just your average mystrey
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Robert Wilson, whose award-winning A Small Death in Lisbon broke him out as an international thriller writer in the Ambler, le Carré, and Furst tradition, scores with this exceptionally well-plotted novel of wartime intrigue in England and Portugal. Andrea Aspinall, a brilliant young British mathematician, is recruited by the British Secret Service and put through a rush course in spycraft before being sent to Lisbon, where she quickly falls in love with a disenchanted German agent and, in less than two weeks, manages to lose her virginity, unmask a conspiracy, and interrupt Germany's plan to build the first atomic bomb. The action covers a long time span--from the early years of Word War II to the era of glasnost, when Andrea, now an Oxford mathematician long retired from spying, encounters the man she once loved and lost. Karl Voss has become an East German double agent who's bent on revealing the Russian mole in England's service. The narrative wanders a bit, but the strong, spare writing and deft characterization set this apart as one of the year's better international espionage novels, one that should introduce Wilson to a bigger audience. --Jane Adams--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
In the style of John le Carre, author, Robert Wilson is a plotter's delight, creating an intriguing moral maze.
The year, 1944: Anrea ASpinall, mathematician and spy, disappears under a new identity in the torrid summer streets of Lisbon that seethes with spies and informers. The Germans have made advances in the atomic and rocket technology, and the Allies are determined that the ultimate secret weapon will not become a reality in Nazi hands.
Karl Voss arrives in Lisbon as a military attache to the German Legation. There he begins his work against the Nazi regime to rescu his country from annihilation.
In this lethal tranquility of corrupted paradise, Andrea and Karl meet and attempt to find love in a world where no one can be believed or trusted. After a night of terrible violence Andrea is left with a secret that provokes a lifelong addiction to the clandestine world.
Author Robert Wilson is the author of five previous novels, including A Small Death in Lisbon, which won the Gold Dagger Award as Best Crime Novel of the Year from Britain's Crime Writers Association. A graduate of Oxford University, he lives with his wife in Portugal.
