Synopses & Reviews
The stifling summer streets of Lisbon are teeming with spies and informers when Andrea Aspinall, an English mathematician turned spy, disappears under a new identity. Military attaché Karl Voss, experienced in the illusions of intrigue, arrives in Lisbon under the German Legation, though he is secretly working against the Nazis so that atomic and rocket technology do not find their way into Hitler's hands.
In the lethal tranquility of a corrupted paradise Andrea and Karl meet and attempt to find love. Tragically, a night of violence leaves Andrea the keeper of a secret that triggers a lifelong addiction to the clandestine world. From Portugal to England and finally Cold War Berlin, she gradually discovers that the deepest secrets aren't held by governments, but by those closest to you.
Award-winning novelist Robert Wilson transcends the genre of spy novels in The Company of Strangers, a thrilling page-turner yet also an imaginative and affecting tale of romance.
Review
"[A] gripping espionage thriller that will keep readers guessing from beginning to end....Wilson's latest has all the right ingredients danger, death, violence, sex, patriotism, and war plus intriguingly complex characters and a keep-'em-guessing plot that starts slowly but quickly picks up speed." Emily Melton, Booklist
Review
"[T]he Byzantine plot and half-century time span detract from the penetrating analysis of the human heart that makes this novel worth reading." Library Journal
Review
"A plotter's delight....[Wilson] creates an intriguing moral maze for his heroine to negotiate." The Guardian (London)
Review
"Wilson here sticks with what worked so well in his stylish debut, A Small Death in Lisbon, crafting a thriller that moves from the outer edges of the Third Reich to postwar Berlin." School Library Journal
Review
"An espionage thriller of the first order complex, erotic, romantic." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"The British seem to breed terrific mystery and thriller writers with astonishing ease....The latest import about to catch fire in the U.S.? Robert Wilson." New York Post
Review
"Seemingly authentic in its sinuosities, intricate but convoluted, absorbing and brilliantly written, this is caviar for the cognoscenti. And for the general reader too." Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
"A sweeping novel of international espionage...[that] will certainly appeal to Le Carre's fans, but for our money Wilson is a much livelier writer." The Denver Post
Synopsis
The award-winning author of
A Small Death in Lisbon brings an exciting richness to the long shadow of evil in this crackling novel of spycraft and international intrigue.
Lisbon, 1944:
Andrea Aspinall, plucked out of academia by British intelligence so that her mathematical knowledge might help in the hunt for atomic secrets, disappears under a new identity in Lisbon, where such secrets are easily bought and sold.
Karl Voss, already experienced in the illusions of intrigue when he arrives in Lisbon, is an attache at the German Legation, though he is secretly working against the Nazis to rescue Germany from annihilation.
After a night of terrible violence, Andrea creates a family for herself from Voss's memory and the clandestine world they knew. In Portugal, in England, and in the chilly world of Cold War Berlin, she discovers that the deepest secrets aren't held by governments-and that death is a relative term. In The Company of Strangers, Robert Wilson takes the chilling irony of "secret intelligence" to a new and more poignant human level, as he shows that the heart is both more knowing and more secretive than the mind.
Synopsis
1944: Andrea Aspinall, mathematician and spy, disappears under a new identity into the torrid summer streets of Lisbon that seethe with spies and informers. The Germans have made advances in atomic and rocket technology and the Allies are determined that the ultimate secret weapon will not become a reality in Nazi hands.
Karl Voss, already experienced in the illusions of intrigue, arrives in Lisbon as military attache to the German Legation. There he begins his subversive work against the Nazi regime to rescue his country from annnihilation.
In the lethal tranquility of a corrupted paradise Andrea and Karl meet and attempt to find love in a world where no one can be believed. After a night of terrible violence Andrea is left with a secret that provokes a lifelong addiction to the clandestine world. In Lisbon, London, and finally Cold War Berlin, she gradually discovers that the deepest secrets aren't held by governments but by those closest to you.
In The Company of Strangers, award-winning novelist Robert Wilson takes the ironies of Cold War espionage to a new and more poignantly human level, as he shows that when the head and the heart come into confrontation, the heart will always win.
About the Author
Robert Wilson is the author of six novels, including A Small Death in Lisbon, which won the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year from Britain's Crime Writers Association. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising, and trading in Africa, and has lived in Greece and West Africa. He lives with his wife in an isolated farmhouse in Portugal.