The Lost Spy, by Andrew Meier, published by W.W.Norton, reviewed by J.S. Bradford

The Lost Spy is a chilling true life story about  Isaiah Oggins, a member of the American Communist Party, who is recruited by the KGB as a spy. Oggins gets trapped in the U.S.S.R. before the outset of World War II and, after many years in captivity, is executed on orders of Stalin. Ironically, the story was first fully revealed when Boris Yeltsin, as a gesture of good will, handed over the KGB dossier to the United States government. The author, a former Moscow correspondent, strives to be neutral even though a more heavy handed approach would hardly be unreasonable. Regardless of the influences driving the underground, what penetrates the reader’s consciousness is their steadfast malevolent intent. The actual threat may appear to have been superseded by events, but the residue of the underground communist movement remains perverse and odious.