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

Robert Lindsey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

Review

"Remarkable. A real-life spy story as gripping and full of suspense as anything one could invent. Robert Lindsey tells us everything we want to know about this odd couple. He has done a superb job of research and writing."-Ken Follett

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (June 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585745022
• ISBN-13: 978-1585745029
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #376,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stumbling Into High Treason, August 29, 2002

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage (Paperback)

Of all the major spy stories to break open in the last thirty years, the case of John Boyce and Andrew Dalton Lee has to take the prize and the most troubling in its larger implications. Other spies like Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanssen were disillusioned middle aged bureucrats whose spying was an outlet for their frustration as well as a source of additional income. Boyce and Dalton, however, were young men who blundered into the spy game mostly because of boredom with their comfortable upper middle class upbringings. Their betrayal of the country that allowed them to live such an easy life is as baffling, if not as horrific, as the later actions of the shooters at Columbine High School.

Those who enjoyed the popular movie starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn based on this book will particularly enjoy the details that the movie had to leave out. Of the two, Boyce's story is the most tragic. He was highly intellegent with a potentially bright future, and secured a position at defense contractor TRW with a Top Secret security clearance because of his retired FBI agent father's connections. Lee, on the other hand, was a dropout and a drug dealer whose life was spiraling downward toward the inevitable bad conclusion. One of the astonishing facts revealed in the book is just how many second chances Lee squandered along the way. A child of less affluence would have ended up in prison long before he even had the chance to join Boyce in his spying.

Author/journalist Robert Lindsey is an excellent writer and he tells the story in such a way that it reads like a fiction thriller. Lindsey reports astonishing facts such as the incredibly lax security at TRW without editorial comment, letting the events speak for themselves. Lindsey's extensive interviews with all of the principals, including Boyce in particular, make for particularly compelling reading.

Overall, a well-written journalistic account of one of the most unfortunate of America's spy cases.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Even better than the movie., July 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Falcon and the Snowman (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book about four or five years ago, after I saw the film with Timothy Hutton (also very good). I'm only 20 so this story was a little before my time but... In any event I found it fascinating. Lindsey portrays these men honestly and without judgement butwith great insight. You won't be able to put it down. Also good, if not better, Lindsey's Flight of the Falcon, about Boyce's brief escape from prison.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Was the book that put my espionage reading in hyperdrive., January 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Falcon and the Snowman (Mass Market Paperback)

Read this book 15 years ago (in '83). Found it so captivating that ...you know, one of those that unable to put down. For whatever reason of its good balance, or exceptionally well-written true intrigue, or savvy description of the Minox toys of the game - I still hold this work as the benchmark of spy stories. Though decades old now, still, the consequences of the Boyce/Lee crimes do have a present day saliency. Moreover, does explain very significant events of the 70s; so is also most valuable as historical insight to some present day conditions. Good read.