The 'tourist' is a CIA operative who has retired from the field only to be swept into it again to defend himself. I'm afraid I like the author's East European series far better, but I'm glad for his success with a more mainstream novel.

A book with too much CIA and spying for me. This is something I will never understand and is also the reason I don't watch NCIS, CIA Miami or that kind of stories.

This book is the story about a spy, who is getting into problems. I didn't get the whole story (maybe to disinterested), but it is well written and read fast.

http://boekenwijs.blogspot.com/2009/1... ( )

Should make a great movie - George Clooney bought the rights ( )

If you're looking for a spy novel full of convoluted twists, shady people and double-crosses, THE TOURIST should be right up your alley.

The story is about Milo Weaver, a CIA agent who once worked in "black ops," which is to say he worked in an unofficial capacity for The Company (as the CIA likes to call itself). Or, to put it yet another way, Milo worked as a "tourist" for the CIA. Going wherever they told him and just following orders.

But that changes. Sometime after 9/11, Milo gets married, acquiring a step-daughter in the process, and goes from being a tourist to serving as a manager in the CIA's New York City headquarters. And one of the things that makes this book so compelling is Milo's grappling with the pressures of handling his job and taking care of his family. But all that comes later, actually.

It really starts when he's tracking the Tiger (an assassin with, as one character notes, a rather corny nickname). He finds him and one thing leads to another and another . . . and the next thing you know Milo's acting as a tourist again and finding out all sorts of crazy stuff. None of it good, of course. Especially for him.

I'll admit, I was initially discouraged by the amount of exposition right up front in the book, when Milo is questioning the Tiger. Yeah, it's handled as dialogue, but let's face it, there's a lot of explaining going on here--much of it overwhelming in detail and a bit confusing. But that's okay, because Milo sums up the major points after they're done talking. So, okay, keep going, I think. Because it is interesting and Olen Steinhauer adds great humorous touches, both in dialogue and description.

So on I went. And each step in Milo's journey would lead to yet another new expositional conversation. More details and confusion, but again, that was okay. Milo provided a synopsis for dunderhead readers like me, who don't keep a scorecard.

Without saying too much, just know that the story leads up to several big revelations--for Milo, his family and others. The plot works like an intricate contraption worthy of Rube Goldberg. A lot of spy-versus-spy stuff (in this case, CIA versus Homeland Security) and paranoid scenarios in which various people try to out-guess each other. But does the story make complete sense? I don't know. Like I said, you'd really need a scorecard to figure that one out.

The entire review is available online at: http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/2009/... ( )

Audiobook. CIA novel. Corruption. In the end it wasn't that compelling. I was disappointed. ( )