The Lost Spy

An American in Stalin's Secret Service

By: Andrew Meier

Narrated by: David Chandler

This is the riveting account of one of the first Americans to spy for Joseph Stalin.

A brilliant Columbia University graduate, Isaiah Oggins went to Berlin to establish a safe house and spy for his country - but he turned coat. Working for the Soviets, he was nevertheless poisoned in 1947 on Stalin's orders.

Classified for decades, Oggins' story is a cloak-and-dagger tale to rival the best novels.

©2008 Andrew Meier (P)2008 Recorded Books, LLC

Intriguing and full of history

This book will not necessarily keep you spellbound with suspense (after all, the ending is given away in the book summary), but it is very interesting and offers a detailed political look at the 1920s and 1930s, both in personal, US, and international terms. Well worth the listen. The narrator is easy to listen to also.

Am I supposed to have sympathy for this guy

It was an interesting story but I have no sympathy for him or them they were communist and they left our country using false passports so whatever befell them it was their own choice

Excellent account of events!

It was a wonderful, accurate and very captivating book. It described some connections that I did not know about and gave a great overview of a Russian spy industry mid century. It prompted me to research some of the names and historic events.

Endless, mind-dumbing descriptions

There might be a good story here, but I can't suffer through the horrible descriptions of details in order to find out. The effect is pretentious when minute details of a house, a face or a garden are given, with not enough story line given to make you care about it. The basic facts of a story seem to be ignored, while blades of grass and other such things are described in detail. It could be a form of torture to listen to this book, so I abandoned it early in Chapter 2. I only lasted that long because I hoped Chapter 1 would set the scene with all that description and the story might take off in Chapter 2...it didn't.