A Colder War by Charles Cumming

by Carol6 Comments
Maybe it was a mistake to listen to this one so soon after The Cairo Affair since they are both spy thrillers, but I found A Colder War more annoying than anything. You have Kell, a train agent in his 40s who knows the game, knows the people, knows how it all works. You have Amelia, his boss, who has called him back to look into Wollinger's death and then do some searching for the mole. She's obviously intelligent, and also, we're told, his actual friend. So far, so good. Amelia's keeping info from Kell, but he's doing the same things. They can't trust the Americans, but have to pretend to cooperate with them. Standard spy stuff and it could have been a good thriller. Until The Girl enters the picture and Kell apparently loses his mind. He becomes obsessed, or "in love," and stops thinking clearly. And I just wanted to smack him.  It's obviously not going to be in his...
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The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer

by Carol5 Comments
It's been a while since I've read a good espionage book. I've read a couple of barely mediocre ones, but that's beside the point. My library had The Cairo Affair available on audio and the title rang a bell, so I borrowed. Turned out that was a really good choice. It's nice to start of the new year with a winner. The story is told through several viewpoints, but it was always clear whose eyes we were seeing situations through. It was interesting, although not surprising, how much the same event could vary from viewpoint to viewpoint. The characters were all real, there were not over the top superagents, no too good to be true loyalists, no overly intelligent office worker able to predict everything. They are all doing the best they can given their abilities, limited knowledge and resources. Okay, maybe "the best" is not quite true, because we do have people willing to kill, to betray their country and...
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