A true story of espionage that has an F.B.I. agent Joe Navvaro going after an Army Intelligence Officer who has an extremely high IQ. What follows in this book is his trials of bureaucracy and also the governments of ours and Russia. You also have a person who for the most part was bored and just thought everything he was doing was fun which I don’t believe. At times the story dragged and at other times it was frustration with our government still after all of these years we still have allowed so many of these crimes to go unpunished it was just frustrating I have so many words I am just not going to put them on paper. This was a good read.

Well done. This is a little known chapter in the espionage history of the US. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

For a real-world true-to-life account written by the very FBI agent responsible for the arrest and conviction of the worst traitor in American history, this was surprisingly well-written and fraught with tension, ramping up with each turn of the page. I even went so far as to do a little research about Roderick Ramsay and Clyde Conrad, thinking that the things that they did -- selling state secrets to the Communist Bloc, including codes to the nuclear weapons deployed across Western Germany in the mid-80s -- couldn't possibly be true. Right?

Well, it's all true, and revealed here in incredible, horrifying detail. The words of the General Glenn K. Otis during Ramsay's sentencing reveal the depth and seriousness of the crime: "Ramsey and Conrad's acts of espionage left the West so vulnerable and so stripped of its own defensive capabilities that its defeat 'would have been assured' had the Soviets acted on their intelligence and launched an all-out war." Let that sink in for a few minutes. The defeat of the West -- including the United States -- WOULD HAVE BEEN ASSURED.

This is a fascinating study not only into the genius-level mind of Rod Ramsey, but the impact of the investigation had on the author, as well as the complete bureaucratic ineptness of our government, from FBI field offices interfering in each others investigations to a complete lack of communication between the Department of Justice, Department of State, FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and a host of others. As terrible as the crimes committed were, it is simple amazing that the US government still can't get its act together even after it has been shown in dozens of cases that this is, in fact, allowing further espionage events to happen undetected every day.

At any rate, this book is highly recommended.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. Unfortunately, I did not finish it. I will therefore not be posting reviews of it. I could not get into the story.

Brilliant dual story of a great man on the job and that same man so horrible everywhere else. The insights into body clues will having you "scanning" long after you are finished reading!!

I loved this book because it covered events about which I had no knowledge. The workings of the FBI to protect the USA was fascinating. The author is a true hero.

This 25 year non-fiction account of an FBI agent investigating a breach of our security, where sensitive data was leaked to opposing nations, is an interesting read at best. Navarro recounts his efforts to bring a spy to justice. The core of this memoir is certainly an intriguing premise, but the execution was lackluster and I found myself working hard to flip to the next page. Given that no institution is perfect, we learn how the Bureau were at times a stumbling block through-out Navarro's case, with the potential of thwarting his entire efforts. Where this book shines is in its description of investigation practices, including interviewing approaches that help turn the tide in this mildly entertaining tale of counter-intelligence.

Very interesting and thought provoking read having grown up during the cold war and tensions in Europe. I highly recommend.

“Nothing’s ever over till the fat lady sings.”

Trite? Yes. Abrasive? Absolutely! Sexist? All the damn time. Profane? Seriously profane, and not in a way that some of us might find amusing. And yet, this memoir has a strangely fascinating aspect as well. It combines two stories, the primary one an espionage case in which the author plays the primary role, and a secondary one, the implosion of the author’s personality and marriage. It’s not fun reading, but after a certain point, there’s no turning away from it either. Thanks go to Net Galley and Scribner for the DRC, which I received free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Navarro is a hot-shot young FBI agent in 1988, and it is while conducting what is expected to be a fairly routine interview that he notes a “tell” from former US soldier Rod Ramsey. It becomes the basis of an espionage case that goes much deeper than anyone anticipated. Navarro uses his expertise in nonverbal communication to tell what Ramsey is feeling during the various phases of his interviews, and he also uses it to control and manipulate Ramsey into cooperating with the investigation. Ramsey is the one soul on this planet with fewer friends than Navarro, and so Navarro spends years making Ramsey believe that he himself is that friend, practically family. He does it so he can have this kid busted and send him away for a really long time.

Navarro knows a lot about reading and controlling others nonverbally, but he doesn’t know a thing about building a family life or about how to make friends, and it’s clear he knows this, yet he can’t help himself. He tells us that an agent he wants to assist him tells a supervisor that she would prefer to work with someone else, and specifically, with anyone, anyone, anyone else but him. A number of other people echo this, and yet his personality continues on its hell-bent-for-leather downhill trajectory.

While he continues his self-aggrandizement with a hearty side-serving of brazen braggadocio, Navarro recounts again and again how much he hates the office staff at work, little people that are getting in his way by attempting to do their jobs. Clearly they just don’t understand how very important he is, but that’s okay, because he is letting the world know now. Regarding the office manager that dares remind him of small requirements like changing the oil in his official vehicle, he uses a tired aphorism:

“Don’t try to teach a pig to sing. It annoys the pig and it wastes your time.”

He lets us know that he swore at, patronized, and berated her constantly, and lest we take his admissions as a sign of penitence, he also lets us know that he hates her still. He has changed her name for obvious legal reasons, but he hasn’t changed his obnoxious attitude or gained a speck of humility.

