WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

"Sam Patten is an American original, and the tales he tells in this superb memoir reflect our country at its best: adventurous, idealistic, results-oriented, and altruistic. He is also naive at times, excessively hopeful at others. As the reader follows Sam's travels and travails across the globe, what comes across most of all is a belief in the possibility of progress and of the ability of individuals to help make it. Sam is candid about his pitfalls with a candor that used to be part of the classic American persona, but increasingly seems like a quaint relic in our polarized, rhetoric-filled society. I was left with hope and a belief that Americans still can make a difference in the world, even after all the mistakes we have made over the decades.”

—Ambassador Eric Rubin, past president of the American Foreign Service Association

“An essential book. we are in a time where the supposed experts aren't necessarily so expert and there is more range for freelancing of various kinds, and the freelancers are sometimes more attentive and more honest than the officials. this book fills an essential niche, the story of what conditions were really like when neither the u.s. nor countries in the region had much of a clue about what was going on.”

—Paul Goble, Windows on Eurasia

“Perhaps the only silver lining of Sam’s being convicted of an arcane foreign lobbying violation is that if he hadn’t been swept up in Russia-gate, none of the exploits in this extraordinary story leading up to his fall would be believable. And yet for all the derring-do — and derring-don’t — in shadowy corners of the earth, the real story here is one of a human evolution against the current of a world charging out of control. You can almost hear Kipling in the background: ‘if you can keep your head when all about you/Are losing theirs and blaming it on you..’ That is when you see this is actually a touching tale of human resilience which leaves you knowing that every saint has a past, and hoping that every sinner has a future.”

— Tilar J. Mazzeo, New York Times bestselling author of Irena’s Children: A True Story of Courage

“I strapped in and let Sam Patten take me on a swashbuckling, hair-raising, danger- and escapade-filled adventure through Russia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Mexico. Did it seem crazy when we got to Congo? Yes it did. But such is the invisible underworld of expert hired guns paid to bring American-style politics to places probably not ready for it. Given the journey, it is no surprise when Patten ultimately ends up in Ukraine and the maw of Donald Trump’s Russiagate, at the wrong end of the spear of Robert Mueller’s investigation. Read this book!”

—Steve LeVine, author of Putin’s Labyrinth: Spies, Murder and the Dark Heart of the New Russia

Sam Patten’s compelling book is a great read, a cautionary tale and a primer on the best and the worst of post-Soviet democratic politics. I found his chapter on Georgia especially enthralling. Georgia is by turns exhilarating, weird and depressing, but it’s never dull. Patten captures its charm and dangers with both style and wit. Uniquely, he had an insider’s view of the inner circles of both of Georgia’s main leaders of the past two decades, Mikheil Saakashvili and Bidzina Ivanishvili, and he takes the reader into the room where their politics and election victories were made. Anyone with an interest in modern Georgia should read this book.

—Thomas de Waal, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

“a Fascinating tale of sex, romance, power, brilliant success (the purple finger in the air) to sordid associations with the bad boys of American politics followed by Patten lying in a pool of his own blood wondering if some aggrieved potentate had ordered a hit. Across five continents Patten was not just “Present at the Creation” but its midwife. It’s a memoir that reads like a Ken Follett novel and must read for deep staters and denizens of the vast realms beyond the Beltway alike!”

—Christopher Burnham, former Assistant Secretary Secretary of State and Under Secretary General of the United Nations

“Sam Patten’s Dangerous Company is a compelling tour of the good, the bad and the ugly on the fragile and sometimes blood-soaked frontiers of the U.S.-dominated world after the end of the Cold War. This kaleidoscope of glittering fragments from Patten’s career as an American political consultant showcases a rogues’ gallery of characters and risky situations: party politics in doomed post-2003 Iraq; caught between clashing oligarchs in Ukraine; “minus” campaigning for Cambridge Analytica; battling for and against Misha Saakashvili in Georgia; and getting crushed in the U.S. witch-hunt for a Russian role in the election of Donald Trump. The reader is left to draw their own conclusions about what all this means about the nature of democracy, American power and the work of such a high-octane political mercenary. But as he loses his youthful idealism and his intrigues in a dozen or more countries build up like an approaching avalanche, it turns out to be on a sidewalk in Washington DC that Patten comes closest to a final reckoning.

—Hugh Pope, author of Dining with al-Qaeda and other books about Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia. Pope is also an advocate for sortition-based democracy.

“Sam Patten set out to see the world and have an impact. He saw the world traveling from one hotspot to the next and he had an impact - but not always the one he planned for.  In Russia he worked on democracy promotion and was a close friend of the assassinated opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov. It was at home that he made a mistake that almost landed him behind bars. In this absorbing and painfully honest memoir, he tells a story of political intrigue at the highest levels and the price he paid when success was at hand but judgement failed him.”

—David Satter, author of The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep, and other books about Russia and the former Soviet Union.

“Long ago, I told Sam he needed to write a book and, oh Lord, did he ever! His riveting behind-the-scene tales of diplomacy and intrigue – how the sausage is made, where the bodies are buried and a how-to (and occasionally how-not-to) survive and thrive in the heady world of high-stakes power battles in foreign capital around the globe is on full display. Here Sam’s life well-lived explodes on the page in full color and makes for a fascinating read.”

—Mark Pfeifle, former deputy US national security advisor for communications.

“The quiet American abroad, Sam is an original. His on-the-ground impressions of key moments around the world in recent history gives the reader the look and feel of the times. Sam was a man in the arena and he has written a vivid and useful tale.”

—Ed Rogers, Founding Partner, BGR Group

“Reading Sam’s story, I was struck by how few people have borne witness to so many world-shaping events in recent years. On the cutting edge of history, this is an adrenaline-fueled memoir packed with action.”

—Ed Thelander, retired 21-year Navy SEALs chief

“Sam Patten chronicles his real-life adventures in Kazakhstan, Russia, Iraq, Nigeria, among other foreign places .  His personal narrative is quite gripping and makes the book difficult to put down.  It is an excellent read!”

—Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, former Undersecretary of State (2001-9)

"Sam Patten has written a ripping good adventure tale that has the added advantage of being true and deeply relevant. Through opportunity and inclination Patten found himself in exotic global locales working as pro-democracy provocateur and strategist on behalf of the United States and its chosen allies. The settings are grand, the characters full-color bold, the scheming sometimes devious, and the peril often real. Toward the end Patten finds himself ensnared in a real D.C. political scalp hunt but his story doesn’t end there. Global risk and opportunity for the U.S. in the 2020s are each ever more acute and so Patten’s “Dangerous Company” becomes much more than a real-life page-turner written with disarming self-awareness and wry humor. It is a timely and important work. Read it." 

—Matt Rosenberg, author, What Next Chicago? Notes of a Pissed-off Native Son

“Many of the books written by people caught up in the Mueller probe come across as defensive score-settling. But SamPatten’s "Dangerous Company" is introspective & self-deprecating. In addition to Sam's personal journey to a FARA conviction, it offers behind-the-scenes insights on the foreign influence industry & its players.”

—Ken Vogel, New York Times investigative reporter

“Sam Patten plays both devil and saint: an American who dared get his hands dirty in the realities of the world so very distant from the sterilities of the screen. And he writes well about it.”

—Dudley Fishburn, Member of Parliament (UK) under Margaret Thatcher’s government