The problem with memoirs by ex-secret agents is that they usually make their careers sound about as exciting as that of $6-an-hour bowling alley security guard, unless you're of the opinion that filing papers and making phone calls is the epitome of thrills. Antonio Mendez, however, has produced a tome that makes the life of a CIA agent sound every bit the slam-bang world of intrigue and skulking in the shadows that movies like Mission: Impossible make it out to be.

Honored by the CIA on its 50th anniversary as being one of the agency's 50 "Trailblazers," the now-retired Mendez spins a fast-paced tale of intriguing characters partaking in skullduggery in exotic locales, made all the more appealing because Mendez himself is the featured star of the proceedings. In an almost offhand manner, he writes about seeing and doing things that would wilt the flower of courage in almost any reader. "Was I proud to be enlisting," he rhetorically ponders at one point, "on our side in the Cold War? You bet." Originally drafted by the CIA as a "technical artist" to provide cover for agents behind enemy lines, Mendez worked his way up the ladder and progressed to a full-fledged agent in the field, sneaking diplomats past enemy guards and spiriting informants into the night, eluding capture and torture at every turn--and using his artist's eye for detail to paint vivid word pictures of his predicaments. Mendez possesses a remarkably keen sense of the mechanics of a good cloak-and-dagger story, and fortunately pours it on in abundance here in his quite hefty--and surprisingly lively--autobiography. --Tjames Madison


From Publishers Weekly
Former CIA chief of disguise Mendez was an award-winning spy (yes, they have awards). Here, given unique permission by that agency to write about his career, he offers an entertaining and action-filled, though restrained, memoir of his Cold War clandestine service, emphasizing the gritty, complicated realities of intelligence work. Experienced as an illustrator and seeking a little excitement, in 1965 he answered a newspaper ad for navy artists to work overseas, and soon found himself signing on with "the Company" as a graphics specialist in the technical services division. Mendez effectively conveys the tension of forging documents on short notice and knowing that an agent's life depended on his accuracy. The ambitious Mendez quickly sought overseas transfer; this, coupled with his innovations in the then nascent fields of alias creation, countersurveillance and disguise, made him into a sought-after specialist who was brought in to numerous hot spots to perform daunting tasks. The book is packed with these stories, but the detail on espionage techniques his team developed can be excessively dry, and Mendez at times turns abruptly circumspect to avoid divulging current components of spycraft. Mendez offers a balanced and humanized portrait of life within the CIA, acknowledging the strain on agents' families, and grounds his tale in the Cold War era's historical realities, producing a volume with appeal for both spy buffs and the simply curious. 8 pages of photos not seen by PW. 6-city author tour. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
What is it like to be a spy? Anyone who has ever wondered about those shadowy figures (so often described in fiction by Le Carr? and others) can now get a peek into the world of 1950s and 1960s espionage. Mendez worked in the CIA's Technical Services Department for over 25 years, eventually rising to its top position. With the approval of the CIA's censors, he has written a remarkably detailed picture of his work as a document-forger and disguise-maker for undercover assignments all over the world. This is endlessly fascinating stuff, especially for a generation raised on James Bond and George Smiley. Although the book is overwritten in spots, in the end, Mendez spins a good tale. For general public collections.AEdward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
A recent retiree from the CIA's gadgets department, Mendez parts the curtains on his career in espionage. The CIA cleared every word in Mendez's book, as it does every tome by former employees, perhaps a pro forma task here because Mendez doesn't talk out of school and sports an admiring attitude toward the CIA. Palpably proud to have been a secret agent, Mendez effectively conveys the thrills its practitioners derive from espionage, via an anecdotal accounting of his varied 30-year career. Like many, he answered a vaguely worded newspaper advertisement and started out as a document forger. Ambitious, Mendez broadened his perspective beyond the print shop, mastered disguise and surveillance techniques, and spent a few years abroad supporting operations in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Thailand. After Vietnam wound down, Mendez's career so prospered that he became the go-to guy for spiriting assets from hostile territories: the reader receives a vivid sense of the clandestine world through his part in the successful operations to extract a KGB defector from India and an Iranian spy from revolutionary Iran. The latter exploit was a prelude to an operation lavishly publicized at the time--the escape of six Americans from the U.S. embassy, seized by Iranians. Mendez divulges the hitherto-suppressed details of the caper, a zanily brazen operation in which the diplomats and Mendez slipped out of Teheran posing as Hollywood filmmakers. Garnished with his efforts to defeat KGB surveillance in Moscow (and glazed, no doubt, by coauthor McConnell), Mendez's memoir is a dish cloak-and-dagger connoisseurs will savor. No surprise the CIA's PR sentinels were all for it. Gilbert Taylor


