This is a fascinating, well-researched and well-written family memoir/biography, and I very much enjoyed it. Anne Tazewell’s father left the family when she was just six and she rarely saw him after that. Working as an environmentalist attempting to reduce the world’s reliance on oil, she was naturally intrigued to discover the role her father James M Eichelberger had played in the geopolitics of the Middle East and the development of the oil industry. The book is at once an exploration of that industry, the CIA’s involvement in it and the key role her father played. It’s an emotional project for her, as she tries to understand her father’s motivation, and it is indeed a murky tale. We’re inured these days to the shock of learning of the shenanigans of the CIA in trying to influence world affairs, but reading about their involvement in this area still manages to shock. She chronicles her own life and career here as well, and mostly I found this equally interesting, although I felt that the inclusion of her own children’s sometimes dysfunctional stories rather distracted from the main narrative. Overall, however, this is well worth reading, and I learnt a lot.

What a fascinating, fast-paced story about family, political history and spies. It was so riveting! I really enjoyed learning about Anne's family history. What a great read!

A Good Spy Leaves No Trace: Big Oil, CIA Secrets, and a Spy Daughter’s Reckoning by Anne E Tazewell. This is a book that interleaves three stories: (1) the story of James E Eichelberger, Ms. Tazewell’s father, (2) her life in which some of her choices seem to be as a result of her father and (3) the impact perhaps of her choices on her three children.
Tazewell is similar in age to me, both of us born in the early 1950’s. Her father after serving in the European theater of WWII behind enemy lines, joins the OSS. This later becomes the CIA and he is involved with Miles Copeland Jr. and Kim Roosevelt in the Middle East ensuring that oil is controlled and pumped by American companies. Ms. Tazewell and her mother live the expat life in Beirut and Cairo until it goes all wrong and Eichelberger leaves them for another woman. They return to Washington DC and their father like a ghost appears a few times over the years and leaves again. He dies penniless and an alcoholic. So, the primary part of this story is many years later when Ms. Tazewell attempts to learn about her father’s life and why he abandoned them. Although she is not a historian, she does a very good job with limited information available to contact old CIA people or more often than not their wives to attempt to learn more. This is difficult since he was in the CIA and his reports and records are sealed. Nevertheless, she tells a wonderful story of the early years in Beirut and Cairo and the people who float into this life. For example, the place to go in Beirut is the bar at The St. Georges Hotel a meeting place of spies. Here her father meets Kim and St. John Philby, a young and at that time on our side Saddam Hussein. In Cario, Eichelberger play chess often with Gamal Abdel Nasser. This story line is interesting and she lists many books related to this era. I also found myself reading and searching on Google to fill in some of the back story.
The second story is about Ms. Tazewell’s life. I think it is never easy or honest to try to describe 60 years and when choices were made or just happed. She is a flower child drawn to sex, drugs and travel to hippy land destinations. She meets her husband-Richard a musician and they live the life of what seems like no money in Key West. This story is so-so in my opinion and there is too much of about me that does not come across as completely honest. Why we needed to know she was estranged from her husband due to an affair she had. Which she calls “a dalliance”, I never wanted to know. It is ironic, that a major life’s calling for her is advocating and obtaining Federal funds to study alternative fuels for transportation. The exact opposite of her father ensuring oil is pumped to fuel America’s dependence on cars and trucks. She is very successful in building a group at North Carolina State University supporting these efforts for the state.
The part of the story I could do without are the lives of her children. I will not go into much detail but I think their choices may mean there is little in their 401K’s when they get to a certain age.
Would I recommend this book? Maybe, the story of her father and this time in US/CIA history is interesting and she writes well and interesting of this era. Her life? Not so interesting except to her.