The Spy Next Door: The Extraordinary Secret Life of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Damaging FBI Agent in U.S. History - Hardcover

Shannon, Elaine; Blackman, Ann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316718211 ISBN 13: 9780316718219

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2002

Synopsis

Two veteran Time reporters present a riveting glimpse into the life of Robert Hanssen, a seemingly quintessential surburban father and a trusted and loyal FBI agent who, after fifteen years of extremely damaging espionage, betrayed his family, his church, and his country - and got away with it, destroying the confidence of the FBI. 125,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Elaine Shannon is a correspondent in Time magazine's Washington bureau. She is the coauthor of No Heroes: Inside the FBI's Secret Counter-Terror Force and author of the bestselling Desperados: Latin Drug Lords, U.S. Lawmen, and the War America Can't Win.

Ann Blackman worked at Time for more than fifteen years and spent three years as the magazine's correspondent in Moscow. She is the author of Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright.

From Booklist:

The story of FBI special agent Bob Hanssen was told in David Vise's The Bureau and the Mole [BKL D 15 01], and now the story of this spy extraordinaire is retold, this time by two Time magazine reporters. In February 2001, Hanssen was arrested as a double agent for Russian intelligence after what turned out to be the biggest sellout of U.S. national security secrets in the long history of the FBI. The version of the story presented here is based on extensive interviews, many with people who have not spoken about Hanssen before, and the emphasis is on how the FBI tracked a mole, found out who he was, and laid a trap for him. Interesting, too, is the authors' account of FBI culture under J. Edgar Hoover and the differences and similarities in post-Hoover days. Calling Hanssen the "quintessential suburban dad," the authors relate how this seemingly innocuous and, frankly, rather boring man transformed himself into "one of the most damaging spies ever to work against the United States." Having access to intelligence and counterintelligence and making the decision to sell what he knew time and time again was, apparently, a way for this chronic "outsider" to exert power. The two books taken together cover every detail and nuance of the case. Buy wherever the first one proved popular. Brad Hooper
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About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0316718211
• ISBN 13: 9780316718219
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288