Operation Whisper

June 1, 2016

Shortly after the arrest of Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1950, Morris and Lona Cohen, suspected of pro-Soviet activities, walked out of their New York City apartment with only the clothes on their backs, never to return. In 1961, the quiet London suburb of Ruislip, Middlesex, was astonished when their friendly neighbors Peter and Helen Kroger, antiquarian booksellers from Canada, were arrested and convicted of stealing nuclear secrets from the Portland Royal Navy Yard. Before sentencing, British counterintelligence officers dropped a bombshell--Peter and Helen were none other than Morris and Lona Cohen, wanted in the United States for stealing nuclear plans from Los Alamos and information about the development of radar for the Soviet Union. Journalist Carr meticulously documents the astonishing life and times of these anything but average Americans. He vividly evokes the tedium and deceit, interspersed with bursts of terror, that make up the life of a spy. VERDICT Fans of fictional and true espionage, and readers interested in the history of the 20th-century communist movement and the Cold War, will enjoy this intricate chronicle.--Laurie Unger Skinner, Coll. of Lake Cty., Waukegan, IL

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