The Liar: How a Double Agent in the CIA Became the Cold War’s Last Honest Man
Benjamin Cunningham (Public Affairs, 2022), 268 pages, endnotes, photos, index.
Karel Koecher holds the dubious distinction of being the only known Eastern bloc operative to successfully infiltrate CIA through a seeding operation. Former correspondent Benjamin Cunningham recounts this incredible story in The Liar, detailing many of the case’s most significant milestones and showing how the amoral, louche, and often cantankerous Koecher succeeded where so many others failed.
Cunningham is an obviously skilled writer, and despite his lack of intelligence experience, he reveals a surprisingly sophisticated comprehension of intelligence tradecraft. His brisk, highly readable account burns most brightly in the early chapters, where Cunningham weaves details of Koecher’s life together with the main plotpoints of Central Europe’s turbulent mid-twentieth-century experience. Frustratingly, Cunningham is unable to maintain this high standard throughout the work when his narrative compass spins in multiple, competing directions.
Download PDF to read complete review. [2 pages]