Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating
Review: A fascinating read into the life of two men with very different agendas. A chess match between the good cop and the pseudo religious fanatic. Not only did both lose the match, we all did. Insightful into the ineffectiveness of any agency to police it's own.
Thoroughly enjoyed it, wish the story was false.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, not great
Review: Very compelling on Hanssen, but the attempt to juxtapose Freeh and Hanssen was a bit strained -- Freeh at one point late in the book is described as "Machivellian," when the evidence for that characterization was thin. The real disappointment, however, was the lack of story about how Hanssen was caught. We were in the middle of a very compelling narrative and then, poof, the gig is over. I would have liked more detail into the (apparent) Russian agent who played such a role in finding Hanssen. My guess is that there wasn't time to develop that part of the story, since this book was published just a year after Hanssen's arrest -- so for speed we give up a significant piece of the story. Would it have been better a year later? Perhaps... Summary: a very compelling read -- a real page-turner -- that does an outstanding job of explaining Hanssen, but is disappointing in the forced comparison with Freeh and the lack of detail about Hanssen discovery.
Rating:
Summary: Bureau & the Mole....real good read
Review: Really delved into the personalty of a dangerous double agent. The author portrays Robert Philip Hanssen as the devoted family man living a double life. From his contacts with the Soviet Union to his devout Catholic upbringing, the author really takes the reader on a trip to places that only a person with a double life would go.
The author also reveals the ineffective inner workings of the FBI, as far as it pertained to keeping track of it's own agents.
The author also does an excellent job in going into the background, in great detail, of FBI director Louis Freeh, and how he desperately searched out Hanssen after so many years. A great read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Major Disappointment
Review: I was excited to read this book but was very disappointed. The book attempted to juxtapose Robert Hannsen's life with that of Louis Freeh's but, in the end, didn't do justice to either one. The background provided to Hanssen's upbringing was informative, but after the onset of Hanssen's spying, the book simply seemed to bounce chronologically in no coherent fashion between Hanssen's spying and Freeh's career at the FBI. Paragraphs seemed to be independently written and then patched together in the best manner possible from the author's point of view, but the book laked flow. Moreover, numerous digressions into events like the Oklahoma City bombing and Ruby Ridge served no purpose other than to increase the number of pages in the book. Having read and really enjoyed Stuart Herrington's "Traitors Among Us," another book about Cold War espionage, I thought this book fell rather flat.
Rating:
Summary: Bob Hanssen or Louis Freeh?
Review: The writer describes former FBI Director Freeh's accomplishments more than Hanssen's. There were at the most 4 chapters regarding Hanssen's traitorous activities.I was very disappointed in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Superficial
Review: I was expecting "The Falcon and the Snowman" (a far superior book), but I got information which was probably lifted off of the pages of the New York Times. I heard the author on NPR and thought the book sounded great, especially after he talked up all of the in-depth interviewing he did with Hanssens family. I am pretty dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The Bureau and the Mole isn't the book it should have been. I'd been hoping for the inside story and lots of juicy details. And there is some inside story and there are some juicy details. But there's lots of dime-store psychoanalysis that is repetitive and not very illuminating. There's as much - if not more - about Louis Freeh to the detriment of details about the espionage aspect of the story. And the bottom line is that the writing just isn't very good. I wish I had better things to say - I'd heard big things about this book and was eager to read it. In the end, though, it was quite a letdown.
Rating: 
Summary: Ninth grade level writing...
Review: The cover notes that the author is a Pulitzer Prize winner, but he won't get one for this book. I found it repetitive and trashy. A waste of money!
Rating:
Summary: Best Yet!
Review: David Vise does an amazing job of keeping the reader turning the pages on this one! The Author puts you right into the mind of the most damaging spy in US history, and into his bedroom as well! The book reads like a classic fiction spy novel with twists and turns that keep the reader intrigued. I found the parallel story of Louis Freeh, the then FBI director, as well as deep insights into the KGB, and concurrent FBI initiatives over the 20 year story truley fasinating. The book contains actual letters, photos, and an excellent synopsis of what top secret security items were lost by the United States. I don't think people really understand the magnitude of what Hanssen gave away! Of all the spy novels I've read lately, fiction and non fiction, this is the Best Yet!
Rating:
Summary: Once Over the Surface Lightly
Review: A book to read in a couple of evenings. It provides a life summary of the life of Robert Hanssen, and a chronology of the events he precipitated as he spied for the USSR. The book also awkwardly attempts to tie the career of FBI Director Freeh to the story. The two lives converge indirectly, but there is very little to connect them until the very last when Freeh becomes convinced of Hanssen's guilt. The parallel treatment of Freeh's exploits bears little relationship to the larger story. Vise continuously speculates about Hanssen's mental state. He does provide a reasonable explanation of motive, toward the end of the book, through the testimony of a psychiatrist, but this avenue is only alluded to as the story progresses. However we are given continual statements, as if they are proven facts, that Hanssen "felt" things or experienced a certain emotion. But nowhere does the author indicate that he interviewed Hanssen. So, how does he really know? Here is an example: "Hanssen knew there were hundreds of others present in church, but he believed McAfee to be talking to him." In another case the author states that Hanssen wished to become a different and better father to his children than his own father had been to him. Two or three lines later, the author mentions that Hanssen had little to do with the rearing of his children, preferring to to leave that to Bonnie and the church.
Well, explain, please, the seeming contradiction. The book has the feel of a rushed and pieced together work, with some padding regarding Freeh's story. This is a good chronology but little more.
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