Larry J. Kolb was born in the United States and raised around the world. He has lived, among other places, in Washington, New York, London, Berlin, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, and in a safe house on a beach in Florida. As the son of a senior American intelligence official, Kolb was recruited by the CIA when he was twenty-two years old, but he declined. Instead he became a businessman, and the following year was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. While still in his twenties, Kolb became an agent for professional athletes, including Muhammad Ali.

This brought Kolb into contact with many of the world's most powerful and wealthiest people, especially in the Middle East, and made him almost irresistible to legendary CIA cofounder Miles Copeland. When Copeland recruited Kolb, Kolb said yes, and soon he was involved in covert intrigues in Beirut, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Nicaragua, Peru, Pakistan, and India, as well as the halls of power in London, New York, and Washington.

With Copeland, Kolb cowrote white papers for the President of the United States and the National Security Council. While running a covert propaganda campaign for Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Kolb anonymously wrote a widely-published series of investigative newspaper reports that electrified India. After Gandhi's assassination, Kolb found himself in a safe house in Florida with little to do but listen to waves roll in and put down on paper extraordinary true stories drawn from his own life experiences.