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Firebird
Firebird
Author: James Carroll
Christopher Malone is a young, idealistic G-man in the golden age of the F.B.I. under the revered J. Edgar Hoover.  He is in Washington to take part in a top secret operation to save the security of the U.S. from a monstrous Soviet threat.  That, at least, is what he is told by Hoover himself.  What Chris begins to find out, howev...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780451162892
ISBN-10: 0451162897
Publication Date: 3/6/1990
Pages: 436
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 8

3.4 stars, based on 8 ratings
Publisher: New Amer Library (Mm)
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
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Melissa1959 avatar reviewed Firebird on + 27 more book reviews
I was surprised at how I got caught up in this spy thriller about a young man in the FBI during Hoover's time overseeing the department. The man was raised in a small town where his locksmith father taught him everything he knows about safe cracking. It is fun to step back in time in this historical fiction that has a non-typical romantic thread.
reviewed Firebird on + 249 more book reviews
The time is 1949. When American officials learn that the Russians have detonated an atomic weapon, they realize that the most tightly held secret in their nation's history has been penetrated. How? By whom? Is the traitor still in place? Is the future of atomic research jeopardized? The FBI, in its most urgent mission ever, is charged with finding out.
Christopher Malone, a young agent with a knack for opening locks and a surprising gift for posing as a man he can never be, is called to glamorous postwar Washington from mundane duties in Kansas City. His job: to assume a new identity for the sake of gaining entree to the Russian embassy, where the key to the secret is hidden. Malone is better at what he does than even he knows and he pushes further into the Firebird mystery than anyone--including his own superiors--expects or wants. Malone is idealistic, patriotic, in awe of Hoover and in love with the Bureau. But as he becomes more and more entwined in the machinations of spy and counterspy and in a love affair with a Russian woman who may be his ultimate betrayer, he realizes that the articles of faith that have shaped his life are far too simple, that the world is a place of duplicity and mirage.


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