In the early 1950's, Russell "Jack" Smith was already a veteran of the still-fledgling CIA. Jack was later to become the legendary Deputy Director of Intelligence for the agency. But at that time, he and his wife Rosemary were renting a house in then-rural McLean, Virginia, back then a bucolic land of winding roads and gentle hills.A friend and neighbor suggested that the Smiths buy an adjacent piece of land and build a home of their own. This begins an true-life escapade unlike any espionage tale or spy novel, but reads like one. Despite the more everyday subject, Jack Smith deftly narrates the strategies, the daily occurrences, the material costs, and other details involved with building one's own home. Its style is just what you would expect from the author of many novels including The Singapore Chance , Lodestone and The Secret War as well a popular memoir, The Unknown CIA .We learn that - except for the costs - building a home all those years ago is not very different than from today.

But, of course, ultimately, Jack's story is a tale about an adventure of discovery, not how to lay a subfloor.