Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War

Written by Eva Dillon

Narrated by Gabra Zackman

A riveting true-life thriller and revealing memoir from the daughter of an American intelligence officer—the astonishing true story of two spies and their families on opposite sides of the Cold War.

In the summer of 1975, seventeen-year-old Eva Dillon's family was living in New Delhi when her father was exposed as a CIA spy. Eva had long believed that her father was a U.S. State Department employee. She had no idea that he was handling the CIA’s highest-ranking double agent—Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov—a Soviet general whose code name was TOPHAT. Dillon’s father and Polyakov had a close friendship that went back years, to their first meeting in Burma in the mid-1960s. At the height of the Cold War, the Russian offered the CIA an unfiltered view into the vault of Soviet intelligence. His collaboration helped ensure that tensions between the two nuclear superpowers did not escalate into a shooting war.

Spanning fifty years and three continents, Spies in the Family is a deeply researched account of two families on opposite sides of the lethal espionage campaigns of the Cold War, and two men whose devoted friendship lasted a lifetime, until the devastating final days of their lives. With impeccable insider access to both families as well as knowledgeable CIA and FBI officers, Dillon goes beyond the fog of secrecy to craft an unforgettable story of friendship and betrayal, double agents and clandestine lives, that challenges our notions of patriotism, exposing the commonality between peoples of opposing political economic systems.

Both a gripping tale of spy craft and a moving personal story, Spies in the Family is an invaluable and heart-rending work.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9780062674364

Eva Dillon

Eva Dillon spent twenty-five years in the magazine publishing business in New York City, including stints at Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, The New Yorker, and as president of Reader’s Digest, U.S.  Dillon and her six siblings grew up moving around the world for her father's CIA assignments in Berlin, Mexico City, Rome, and New Delhi. She holds a bachelor’s in Music from Virginia Commonwealth University and lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

Reviews for Spies in the Family

[Wilma Branstetter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book fills in so many pieces for these men and the case that only seemed to get a passing mention in the few books I have read so far on miscellaneous spy cases. The viewpoint and research from a family member lends depth that other researchers may have overlooked. I will be reading this book again.

[spoko_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For the first half of the book or so, you think this is just a family memoir from the daughter of a former spy--which is interesting enough. And it is that, but Dillon expands from there, detailing the contagious paranoia that practically crippled the CIA when the agency should have been doing its most important work, the heroic Russian "traitor" who betrayed his government in order to protect his nation, and the venal American turncoat who destroyed numerous lives in service of nothing but his own greed.

It's a very interesting read, lacking some of the tension and excitement of most spy books, but replacing it with a clear, expansive understanding of what spy work looks like when it's at home.

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting non-fiction written by the daughter of a CIA agent about United States and Russian spies during the Cold War. She focuses on her father, Paul Dillon, and Russian double agent Dmitri Polyakov. We gain insight into their private lives, along with the tools and methods they used to transfer information. It is filled with subterfuge, betrayal, and intrigue. It also serves as a bit of a travelogue due to Dillon’s transfers around the globe, including Germany, Mexico, Burma, India, and Italy. The book vividly depicts the challenges of life in Soviet Russia during the Cold War.

Overall, I enjoyed this reading experience and cared about what happened to these two men. My issues with it relate to the presentation, in the Kindle edition, more than the content (typo, not linking the index to the page referenced, back cover photo credit given, but not shown). I also found the synopsis and sub-title of the book somewhat misleading, as the friendship is a very small portion of the story and it is not written as a thriller. Attention to such details often separate the great from the good in my opinion.

If you enjoy spy stories, you can’t beat the real thing!