Add to this the fact that, though this case is terrific book material, the guy isn’t much of a writer. Clichés abound, and very basic principles of narrative writing are either never learned or disregarded. He starts chapters with lists, apparently too busy and important to transform these into paragraphs. I’m not all that sure he ever edited his work (because he might have noticed his overuse of parenthesis) and I’m not sure he permitted anyone else to do so either (because surely they would have come to his rescue).

Still, it’s an interesting story. Whereas someone else could no doubt do a finer job of writing this thing, it’s undeniably compelling. I recommend this memoir to those that enjoy espionage thrillers and true crime stories, but don’t give up the full sticker price. Read it for free or cheap, and save your serious dollars for serious writers.

I won't bore you and regurgitate the synopsis for this one - the title says it all (but if you really want to know, go to my blog and it'll be posted there). So let's just get into it, shall we?

I'm not a big non-fiction reader, nor do I care for history, historical fact, the past, etc. etc... so why would I ever pick up this book then since they are both?? Because it's so damn intriguing! Behavioral analysis and profiling? Check! FBI agents? Check! Espionage? Check! Intellectual cat and mouse tug of war? CHECK! What's not to like? And to think that this is a TRUE story is fascinating... and utterly scary.

This book read like a novel. I had to repeatedly remind myself that this was real, the author actually lived what I was reading. To be in his mind and see how he choreographed and dueled with the highly intellectual Ramsay was extremely impressive and made me realize that's a job I would never be cut out for! Thank goodness for the likes of Mr. Navarro and the every day people in that field who have the cunning ability to help this country (for the greater good).

If you love spy novels, non-fiction and want a peek inside the mind of this brilliant man and read his story of the worst espionage breach in US history, then I highly suggest you pick this book up and give it a go.

This book is better than fiction. This is the story of an intense criminal espionage case, the worst security breach in US history. This true life memoir showcases agent Navarro's expertise at studying and dismantling an interview subject. He studies subtle clues and body language to give a broader picture of what he is dealing with. The interviews in this book are of the cat and mouse variety, Navarro and his subject constantly try to one up each other and get into each other's heads. Navarro explains how he goes to great lengths to study his subject, as well as staging and orchestrating the interview rooms to establish psychological dominance and hierarchy. This was a fun and fascinating read that takes you into the actual interviews and along the rough and rocky road to justice.

I would recommend this book to fans of thrillers, true crime, and espionage. I received this as a free ARC from Scribner on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a sucker for a great political thriller! At first, I had no idea this was nonfiction. It doesn't read like the typical dry and overly analytical nonfiction history/political books. Joe Navarro does an amazing job telling the story of an incredible cat and mouse game between him and a "person of interest" in espionage during the end of the Cold War.

An agent, a traitor, and the worst espionage breach in US history. We follow FBI Agent Joe Navarro coming to the end of the Cold War. In his interrogations with former American soldier Rod Ramsay, he begins to suspect espionage, all because of a shaky hand while performing a basic task. What follows is a two year long game of cat and mouse between agent and traitor. He tells the story as it unfolds - just like a work of fiction would read. We get a front row seat in how he interrogates Ramsay without raising suspicion and how he went about opening a case on him. The tensions between the Soviet Union and the US were crazy and with this kind of espionage breach could have meant the complete destruction of the US.

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with this book. If I wouldn't have looked it up, I probably wouldn't have known it was nonfiction. I will say, if you aren't a fan of politics or nonfiction, maybe skip this one. But I LOVE this kind of stuff. My senior project for my undergrad was espionage in the Cuban Missile Crisis. So this was right up my alley!

I give this 5/5 stars!

Thanks to Scribner for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Three Minutes to Doomsday is the story of how an FBI agent skilled in behavioral analysis identified a previously unknown traitor who had stolen and sold American military secrets to enemy nations during the Cold War. I enjoyed this book at the start, and the material was interesting throughout; however, over time it seemed to move away from just presenting the case to focusing on how skilled Navarro and his team were and how awful everyone else in the FBI was. I do not doubt the story, but it just became a little heavy handed. I noticed in the acknowledgements that the book has already been optioned for a movie, so maybe that prompted some of the dramatization. Despite that aspect, this is a good read for fans of Criminal Minds and those interested in behavioral analysis.

Incredible! This story draws you right in. You feel like you are in on the action.

They say truth is stranger than fiction, now I know why. Former FBI agent Joe Navarro has captured one of the most significant security breaches in the history of the United States. This played out like a movie, or a thriller perhaps, but the events actually happened. I respect Navarro, Agent Moody, the FBI and all who put their lives on the line to stop spies like Rod Ramsey. Excellent.

In a narrative that could have been pulled from a fictional thriller, Joe Navarro recounts the story of how he brought to justice a man intricately involved in the theft and sale of top secret information that would have left the US exposed to utter defeat if tensions in the Cold War had escalated to the point of nuclear war. I found myself drawn in by Navarro's narrative and writing style. Overall, he paints a picture of an agent fully committed to his duties, yet traumatized by the sheer magnitude of the task he must accomplish. I recommend this book to both history buffs and fans of spy stories. Recommended!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a complementary eARC of this title.