THE TOURIST
Olen Steinhauer
Minotaur Books
Thriller
ISBN: 9780312369729
THE TOURIST finds Olen Steinhauer following a bit of a different path from that explored in his previous work, which he set in an unnamed Communist bloc country in the mid-20th century. This is a stand-alone title --- at least at this point --- that crisscrosses the world and deals almost exclusively with American spy craft. The plot is extremely complex, full of double-crosses, misunderstandings and happenstance both unfortunate and otherwise. Yet the author does such a magnificent job of maneuvering his reader through it all that one almost doesn’t notice the thicket all around; you can’t help but simultaneously admire the craftsmanship as much as the storyline.
Milo Weaver is the primary protagonist of THE TOURIST, whose title is the code name for a CIA agent who works more or less off the books without a fixed home or name from a non-descript office building in midtown Manhattan hidden in very plain view. The story begins in 2001, with Weaver, known as Charles Alexander, in pursuit of a long-trusted agent who has disappeared and apparently gone rogue. The chase ends badly and fatefully. When we meet Lawrence again in 2007, he is ostensibly no longer a field agent. Now known as Milo Weaver, he appears reasonably content with a desk job and family.
Weaver is brought back into the field to complete his long pursuit of a legendary assassin know only as The Tiger. The chase reaches its end on a path that begins in Dallas and concludes unexpectedly in a jail cell of a Tennessee hamlet. The Tiger, himself the victim of an assassination attempt that is slowly (and ingeniously) killing him, reveals to Weaver that the Tiger’s next assignment was Weaver himself. Returning to New York, Weaver is almost immediately given another assignment, even as he quietly attempts to determine who might want him to be eliminated.
Angela Yates, a colleague of Weaver’s and his best friend, is suspected of treason. Before he can clear her name, she is poisoned --- and Weaver is the prime suspect. On the run from a powerful, almost omnipotent pursuer, Weaver tries to find the real murderer while determining who wants him gone and why. Although he’s attempting to protect his family, his actions may indeed have the opposite effect. The answers to Weaver’s quest, as well as to his potential salvation, lie in his past, even as it becomes more impossible for him to discern friend from enemy.
Steinhauer’s previous books have been underappreciated. THE TOURIST may be the novel that garners him the attention he properly deserves. While comparisons to masters past and present of the espionage genre are inevitable (le Carre in particular) and arguably appropriate, Steinhauer indisputably demonstrates that he has mastered the terrain.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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