cameras. The Falcon and the Snowman is, ultimately, a dark story of murder plots, betrayal, and the wrenching consequences of impulsive decisions. Intensively researched, it draws on hundreds of interviews with all the principals involved, on letters, and on materials from Boyce and Lee's eventual trials. Robert Lindsey has crafted a suspenseful, extraordinary tale that pulls readers in on the first page and leaves them wanting more by book's end. (6 x 9, 360 pages)
"This fascinating account of how two young Americans turned traitor during the Cold War is an "absolutely smashing real-life spy story" (The New York Times Book Review). At the height of the Cold War, some of the nation's most precious secrets passed through a CIA contractor in Southern California. Only a handful of employees were cleared to handle the intelligence that came through the Black Vault. One of them was Christopher John Boyce, a hard-partying genius with a sky-high IQ, a passion for falconry, and little love for his country. Security at the Vault was so lax, Boyce couldn't help but be tempted. And when he gave in, the fate of the free world would hang in the balance. With the help of his best friend, Andrew Daulton Lee, a drug dealer with connections south of the border, Boyce began stealing classified documents and selling them to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City. It was an audacious act of treason, committed by two spoiled young men who were nearly always drunk, stoned, or both-and were about to find themselves caught in the middle of a fight between the CIA and the KGB. This Edgar Award-winning book was the inspiration for the critically acclaimed film starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn-a true story as thrilling as any dreamed up by Ian Fleming or John le Carre. Before Edward Snowden, there were Boyce and Lee, two of the most unlikely spies in the history of the Cold War"--Publisher's description True story about two young men from affluent families who, under the code names "Falcon" and "Snowman," commit a brazen act of espionage, by selling some of America's most sensitive secrets to the KGB.