In the Enemy's House

The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies

By: Howard Blum

Narrated by: David Colacci

The New York Times bestselling author of Dark Invasion and The Last Goodnight once again illuminates the lives of little-known individuals who played a significant role in America’s history as he chronicles the incredible true story of a critical, recently declassified counterintelligence mission and two remarkable agents whose story has been called ""the greatest secret of the Cold War.""

In 1946, genius linguist and codebreaker Meredith Gardner discovered that the KGB was running an extensive network of strategically placed spies inside the United States, whose goal was to infiltrate American intelligence and steal the nation’s military and atomic secrets. Over the course of the next decade, he and young FBI supervisor Bob Lamphere worked together on Venona, a top-secret mission to uncover the Soviet agents and protect the Holy Grail of Cold War espionage—the atomic bomb.

Opposites in nearly every way, Lamphere and Gardner relentlessly followed a trail of clues that helped them identify and take down these Soviet agents one by one, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But at the center of this spy ring, seemingly beyond the American agents’ grasp, was the mysterious master spy who pulled the strings of the KGB’s extensive campaign, dubbed Operation Enormoz by Russian Intelligence headquarters. Lamphere and Gardner began to suspect that a mole buried deep in the American intelligence community was feeding Moscow Center information on Venona. They raced to unmask the traitor and prevent the Soviets from fulfilling Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s threat: ""We shall bury you!""

A breathtaking chapter of American history and a page-turning mystery that plays out against the tense, life-and-death gamesmanship of the Cold War, this twisting thriller begins at the end of World War II and leads all the way to the execution of the Rosenbergs—a result that haunted both Gardner and Lamphere to the end of their lives.

Pretty darn good

This was fascinating story and an interesting glimpse into a very intriguing part of our history. I enjoyed the story as a whole but since I listen to books while I am doing something else - I had to "rewind" several times as the story jumps around occasionally and I would get a little lost. This is no fault of the writing - just my listening.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the details matter in this story, hence the rewinding.

I initially thought I would have liked a little more detail and/or clarity on some of the "spies", but after reflecting on the book I believe further detail on the spies would have been misplaced. This book is about the two guys and their path not about the spies.
It really is a fascinating story but not quite compelling.

Narration drags

Narration: slow, cumbersome, boring.

Story: might be good story, but the narration is uninspiring. I'm returning this book.

Not my favorite narrator

The story was interesting but the narrator mispronounced more than one word and the audio skipped a few beats on a regular basis. Was annoying.

4 stars - a lot going on.

I’m giving the overall rating 4 stars just because it was difficult to pick back up where leaving off. If you listen straight through you may enjoy it better. The story deals with a lot of characters and has a lot going on. Stay focused if you don’t wanna miss anything. Good listen!

A story about the ultimate heist in US history

Howard Blum gives us a narrative history of the Soviet efforts to infiltrate the US atomic bomb program and the US's belatedly breaking the Soviet codes to figure out who the spies in our midst were. Julius Rosenberg was one, his wife, Ethel, may not have been. Blum connects the dots from the inception of signal intelligence at Station Arlington Hall through the early years of NSA to the 2000s when much has finally been declassified.