The Fourth Man, Robert Baer
The Fourth Man, Robert Baer
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Fourth Man
The Hunt for a KGB Spy at the Top of the CIA and the Rise of Putin's Russia

Author: Robert Baer

Narrator: Robert Baer, Eric Jason Martin

Unabridged: 7 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/17/2022


Synopsis

The explosive, never-before-told story of the thrilling hunt for a KGB spy in the top ranks of the CIA, revealing how spies blinded the US to the rise of Putin and Russia’s dangerous future, from New York Times bestselling author and former CIA officer Robert Baer.

We think we know all the Cold War’s greatest spy stories. The tales of America’s greatest traitors have been told over and over. However, the biggest story of them all remains untold—until now. Rumors have long swirled of another mole in American intelligence, one perhaps more damaging than all the others combined. Perhaps the greatest traitor in American history, perhaps a Russian ruse to tear the CIA apart, or perhaps nothing more than a bogeyman, he is often referred to as the Fourth Man.    

Blowing the lid off the biggest spy story in decades, Robert Baer tells the full, gripping story for the first time. After arrest of KGB spy Aldrich Ames, the CIA launched another investigation to make sure there wasn't another double agent in its ranks. Led by three of the CIA’s best spy hunters, women who devoted their lives to counterintelligence, its existence was known only to a few. They began methodically investigating their own bosses and colleagues, turning up loose threads, suspicious activity, and shocking intelligence from the CIA’s best Russian asset. 

In the end, they came to a startling conclusion that, whether true or not, would shake American intelligence to its core, setting the stage for a cat-and-mouse game with enormous geopolitical stakes. Spies and moles may seem like bygone cold war history, but with Russia again a misunderstood belligerent power, the skeletons America would rather keep hidden are emerging, and as Robert Baer shows in this thrilling masterwork of investigative reporting, they matter as much now as ever.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Marcella on May 17, 2023

The Fourth Man describes the counterintelligence investigation that took place after the capture of Aldrich Ames in 1994 in an effort to determine whether there was a "fourth man" (nice Greene reference) who was also handing over the identities of CIA double agents to the Soviets in 1985-1986. Havin......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on October 19, 2023

If you have always suspected that the KGB runs rings around its American counterparts, this book will confirm you in that opinion. The first, second and third men were respectively Aldrich Ames, Edward Lee Howard, and Robert Hanssen who collectively betrayed, as far as we know, virtually every Russi......more

Goodreads review by Brian on September 04, 2022

Spy stories appeal to me in so many ways: the sense of danger and intrigue, the global political implications, the double agent possibilities, even the details of the spy craft involved. This book has most of that, but it lacks closure, so you’re almost inevitably left a bit deflated. I recognize th......more

Goodreads review by Byron on September 26, 2023

Robert Baer was a dedicated case officer in the CIA. Since retiring, he's written some great books. The movie Syriana was based off of his memoir, he was played by George Clooney. Baer is an outspoken critic on the shortcomings of American intelligence and the casualties that result from those short......more

Goodreads review by Lynn on June 30, 2022

Cryptic secretive informational book on a possible spy the CIA hasn’t caught yet. No information here!......more