The Fourth Courier
A Novel
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
** "Sharply drawn characters, rich dialogue, and a clever conclusion bode well for any sequel." —Publishers Weekly **
** “Smith skillfully bridges police procedural and espionage fiction, crafting a show-stealing sense of place and realistically pairing the threats of underworld crime and destabilized regimes.” -- Booklist **
For International Espionage Fans of Alan Furst and Daniel Silva, a new thriller set in post-Soviet era Poland.
It is 1992 in Warsaw, Poland, and the communist era has just ended. A series of grisly murders suddenly becomes an international case when it's feared that the victims may have been couriers smuggling nuclear material out of the defunct Soviet Union. The FBI sends an agent to help with the investigation. When he learns that a Russian physicist who designed a portable atomic bomb has disappeared, the race is on to find him—and the bomb—before it ends up in the wrong hands.
Smith’s depiction of post-cold war Poland is gloomily atmospheric and murky in a world where nothing is quite as it seems. Suspenseful, thrilling, and smart, The Fourth Courier brings together a straight white FBI agent and gay black CIA officer as they team up to uncover a gruesome plot involving murder, radioactive contraband, narcissistic government leaders, and unconscionable greed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When three unidentified bodies with mutilated faces turn up on the banks of the Vistula River in 1992 Warsaw, the police initially assume that they are dealing with a serial killer in this solid thriller from Smith (A Vision of Angels). Later, they determine that the victims are Russian and carry traces of radioactivity. The possibility of smuggled Soviet-era nuclear materials raises its head. FBI agent Jay Porter, who has family connections to the Manhattan Project, joins the Warsaw police on the case. The perpetrators, chief among them a Serbian nationalist general with delusions of grandeur, are known to the reader early on, and coincidence plays a key role in moving things along. Interest lies in watching how various strands of the straightforward plot gradually converge as events play against a moody picture of daily life in post Cold War Poland. Sharply drawn characters, rich dialogue, and a clever conclusion bode well for any sequel.