From Kirkus Reviews
The retired, highly decorated chief of disguise for the CIA highlights his adventurous 25-year career. Mendez is not modest about his considerable accomplishments. He takes credit for ``creating and deploying many of the most innovative techniques in the espionage trade.'' And the remainder of this book (vetted by the agency) is, in one sense, a justification of that claim. In 1965 the author began with the agency as a low-level technicianessentially a graphic artist who specialized in forging documents. Graduallythrough a combination of skill, pluck, luck, diligence, and ambitionhe rose through the agency hierarchy, eventually participating in dazzling cloak-and-dagger operations in some of the world most exotic and dangerous locations: southeast Asia, the Soviet Union, Iran. The most interesting sections describe his endeavors in the mid-1970s to generate techniques to cope with the umbrageous KGB surveillance of American operatives in Moscow and his gripping account (untold in full until now) of the CIA's role in ``exfiltrating'' (removing) six Americans from Tehran during the hostage crisis in 1980. Oddly, Mendez and McConnell elect to record about halfway through the book his ``flawless'' record of 150 successful exfiltrations; this effectively removes from his subsequent accounts of such actions all vestiges of suspensea weird decision, to say the least. Another narrative annoyance is the decision to begin many of the subsections of the book with paragraphs that sound as if they were lifted from, well, bad spy novels. For example: ``This guy is going south on us, fast,' the Chief of Station, Simon,' explained, leaning over his desk and speaking with a crisp but gentle precision that was barely audible above the chugging air conditioners.'' Nonetheless, the coauthors convey with clarity something of this shadow world which requires of its inhabitants hard work, strong stomachs, low blood pressure, and a full measure of creative improvisation. A swift, engrossing summary of a life and a way of life. (8 pages photos, not seen) (Book-of-the-Month Club selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Tony Mendez led two lives. To his friends, he was a soft-spoken, nondescript bureaucrat working for the Department of Defense. To the leaders of the CIA, he was their master of disguise--an undisputed genius who could create an entirely new identity for anybody, anywhere, anytime. Combining the cunning tricks of a magician with the analytical insight of a psychologist, Mendez shows us how he helped hundreds of people escape potentially fatal situations. From "Wild West" adventures in East Asia to Cold War intrigue in Moscow, Mendez was there. He earned the CIA's Intelligence Star of Valor for his role in engineering the escape of six Americans from Tehran in 1980. On the fiftieth anniversary of the CIA, he was named one of the fifty all-time stars of the spy trade, honored with the Trailblazer Award, and granted exclusive permission to tell his fascinating story--all of it. Here he gives us a privileged look at what really happens in the field and behind closed doors at the highest level of international espionage: some of it shocking, frightening, and wildly inventive--all of it unforgettable.

FROM THE CRITICS

Nigel West

"A rare and unique glimpse into the CIA's Office of Technical Services, and, in particular, into the secret work undertaken to support clandestine operations. A thoroughly absorbing read for both the aficionado and the layman."

