Synopses & Reviews
Nine years ago, terrorists hijacked a plane in Vienna. Somehow, a rescue attempt staged from the inside went terribly wrong and everyone on board was killed.
Members of the CIA stationed in Vienna during that time were witness to this terrible tragedy, gathering intel from their sources during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground with a series of texts coming from one of their agents inside the plane. So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how?
Two of those agents, Henry Pelham and Celia Harrison, were lovers at the time, and in fact that was the last night they spent together. Until now. That night Celia decided shed had enough; she left the agency, married and had children, and is living an ordinary life in the suburbs. Henry is still an analyst, and has traveled to California to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all.
But neither of them can forget that long-ago question: Had their agent been compromised, and how? And each of them also wonders what role tonights dinner companion might have played in the way things unfolded.
All the Old Knives is Olen Steinhauers most intimate, most cerebral, and most shocking novel to date—from the New York Times bestselling author deemed by many to be John le Carrés heir apparent.
Review
Praise for
The Cairo Affair"Stunning…It has become de rigeur to compare Steinhauer to le Carré, but its nearly time to pass the torch: for the next generation, its Steinhauer who will become the standard by which others are measured."—Booklist (starred)
"Elaborate, sophisticated…A long, twisty road full of cleverly placed potholes and unexpected turns…Mr. Steinhauer draws his spies as flesh-and-blood characters."—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Praise for The Tourist series
"Not since le Carré has a writer so vividly evoked the multilayered, multifaceted, deeply paranoid world of espionage, in which identities and allegiances are malleable and ever shifting, the mirrors of loyalty and betrayal reflecting one another to infinity. In this intensely clever, sometimes baffling book, its never quite clear who is manipulating whom, and which side is up."—The New York Times Book Review
"Stunning…Readers are irresistibly drawn into Weaver's dogged struggle to unravel a complicated game of cat and mouse…Steinhauer is at the top of his game—but when isn't he?"—USA Today
"Heres the best spy novel Ive ever read that wasnt written by John le Carré."—Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
About the Author
OLEN STEINHAUER, the New York Times bestselling author of nine previous novels, is a Dashiell Hammett Award winner, a two-time Edgar award finalist, and has also been shortlisted for the Anthony, the Macavity, the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, and the Barry awards. Raised in Virginia, he lives in New York and Budapest, Hungary.