The Last Spy

Who would suspect that Ash, David, or Corinna is different from any of Washington's other most successful citizens. Ash, a prizewinning reporter for The Washington Post, is as famous as the people whose secrets he turns into headlines. David, a former undersecretary of state, has friends in high places and a Virginal estate worthy of Presidents. His lover, Corinna, is a Justice Department lawyer so beautiful that her legal adversaries sometimes overlook her brilliance in the courtroom. Who could know that these three movers and shakers began their lives not on American soil, but far away, behind Soviet borders in an ingeniously designed mock-up of an American town? There, from childhood, they were trained to live as Americans while they were schooled in the most sophisticated forms of espionage. For fifteen years, they have moved through Washington's most hallowed corridors, honing their parts, gathering information, never arousing suspicion. Now, thousands of miles away, the game has changed. The USSR collapses as the cold war ends. And these spies are turned against each other in a new kind of danger. Who is in control back home? Why are their assignments changing so rapidly, becoming so peculiar? Most of all, who are they anyway after so many years of playing their American roles? Bob Reiss is a bestselling New York based author of 19 books, as well as a journalist, a former Chicago Tribune reporter and former correspondent for Outside Magazine. His work has been published in The Washington Post Magazine, Smithsonian, Parade, Rolling Stone and other national publications, and has been featured in collections of the best of the Washington Post Magazine, and the best of Outside. He has appeared on Good Morning America, Morning Joe, CNN,Charlie Rose and Dan Rather Reports. In 2012-2013 he worked as a consultant on Arctic issues for CBS "60 Minutes." In 2010 he co-produced his first investigative segment for national television, for PBS's "Need To Know." Bob's non-fiction books include THE ESKIMO AND THE OIL MAN, about the opening Arctic and battle over offshore oil there; THE COMING STORM, about climate change and extreme weather,and THE ROAD TO EXTREMA, about the state and fate of the Amazon rainforest. He's published 15 novels including the Washington Post best-seller, THE LAST SPY and the European best seller, BLACK MONDAY. Writing as Ethan Black, he is the author of the acclaimed Conrad Voort series, five novels about a New York City detective whose ancestors have worked law enforcement in the city since Colonial times. "Sparkling and fast paced...a thoroughly engaging thriller." -- The Washington Post "Powerfully evokes the espionage agents mind-set of distrust, it piles the insecurity created by the Soviet coup onto the already treacherous state of being a spy within a system of spying." -- The New York Times "Crackerjack spy yarn...high velocity action plus clever interludes...add up to a smart, tough thriller." -- Kirkus Reviews "A compelling story of treachery and deception." -- Newsday