Redwood by Ben Macintyre 

Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy by Ben Macintyre — from the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor and Agent Sonya.

In 1981, KGB Major Vladimir Kuzichkin was the best Soviet officer in Iran. After the Islamic Revolution he ran spies and worked with a hidden network of Iranian communists. MI6 gave him the codename Redwood — after his height.

Kuzichkin had a private problem that, if exposed, would humiliate him, cost him his career, and send him into exile. Desperate, he reached out to the only service he thought could help: Britain’s MI6.

So begins one of the most astonishing true spy stories of the Cold War. Tehran’s back alleys. Bloody streets. Intelligence offices where no motive is quite what it seems. As Soviet leaders plotted against the new Iranian regime — and Washington secretly weighed a nuclear response — a young MI6 officer, Ian McCredie, had to get Redwood’s intelligence out.

Macintyre argues this one man’s secret may have been a hinge of history. Without Redwood, the world might look very different.

“Ben Macintyre has a rare ability to turn history and espionage upside down… Redwood might be his best.” — John Grisham