Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage
- Book Review,
by Robert Lindsey
From Library Journal
Journalist Lindsey adroitly chronicles the true story of Andrew Daulton Lee and Christopher John Boyce, two high school buddies from good families who were tried and convicted of espionage. Boyce's FBI agent father landed the floundering 21-year-old a job developing satellites for the CIA. With Lee's help, Boyce set out to sell government secrets to the Soviets. The two then embarked on a covert operation complete with code names, spy cameras, and other trappings that James Bond would have envied. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
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)
From the Back Cover
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)
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