The Flight of the Falcon

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good condition/Good. 318, [2] pages. Illustrations. Remainder stamp on bottom edge. DJ somewhat soiled, sticker residue on rear DJ. Some wear to DJ edges. Robert Lindsey (born January 4, 1935) is a journalist and author of several true crime books, including The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage (1979) and A Gathering of Saints: A True Story of Money, Murder and Deceit (1988). Upon graduation he began working at the San Jose Mercury-News as a reporter. In the 1970s, Lindsey relocated to Los Angeles and became the Los Angeles bureau chief for The New York Times. In 1977, Lindsey began chronicling the story of Christopher John Boyce and Andrew Daulton Lee, who were both convicted of selling information to the Soviets. The Falcon and the Snowman was eventually published in 1979 and in 1980 he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best non-fiction crime book. In 1983, The sequel book, The Flight of the Falcon: The True Story of the Escape and Manhunt for America's Most Wanted Spy, was released; it chronicled Boyce's escape from Federal prison and subsequent bank robbing spree. The Falcon and the Snowman was optioned for a film and was subsequently made into a film of the same name released in January 1985. Marlon Brando and Ronald Reagan utilized Lindsey as a ghostwriter in writing their memoirs; respectively, Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, and Ronald Reagan: An American Life.[3] Lindsey's own memoir, Ghost Scribbler, was published in 2012. Derived from a Kirkus review: Lindsey follows up his well-received The Falcon and the Snowman--the story of two young Californians, Chris Boyce and Daulton Lee, convicted of spying for the Soviets--with a headlong account of the 18-month manhunt for Boyce after his January, 1980 escape from a federal prison. Jurisdiction over prison-escape cases had just been turned over by the FBI to the Federal Marshals Service. The Marshals Service hierarchy knew it was essential to the future of their agency that they find Boyce. Which they did, after running down hundreds of crackpot "leads" and embarking on several wild goose chases. So many people claimed that Boyce had "really" been a CIA agent, and had been broken out of prison by the spooks, that the investigators themselves began to wonder. An imprisoned ex-drug smuggling pilot known as "Captain Midnight" claimed he'd set Boyce up with his own prior drug-running connections. An ex-mercenary soldier led investigators on a fruitless trek into the jungle of Costa Rica. Yet another ex-mercenary set up an elaborate deception, designed to show that Boyce had gone to South Africa; his credibility waned when he flunked a polygraph test and investigators found him talking to himself in a German accent. Meanwhile, Boyce assumed a new identity, made his way to the northern panhandle of Idaho, and probably would never have been found if he hadn't taken up bank robbery. Though very successful as a robber, Boyce ultimately had a falling-out with one of his accomplices, who knew Boyce's secret and called the feds. By the time the knot closed in, Boyce had moved to Washington's rugged Olympic Peninsula, had changed his identity again, was co-owner of a salmon fishing boat, and was taking flying lessons. Boyce could probably have hidden forever in the Idaho mountains, so why did he run the risk of robbing banks? Probably for the same simple reason he betrayed his country--not money, but excitement. "I'm a pirate at heart," Boyce once said, "I'm an adventurer." Fast-paced and gripping--and an obvious choice for those who read the first part of the Boyce saga.