Publishers Weekly

Mendez, a 25-year CIA operative who rose to the position of "Chief of Disguise," works hard to demystify the workings of Cold War spy culture. Though he alludes romantically to the agency's work as "a domain of shadows" in his introduction, his approach to this memoir is mostly pragmatic (fans of Robert Ludlum-type spy stories should stick with fiction). Recruited in the 1960s for his skills as an artist, he worked first on forging documents of foreign governments. He then ventured into the field, creating disguises to help "exfiltrate" spies from enemy territory. Was he engaged in CIA "dirty tricks"? Mendez claims not, defending his work as part of a very real "war." Reader Hill, a longtime Brilliance veteran, manages to translate ably the sense of awe that Mendez experienced as he learned the tools of his trade. More important, he makes the events sound credible and real, aided by Mendez's clear-eyed descriptive writing style. Based on the 1999 Morrow hardcover. (Dec.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

On the 50th anniversary of the CIA, author Mendez was named one of the 50 all-time stars of the spy trade. He has an exceptional ability to conjure up an entirely new identity for anyone anywhere. Although he began making counterfeit identity papers, he eventually branched out, bringing techniques developed in Hollywood to espionage. His greatest feat may have been engineering the escape of the six Americans from Tehran who'd taken refuge in the Canadian Embassy during the 1980 crisis. Dick Hill reads the novel in sympathetic fashion. Clearly, The Master of Disguise will appeal to young adults.--James L. Dudley, Westhampton Beach, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Kirkus Reviews

The retired, highly decorated chief of disguise for the CIA highlights his adventurous 25-year career. Mendez is not modest about his considerable accomplishments. He takes credit for "creating and deploying many of the most innovative techniques in the espionage trade." And the remainder of this book (vetted by the agency) is, in one sense, a justification of that claim. In 1965 the author began with the agency as a low-level technician—essentially a graphic artist who specialized in forging documents. Gradually—through a combination of skill, pluck, luck, diligence, and ambition—he rose through the agency hierarchy, eventually participating in dazzling cloak-and-dagger operations in some of the world most exotic and dangerous locations: southeast Asia, the Soviet Union, Iran. The most interesting sections describe his endeavors in the mid-1970s to generate techniques to cope with the umbrageous KGB surveillance of American operatives in Moscow and his gripping account (untold in full until now) of the CIA's role in "exfiltrating" (removing) six Americans from Tehran during the hostage crisis in 1980. Oddly, Mendez and McConnell elect to record about halfway through the book his "flawless" record of 150 successful exfiltrations; this effectively removes from his subsequent accounts of such actions all vestiges of suspense—a weird decision, to say the least. Another narrative annoyance is the decision to begin many of the subsections of the book with paragraphs that sound as if they were lifted from, well, bad spy novels. For example: "'This guy is going south on us, fast,' the Chief of Station, ￯﾿ﾽSimon,' explained, leaning over his desk and speaking with acrisp but gentle precision that was barely audible above the chugging air conditioners." Nonetheless, the coauthors convey with clarity something of this shadow world which requires of its inhabitants hard work, strong stomachs, low blood pressure, and a full measure of creative improvisation. A swift, engrossing summary of a life and a way of life. (8 pages photos, not seen) (Book-of-the-Month Club selection; author tour)

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Tony Mendez has written a spell-binding memoir of CIA secret operations and the Agency's unsung heroes of the Cold War, among whom he was one of the most imaginative and courageous. Put aside spy novels that bear no resemblance to reality - here is a gripping portrayal of the real world of intelligence operations by a man who was really there.  — (Robert M. Gates, Former Director of Central Intelligence)

Tony is one of the officers of the Central Intelligence Agency who have dedicated their lives to the quiet service of their country. His experiences are part of the story, still mostly classified, of how the men and women of the CIA helped bring down the Berlin Wall and win the Cold War.

The story, of course, is a continuing one. Tony's colleagues and proteges are still at their quiet work, now against rogue states and terrorists, and are still making our country a safer place to live.