[1] Kilzer began work as a journalist in 1973 after graduating cum laude in philosophy from Yale University,[2] joining the Rocky Mountain News in December 1977.

In 1986, Kilzer and two other Denver Post reporters won for that newspaper a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series that debunked the notion that millions of small American children were being kidnapped each year by strangers.

[10] In 2012 he won the William Brewster Styles Award given by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for reporting on international money laundering.

Kilzer won the award, together with fellow reporter Andrew Conte and Investigations Editor Jim Wilhelm for work published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

"[13] Booklist said historians would give the book "short shrift" because it was primarily derived from existing published works, and Library Journal described the Hess theory as "generally discredited.

Publishers Weekly said that Kilzer "revisits this arena with an entertaining synthesis of evidence about the activities of these spies, extensive accounts of relevant military history, and informed speculations about causes and effects, motives and behaviors.