Helpful Score: 2
Good mystery thriller!
Helpful Score: 2
I enjoyed the book. The plot was complicated and a lot to keep up with. If I read it again, I would take more time and pay more attention. Good book overall.
Helpful Score: 1
WWII opposite spies stay in love for 50 years even though they were together for two weeks. Makes you hungry for Portuguese food.
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.
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.
just your average mystrey
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.
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.
Excellent spy book spanning the years from 1940-1990. Hard to put down.
How do ordinary people end up being double agents in World War II and the Cold War aftermath? And, how can the tale be crafted as an entirely unsentimental love story? Robert Wilson does a great job pulling this off with a great read.
What a saga! A much longer time frame and a deeper story than the average thriller. Many plot twists near the end that I did not see coming.
This is an espionage thriller taking place in 1944. Andrea Aspinall is a mathematician and spy who disappears into the streets of Lisbon under a new identity. Karl Voss arrives in Lisbon and begins subversive work against the Nazis. The two try to find love in a world of secrets. The book progresses from the war years in Lisbon and London up through the Cold War.
