Defectors
A Novel
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- USD 12.99
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- USD 12.99
Publisher Description
The bestselling author of Leaving Berlin and Istanbul Passage “continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best...of spy thriller writers” (The Times, UK) with this “fascinating” (The Washington Post) novel about two brothers bound by blood but divided by loyalty.
In 1949, Frank Weeks, agent of the newly formed CIA, was exposed as a Communist spy and fled the country to vanish behind the Iron Curtain. Now, twelve years later, he has written his memoirs, a KGB- approved project almost certain to be an international bestseller, and has asked his brother Simon, a publisher, to come to Moscow to edit the manuscript. It’s a reunion Simon both dreads and longs for.
The book is sure to be filled with mischief and misinformation; Frank’s motives suspect, the CIA hostile. But the chance to see Frank, his adored older brother, proves irresistible. And at first Frank is still Frank—the same charm, the same jokes, the same bond of affection that transcends ideology.
Then Simon begins to glimpse another Frank, capable of treachery and actively working for “the service.” He finds himself dragged into the middle of Frank’s new scheme, caught between the KGB and the CIA in a fatal cat and mouse game that only one of the brothers is likely to survive.
“A finely paced Cold War thriller with [Kanon’s] usual flair for atmospheric detail, intriguing characters, and suspenseful action” (Library Journal), Defectors takes us to the heart of a world of secrets, where even the people we know best can’t be trusted and murder is just collateral damage.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Bestselling author Joseph Kanon's eighth novel is a pitch-perfect political thriller with drama and intelligence to spare. Kanon's masterful storytelling skills are on full display: he uses his characters' shadowy motives to underscore the tensions of his Cold War setting. Every conversation is a cipher, and only Kanon knows the score.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edgar-winner Kanon's fast-moving, well-written espionage thriller offers few surprises for genre devotees. In 1949, after Frank Weeks, who worked for the Central Intelligence Group's Office of Policy Coordination, was unmasked as a Soviet spy, his brother and confidante, Simon, was forced to resign from the State Department. Simon landed on his feet when he was hired by M. Keating & Sons, a publishing company he ends up running. In 1961, the brothers reunite in Moscow. Frank is writing his memoirs, which are to be published by M. Keating, and he's asked his sibling to help him complete the book. Given that Frank cost Simon his career, the reunion is awkward, and their interactions are roiled further by Simon's renewed connection with Frank's wife, an old flame of his. Things get messier when Frank seeks to use Simon again, involving him in a complex scheme that leads to violence. As always, Kanon (Los Alamos) gets his period detail right and conveys the setting vividly, even if the characters' depth isn't at the same level as in his better outings.
