FISHING WITH TOLSTOY is a timely and heartwarming story of friendship that pokes tongue-in-cheek fun at the spy game while airing Russia’s brutal aspiration to recover its lost empire.

Putin invades Ukraine and a retired American diplomat sees his long-sought solitude crumble when an old contact from Russia shows up on his fishing dock in need of a favor that he can neither grant nor ignore.

Mike Lacondeguy worked three decades for the State Department under Russia’s shadow, and Tolstoy spent that same time with the KGB and then Foreign Intelligence Service trying to expose him as a CIA operative. Together, they flouted security restrictions, traded pranks like punches, and built an unlikely but enduring friendship.

Tolstoy is sick and appeals to Mike to help him deal with his failed health, and he passes a message from a Moscow inner circle with ambitions of stopping their president’s aggression.