Olen Steinhauer

'All the Old Knives' may be a departure from Olen Steinhauer's 'typical' novel, but it works. I had read that he was interested in trying the approach he used (an intimate dinner between ex-lover/CIA operatives to solve an old question about loyalty) after witnessing a play or movie based on a similar construct and I think he pulls it off very well.

Steinhauer can really write, is familiar with exotic locales, seems to understand tradecraft, and knows how to build suspense. I really enjoyed show more the way he used the dinner setting between a couple people who went their separate ways after a screw up with a terrorist group, told from alternating perspectives, to flash back and finally expose what happened and who betrayed our country. It has a solid, unexpected ending that wraps the whole thing up nicely.

I really enjoyed the different technique Olen Steinhauer employed in this novel. It may have been a one-off experiment for him, but I recommend it highly! show less

Having wrapped up his five-book series of detective stories based in an unidentified country in Eastern Europe (see The Confession (Inspector Ferenc Kolyeszar)), Olen Steinhauer kicks off a new 3-book series focused on a former "Tourist" (read CIA hit man) Milo Weaver.

Weaver has retired from the field and moved to managing other tourists after he crashed and burned while on an assignment six years ago. More recently the happily married Milo has been mysteriously been leaving for long show more business trips. It turns out he is on the trail of a notorious free agent bad guy, The Tiger. What the Tiger tells Milo sets a chain of events in motion that turns his life upside down. At about the same time, Milo is sent to investigate whether a close friend has been turned and if so, by whom? The Chinese? Islamic terrorists?

Steinhauer gives us a bit of fun by exploring the interplay between US Homeland Security and the CIA. He also offers an possibility that rings true: when Homeland Security was created every one of the various spook and law enforcement agencies made sure to plant spies within the new agency. Steinhauer does spend time exploring the way the US deals with terrorist suspects: presumed guilty and tortured until proven so by their own words.

Steinhauer writes honest-to-goodness spy thrillers. It occurred to me as I burned through the pages of 'The Tourist' that for once a 'page-turner' really is. He deserves to be more widely read than he has been to date.

The book jacket claims the seemingly inevitable comparison to John Le Carre, but a more apt parallel is Robert Ludlum at the top of his game (you know, not including the books Ludlum has amazingly written after his death!). Milo Weaver reminds me much more of Jason Bourne (The Bourne Identity (Bourne Trilogy, Book 1)) than George Smiley. It would be extravagant to claim that Milo Weaver is a perfect blend of the two, but Steinhauer's Weaver is certainly a deeper, more self-aware character than Bourne. The Tourist is a highly recommended spy thriller. show less

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up The Tourist, but I'm happy to say it was a solid read I thoroughly enjoyed! Right from the start, I really liked Milo. There's something so compelling about a character who’s incredibly good at what he does but is also burnt out, jaded, and disillusioned by it. (Okay, so this isn't a new trope in the spy thriller genre, but it really worked for me here.) Milo’s complexity, his views on the world, and, most importantly, his dedication to his show more family had me hooked.

Speaking of family, the story really took off for me once Milo’s wife and daughter entered the picture. His wife, Tina, is smart, strong, and capable of thinking for herself. Her viewpoint added so much to the story. I loved that despite how much she loved her husband, she wasn’t blindly loyal. Instead, she had had her own questions and doubts about Milo’s life. And his daughter, Stephanie, is a firecracker who stole every scene she was in.

The political intrigue and behind-the-scenes machinations were surprisingly engaging. I’m not usually big on politics, but the way Steinhauer wove the political backstory into the narrative felt natural and added an extra layer of depth to the plot. It made the stakes feel global, and that sense of a bigger picture also helped keep me invested as I read.

Overall, The Tourist is well-written, tightly plotted, and offers a central character who's easy to root for. I'll definitely pick up the next book in the series. show less

Espionage loves its jargon and its arcane techniques. The CIA is called The Company, by those who know. Spies practice tradecraft, which encompasses everything from how to designate, mark, and carry out a drop off to how properly to evade surveillance to how to communicate in code so that correct information is being passed and--in the best of all possible worlds--disinformation is being passed at the same time.

And a tourist is an agent who has apparently flamed out and left the Company, or show more died, or gone rogue, but is actually working under deep cover in the darkest division of the most clandestine corner of the organization. Tourists are the guys who carry out assassinations, among other dark ops, for the Company.

Milo Weaver is a former tourist--now, he will discover when he gets back into the game, a legend--who has for half a decade been back in the States, working at a desk job for the Company. He's got a wife, a daughter, and a brownstone in Brooklyn. He's as content as he's ever been, so it's inevitable that he will be sucked back into the game. With a vengeance.

The action takes Weaver across the United States and Europe: from Paris to Venice to Blackdale, Tennessee. There are flashbacks to the Cold War era, and Milo Weaver, in the end, has a most delicious and surprising secret.

Spy novels, even when they're indifferently written, are good, convoluted, difficult to follow fun. Olen Steinhauer's The Tourist, I'm happy to say, is well-written, deftly plotted, intelligent, and, well, still kind of difficult to follow...but that's part of the game, now, isn't it? If it were easy to follow, then we'd all be spies. show less