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"The most consistently inventive of our novelists of espionage, the one that other thriller writers point to as the finest craftsman among them." — Guardian, U.K.
"No one picks through the intelligence maze with more authority or humanity than Allbeury." — Sunday (London) Times
Andrei Aarons cherished the noble ideals of Communism from his earliest childhood. Recognizing his devotion to the Party and his remarkable powers of persuasion, the Soviets dispatch Aarons to Paris in 1930 and eight years later to the United States. In New York City, Aarons poses as a middle-class bookseller, all the while establishing a flourishing espionage network.
But Aarons grows disenchanted over the years, between the reports from Moscow of corruption, greed, and murder and his own increasing concern about the possibility of war between the superpowers. Hoping to keep tensions from bubbling over, Aarons turns double agent, maintaining his Soviet contacts but all the while conducting secret meetings with American presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. Based on a real-life story, this suspenseful novel by a former British Intelligence officer offers a captivating tale of Cold War espionage.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 20, 2017 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780486825816
- File size: 925 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780486825816
- File size: 925 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 1, 1999
Ostensibly based on fact, this disappointing story traces the Russian-born Jew, Andrei Aarons, through his nearly four decades gathering intelligence for both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. Originally a Soviet agent in Paris in 1930, Aarons is encouraged by his Soviet handler to move to the States in 1938, where he sets up an espionage network from his New York City book store. Increasingly disaffected with the Communist Party and increasingly concerned about the possibility of war between the two superpowers, Aarons meets secretly with Truman, Eisenhower and JFK, serving as their window on to the Kremlin. After a warning from a Soviet friend in Moscow in the mid-1960s, he folds his network and leaves for Israel, coming out after 30 years of retirement for a farewell briefing with Bush on the breakup of the Communist system. Veteran author ( A Time Without Mirrors ) and WW II British Intelligence agent Allbeury has written a surprisingly lackluster book. The details of Aarons's spying is sketchy; the backdrops (except for the brief stint in wartime France) are flat; and the characters, led by the lugubrious protagonist, are uniformly cardboard. Allbeury's New York geography is off (e.g., confusing the old and new Madison Square Gardens), historical details are often wrong (Truman was never in Ike's White House) and the Yanks talk funny (``I shan't ask you'').
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