The Oswald Enigma - Author's Preface

Copyright 2024 by Edward Bruce Held. All rights reserved.

“I have wondered at times if we did not pay a very great price for being more energetic than wise about a lot of things, especially Cuba.” Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy

My novel The Oswald Enigma is a work of historical fiction. It tells Lee Harvey Oswald’s story from September 1957, when he arrived as a 17 year old Marine radar operator at a TOP-SECRET U-2 spy plane base in Japan, through his 1959-1962 defection to the Soviet Union, to his assassination of President Kennedy and his own murder in November 1963. It is a fun read.

Although fiction, the novel is historical in that it is consistent with all the facts we know about Oswald’s life. These facts are most prominently included in the book by Vincent Bugliosi Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, pages 513-788. The narrator of my novel, Andrei Nikolayevich Kostamarov, is a fictional character based on the true KGB officer, Andrei Nikolayevich, who we know pitched Oswald to work for the KGB when they met in Room 214 of Moscow’s Metropole Hotel during November 1959.

There are 17 chapters in The Oswald Enigma. I will publish them in digestible bits on Substack over the next 8 days. You can get a feel for the novel by reading the first chapter and the previews of chapters 2-17, all of which are free. You can read the entire novel by subscribing for one month at the Substack minimum price of $5.00 per month. Remember to unsubscribe after reading the novel to avoid further monthly charges.

The Oswald Enigma reveals the real world of espionage as it truly existed in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Later this year, I plan to publish a trilogy entitled Lovers and Spies that reveals the real world of espionage as it truly existed in the 1990’s and early 2000’s with special focus on the impact of a spy’s life on the loved ones of the spy.  

I am a retired senior officer of the CIA. As is required for all CIA officers, I submitted the manuscript to the CIA Prepublication Classification Review Board. I appreciate the assistance the Board has provided me. All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the CIA or any other U.S. Government agency. Nothing here should be construed as asserting or implying US Government authentication of information or Agency endorsement of the author’s views. This material has been reviewed by the CIA to prevent disclosure of classified information.