An absorbing, intelligent thriller that considers the human costs of clandestine operations.
In this Cold War novel, an American woman, recruited to help exfiltrate a scientist’s daughter, runs into danger in Czechoslovakia.
At first, Benjamin Singer seems like an ordinary, well-heeled customer at New York City’s Gramercy Antiques. Dealer Claire Markham enjoys traveling to London on his behalf to bid on an antique clock, so when he has an unusual proposal, she listens. Singer explains that he’s with the New Exodus Project, a charity helping Soviet Jews immigrate to Israel—not easy in 1983. A Jewish scientist in the Soviet Union wants the organization’s aid in exfiltrating his daughter, Tatiana Savchenko, who’s being punished for his political sins. In her role as antiques dealer, Claire could pass necessary documents to Tatiana in Prague, where she’ll be attending a conference. Claire doesn’t hesitate to agree; “it’s the right thing to do.” But the mission isn’t as straightforward as Singer represents it, and despite careful orchestration and contingency plans by high-level operatives in several countries, things go wrong. As Claire desperately tries to cross the border with the help of an American folk singer and a Czech artist, the KGB sends one of its wiliest counterintelligence officers (nicknamed “Grandmaster”) to find her. Flanders, who has written several historical novels—including a trilogy of Cold War thrillers set in the mid-20th century—again skillfully blends compelling characters with tense, exciting intrigue. By focusing on the pawns of this chess game, such as the seemingly easygoing folk singer Summer Devine, whose appropriately sunny demeanor masks daring courage, the author brings a compassionate eye to their real sacrifices in the name of idealism. The subtle layers of truth, shades of integrity, and motivations both personal and political lend complexity to both sides of the Iron Curtain.
An absorbing, intelligent thriller that considers the human costs of clandestine operations.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73548-050-3
Page Count: 383
Publisher: Munroe Hill Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.
A woman’s life takes a stunning turn and a wall comes tumbling down in this tense Cold War spy drama.
In Berlin in 1989, the wall is about to crumble, and Anne Simpson’s husband, Stefan Koehler, goes missing. She is a translator working with refugees from the communist bloc, and he is a piano tuner who travels around Europe with orchestras. Or so he claims. German intelligence service the BND and America’s CIA bring her in for questioning, wrongly thinking she’s protecting him. Soon she begins to learn more about Stefan, whom she had met in the Netherlands a few years ago. She realizes he’s a “gregarious musician with easy charm who collected friends like a beachcomber collects shells, keeping a few, discarding most.” Police find his wallet in a canal and his prized zither in nearby bushes but not his body. Has he been murdered? What’s going on? And why does the BND care? If Stefan is alive, he’s in deep trouble, because he’s believed to be working for the Stasi. She’s told “the dead have a way of showing up. It is only the living who hide.” And she’s quite believable when she wonders, “Can you grieve for someone who betrayed you?” Smart and observant, she notes that the reaction by one of her interrogators is “as false as his toupee. Obvious, uncalled for, and easily put on.” Lurking behind the scenes is the Matchmaker, who specializes in finding women—“American. Divorced. Unhappy,” and possibly having access to Western secrets—who will fall for one of his Romeos. Anne is the perfect fit. “The matchmaker turned love into tradecraft,” a CIA agent tells her. But espionage is an amoral business where duty trumps decency, and “deploring the morality of spies is like deploring violence in boxers.” It’s a sentiment John le Carré would have endorsed, but Anne may have the final word.
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64313-865-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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