It's kind of a fluffy bit of non-fiction. Naveed Jamali, who appears to be a pretty standard issue Gen X slacker sort of guy, finds himself working with the FBI to catfish a Russian agent. It quite an entertaining story. His parent own a research service firm that is frequented by known Russian agents. The parents have been passing along the Russian requests to the FBI for years, but young Naveed gets involved and works to up the ante. Entirely unromantic, the covert meetings here occur in places like Pizzeria Uno and Hooters.
Jamali is capable for the most part, comically drawing on bad movie thrillers to try to figure out how to behave during his clandestine meetings. He is also a bit of a self-absorbed bro, and more than a bit of a drama queen. One suspects all along that the FBI agents must have felt like parents cajoling a immature child. This is borne out at the end when they finally acknowledge that throughout the operation Jamli was driving them nuts. Credit to Jamali for the honesty of this reveal. Also credit to him for appearing to be genuinely motivated by patriotism, which is refreshing.
The upshot of the operation itself is confusing. The relationship with the Russian is developed over the course of years, but as near as I can tell it amounted to little more than FBI being let in on the sorts of information the Russians wanted. Then, abruptly, the FBI decides to take action, except the final outcome does not seem to resolve anything; it disrupts and embarrasses the Russians but I don't see much in the way of practical outcome. It almost seems like the FBI had figured Jamali had gone as far as he could and he might he might blow the whole thing if they pushed him further so they settled for what they could. That's just speculation.
Should you read How to Catch a Russian Spy? Don't feel compelled to, but no harm will come to you if you do. Might be fun for a plane trip or a day at the beach. It's primarily autobiographical so you get the best and worst of Jamali. He is essentially a good-hearted dude, probably a decent guy to hang with, but you'll be hit with immature self-congratulations on every page.
