Overworld: The Life and Times of a Reluctant Spy

An intriguing memoir that journeys into the complex and dangerous world of covert statecraft and espionage describes growing up as the son of a high-ranking American spymaster, his refusal to take a job with the CIA in order to pursue a life in business, and his job as an agent for Muhammad Ali, a position that drew him back into the family business. 40,000 first printing.

In the world of espionage it helps to be a mensch. So, at least, asserts Larry J. Kolb, the son of a spy and a man of many faces: He was a former agent for Muhammad Ali (a job that gave him the best "cover" of his career), a stepson-in-law of Saudi entrepreneur Adnan Kashoggi, and a secret-stealer of such versatility that he plied his trade in Lebanon, Saudia Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Pakistan and India. In Overworld: The Life and Times of a Reluctant Spy (Riverhead, $25.95), Kolb explains the techniques by which he ingratiated himself in so many venues : "If you showed a bit of world-view rather than behaving like a tourist, if you bothered to learn a few sentences of the local language as soon as you arrived, so that, by the time you met the King or Prime Minister or just a delighted porter, you could greet him flawlessly in his own language, if you did not fawn but treated even the exalted like normal people who crawl around on the floor with their grandchildren, if you took flowers for their wives -- you would be well remembered and welcomed back."

Kolb learned his craft in part from Miles Copeland, whose career before spying for the CIA included a stint as a trumpeter with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and his wife, Lorraine, an innocent-looking blonde whose wartime specialties were "blowing up bridges and derailing German trains." Having recruited Kolb, Copeland explained why his training would be less than comprehensive: "Obvious professionalism can be as undesirable in spies as in prostitutes. . . . The KGB were the first to realize this. . . . The Soviets actually taught their agents less rather than more. So when their agents came under spot surveillance -- and almost everyone with access to sensitive materials or facilities is subject to routine spot surveillance -- they didn't display mannerisms which betrayed them and subjected them to full surveillance." And then Copeland added darkly, "Almost no one can beat full surveillance."

How to Be a Spook
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As Kolb spins a tale of international intrigue in which he does everything from accompany Muhammad Ali on a mission to free American hostages in Beirut to introduce Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega to an Indian holy man, it's awfully tempting to consider him a hoaxster à la Chuck Barris—but all it takes is a little online research to produce corroborating details. Kolb actually is connected to international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi by marriage; stories in Indian newspapers confirm that government wants him in connection with a plot against a former premier involving that same holy man. Pretty soon, a reader will believe that Kolb, the son of a Cold War intelligence operative who grew up in post-WWII Japan and Germany, really was recruited by legendary spy Miles Copeland because his jet-setting lifestyle put him in all the right places. Slangily written from a safe house "on a sunny shore," Kolb's recollection of his training in the fundamentals of spycraft is a particularly engrossing section that will leave readers convinced they know enough to run their own clandestine operations. It's the centerpiece around which he weaves a slew of anecdotes stretching back to WWII, producing a cumulative effect that renders the whole story so amazing that readers will conclude that even the wildest bits—like his taking credit for rewriting the blueprints for the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal—have got to be true.
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A secret agent's memoir has a built-in credibility problem. But some basic parts of Kolb's remarkable life appear to be true: his father was a senior U.S. intelligence agent, he absorbed the style if not the specifics of the game from Dad (he would eventually work with the CIA), he befriended and represented the retired Muhammad Ali for years, and he became a member of the inner circle of Saudi magnate Adnan Khashoggi. All this became a heady cocktail for Kolb, and it will be for readers, as we are seductively, seamlessly guided through a life of first-class travel and lodging, intimate encounters with the world's movers and shakers, and a peek into the mindset of a spy. It all seems too easy, and it was: Kolb eventually worked the wrong deal, finding himself an apparent target for assassination by Indian secret police and living in a Florida safe house, from where he says he wrote this book. A great read, but consider the source. Alan Moores
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