The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics That Helped America Win the Cold War
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Mendez (Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History), the inspiration for Ben Affleck's character in the film Argo, and his wife, Jonna Mendez (Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War), share their experiences as spies in Moscow during the height of the Cold War in the mid-1980s. Collaborating with best-selling author Matt Baglio, who previously worked with Antonio on Argo, the authors begin with the initial list of the Moscow Rules and continue to discuss briefly the current state of affairs in Russia under Vladimir Putin, and how they interfered with the 2016 U.S. election. The Moscow Rules started as a list of guidelines for CIA spies to follow when in the Soviet Union, particularly the capital of Moscow, and included technological advancements as well as preferred disguises. The authors share the history of spy activity between the United States and the USSR and move on to outline the Mendezs' unbelievable experiences. VERDICT Those interested in the history of espionage and the Cold War will learn from these firsthand accounts about the bravery of the men and women who spied in Moscow; a thrilling read.--Jason L. Steagall, formerly with Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

Two former CIA agents stationed in Moscow reveal the ins and outs of spycraft.The golden days of the espionage aspect of the Cold War may have been the early 1960s, but the contest was still going strong in the late-'70s, when the Mendezes (Spy Dust, 2002, etc.) were CIA operatives in Moscow. It was a heady and dangerous time, they write, whose closing months, dating into the mid-'80s, were marred by revelations of double agents and the quick dismantling of the CIA's spy network. "The majority of Soviet citizens working for us," they write, "had been arrested and executed, most of them betrayed by Americans inside the intelligence community." But before that, there was a world of spycraft to explore, with elaborate disguises, consultations from magicians who helped construct secret compartments, and all kinds of nifty gadgetry, such as "a contraption that would allow an individual to rapidly rappel down an apartment building and return up the rope using an ascension device, which had fondly been nicknamed the Spiderman." Cool tools aside, the authors make it clear that espionage is a deadly business, and dealing with nations that are good at it requires a special kind of agent and a flexible protocol (the "Moscow rules" of the title). One evolutionary stage of those rules occurred in the 1960s, when the U.S. and U.K. collaborated to "run" a Soviet agent whose intelligence helped prevent the Cold War from turning hot during the Cuban missile crisis. Another was to bring in technical officers "who would never have feet on the ground in an actual CIA overseas operation," including scientists, graphic artists, and the like. Much of what the authors describe is the quotidian back and forth of spycraft, boredom punctuated by episodes of real excitement; the narrative has the same choppy feel at times, but reading about prosthetics, cameras hidden in fountain pens, and other such things makes for eye-opening entertainment.Fans of le Carr and other spinners of secret-agent tales will find this of considerable interest. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Mendez (Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History), the inspiration for Ben Affleck's character in the film Argo, and his wife, Jonna Mendez (Spy Dust: Two Masters of Disguise Reveal the Tools and Operations That Helped Win the Cold War), share their experiences as spies in Moscow during the height of the Cold War in the mid-1980s. Collaborating with best-selling author Matt Baglio, who previously worked with Antonio on Argo, the authors begin with the initial list of the Moscow Rules and continue to discuss briefly the current state of affairs in Russia under Vladimir Putin, and how they interfered with the 2016 U.S. election. The Moscow Rules started as a list of guidelines for CIA spies to follow when in the Soviet Union, particularly the capital of Moscow, and included technological advancements as well as preferred disguises. The authors share the history of spy activity between the United States and the USSR and move on to outline the Mendezs' unbelievable experiences. VERDICT Those interested in the history of espionage and the Cold War will learn from these firsthand accounts about the bravery of the men and women who spied in Moscow; a thrilling read.—Jason L. Steagall, formerly with Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI