Espionage Fiction

Sep 3 2011

You Know What’s Going On by Olen Steinhauer

Olen Steinhauer, American writer. Budapest, 2010.

Image via Wikipedia

I was disheartened when Olen Steinhauer decided to shut down the group blog Contemporary Nomad at the end of last year. I was a big fan of the authors that posted and enjoyed both interacting with them in this limited way and hearing about what they were up to.  But I understand blogging isn’t always a wise investment for authors nor is it easy to find time to keep it up.

A link in my stat tracker program reminded me of the good old days of the blog and led me back to Olen’s home page (where he is now using Tumblr). Which in turn led me to his novella You Know What’s Going On which is the subject of this post.

The story (originally published in Agents of Treachery, an espionage-fiction anthology edited by Otto Penzler) is classic Steinhauer: engrossing and full of suspense even as it is thought provoking with a literary flair.

The plot involves a CIA mission against a terrorist organization in Africa.  But what exactly is the mission and what motivates it is the question each of the characters finds themselves asking.

Steinhauer offers the perspective of four characters: Paul, Sam, Nabil and Benjamin—two CIA agents, a Somali terrorist, and a Kenyan policeman.  It is a testament to his skill that such a short story can pack such a punch.

Paul the agent afraid to die, Sam out for revenge on multiple levels, Nabil the ambitious terrorist trying to see all the angles, and Benjamin in the middle trying to figure it out. As each character adds their perspective and details the tension and suspense ratchets up a notch. The reader get a little more clarity even as the characters scramble to understand the big picture. It all ends in flames.  Along the way Steinhauer muses on death, perspective and trust.

If you are looking for some great espionage fiction, and to hold you over until the next Milo Weaver novel comes out, this is an excellent and quick read that is also a great deal ($.99!). I highly recommend it.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , , ,

May 27 2011

Black Ghosts by Victor Ostrovsky

I used to read a lot of espionage fiction. At its best it has a nice blend of action and intrigue with character depth and complex plots. But I haven’t been reading much of it lately.

When I was pitched on Black Ghosts by Victor Ostrovsky it seemed like a nice break and a quick entertaining read. That turned out to be true – to a degree – but it lacked the depth and complexity I was looking for.

Black Ghosts gets its name from an underground Russian group of ex-KGB operatives who secretly control large segments of the military and government in the former Soviet Union.

One of the leaders, Peter Ivanovitch Rogov,  manages to escape from prison in Siberia and plots to return Mother Russia to the glory of the Czars – powerful autocratic rule, not the weak corruption of democracy. Allies inside the US are manipulating the government to help him and thus return the money making conflict of the Cold War years.

A former elite US military and intelligence operative gets inadvertently sucked into the battle to stop this group when a friend shows up at his door shot and bleeding – actually a very attractive women shows up at his door and leads Edward to his friend.

As Edward slowly gets pulled in deeper and deeper, and as Rogov’s plan gets closer to completion, a show down is building. Can Edward save Russia and the United States at the same time? Can former enemies and mafia kingpins work with a makeshift army to defeat Rogov? Keep Reading

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Feb 8 2011

In the Mail: Agent X

Agent X by Noah Boyd

From Booklist

Steve Vail, once an ace FBI agent, now a bricklayer (The Bricklayer, 2009), arrives in Washington to take Kate Bannon, the bureau’s assistant director, to an embassy soiree. But his romantic mission is sidelined by an urgent summons from the bureau: a Russian embassy staffer, code-named Calculus, is offering to name Americans feeding sensitive information to Russian intelligence. But no sooner than the bureau accepts the Russian’s terms, he is spirited off to Moscow, presumably to be tortured into admitting what he has done. Steve and Kate must identify the moles and reel them in before the Russians snuff them. But before that can happen, Vail must solve the many puzzles that Calculus uses to conceal information. Thriller fans get an endlessly twisting plot strewn with chases, gun battles, and explosions. Calculus’ puzzles are engaging, and the bureau’s procedural and bureaucratic thickets sound real.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Feb 6 2011

In the Mail: The Nearest Exit

The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer

From Publishers Weekly

Milo Weaver, a former field agent with the CIA’s clandestine Department of Tourism, returns to action after a stint in prison for alleged financial fraud in this intense sequel to The Tourist. His handlers want Weaver to pursue a mole rumored to have infiltrated the CIA’s black-ops department, but with his loyalty in question, he must first undergo some test missions, one of which is to kill the 15-year-old daughter of Moldovan immigrants now living in Berlin. Such a horrific assignment further weakens Weaver’s already wavering enthusiasm for his secret life, and he becomes increasingly preoccupied with reconnecting with his estranged wife and child. When bombshell revelations rock Weaver’s world, he vows to somehow put international intelligence work behind him. Can he do so without jeopardizing his and his family’s safety? Steinhauer’s adept characterization of a morally conflicted spy makes this an emotionally powerful read.

By Kevin Holtsberry • In The Mail • 0 • Tags: , , , ,

Nov 29 2010

Red Star Rising by Brian Freemantle

When it comes to espionage fiction I am usually in the cold dark and gray camp. LeCarre (early not late), Deighton, etc. so Brian Freemantle’s Charlie Muffin seemed in my wheelhouse.

Despite my preferecne of reading a character of series in order I decided to read Red Star Rising without having read any of the previous books.

It turned out to be classic cold war spy fiction even though it was set in post war Europe. Here is the plot summary from the dust jacket:

The body of a murdered, tortured Russian has been found in Moscow, which isn’t unusual in the crime-ridden city. What is different is that this corpse is on the lawn of the British embassy.

Eager to prevent an international incident, London dispatches veteran MI5 agent Charlie Muffin to investigate. Charlie is an old hand who recognizes that little has changed in the post–Soviet Union, most definitely not the espionage enmity between Russia, Britain, and America. The search for the identity of the murdered man enmeshes Charlie in what might be the biggest attempted espionage coup of his career.

Being in Moscow has very personal implications for Charlie, too. It provides the opportunity for a re-union with his Russian wife, Natalia, and their young daughter, whom he had to abandon because of a hurried recall to the UK five years earlier. It’s also the chance to persuade the reluctant Natalia, an officer in Russia’s FSB intelligence service, to return with him to London.

In classic spy fiction fashion Charlie is fighting the bad guys, often his superiors and his own demons/past. On top of this you have a constantly shifting set of puzzle pieces that he has to put together.

On a basic level there is the mystery of the dead body. On another level is the internal-politics and security of the embassy. And over it all is the geopolitical maneuvering motivating it all. And if this is not enough Charlie is attempting to put his family back together.

Freemantle does a good job of weaving all of this threads together and keeping the pace moving. Just when you think you have a handle on what is going on the puzzle pieces move and you have to rethink. And it is never clear, to Charlie or the reader, just exactly what Charlie really wants professionally or personaly.

Booklist has a nice description of Charlie and the book:

Alternately cautious and daring, self-critical, pragmatic, and fatalistically idealistic, the maverick Muffin will appeal to fans of John le Carré’s George Smiley and to readers of classic espionage novels. The USSR is now Russia, and the KGB is now the FSB, but this is still a story of telephone booths and old-school spycraft—old-school quality, too.

If I had one complaint it was that the twists and turns at the end threatened to overwhelm the story. It gets rather complicated and convoluted by the end. Freemantle pulls it off but it is a bit much.

That aside, fans of classic espionage fiction will enjoy this version updated to the post-cold war world.

By Kevin Holtsberry • Reviews • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , ,

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