Richard L. Holm should buy a lottery ticket.

For over fifty years, the recipient of the CIA’s highest award has defied the odds.

During one of his first few overseas assignments, Holm suffered severe burns and his doctors predicted his survival chances at 30%. That was in 1965.

Holmes survived a career that lasted over three decades. He endured the slings and arrows of dealing with nine U.S. Presidents and over a dozen directors, including William Casey and Richard Helms.

Perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment Holms achieved was his success in battling the politics of an entrenched bureaucracy only to become a scapegoat. Even then, he defied the odds and earned the Distinguished Intelligence Medal.

Now, with his second book about his life in the CIA, he seeks to defy the odds of the treacherous waters of the publishing world. At a time in our culture when many readers desire a quick easy read on an e-book device, the secret agent man has written a long (544 pages) hard cover book (although an e-book version is available now).

Holm’s book is about real history — not pawn shops, pickers or ice truckers. He provides page after page of details describing people, intriguing settings and covert missions. All of which delights real history aficionados.

The title, The Craft We Chose,  comes from a significant aspect of the job of being a spy, which Holm says is an art. The art of “tradecraft,” which he defines as, “the methods employed to manage an intelligence operation.” As his friend Andre LeGallo says, the primary mission of an intelligence operation is to “obtain otherwise unobtainable information.” These men are spies. Like Ian Fleming, but not James Bond.

In spite of the obstacles, this book deserves to do well in the marketplace.

It could become Holm’s winning ticket.

Please click the book cover image to read more about FCEtier and his novels.