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The Amateur Spy
Cover of The Amateur Spy
The Amateur Spy
Borrow Borrow
The widely acclaimed author of Winter Work now recasts the spy novel for the post-9/11 world—anyone might be watching, everyone is suspect.
“Exceptional…. Fesperman writes so well that it's easy to follow wherever he leads…. Chilling.” —The Washington Post
Freeman Lockhart, a humanitarian aid worker and his Bosnian wife have just retired to a charming house on a Greek island. On their first night, violent intruders blackmail Freeman into spying on an old Palestinian friend living in Jordan. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a Palestinian-American named Aliyah Rahim is worried about her husband, who blames their daughter's death on the U.S. anti-terror policies. Aliyah learns that he is plotting a cataclysmic act of revenge; in a desperate effort to stop him, she flies to Jordan to meet her husband's co-conspirators. There she encounters Freeman neck-deep in his own investigation. As their paths intertwine, the story rises to its fast-paced, explosive climax.
The widely acclaimed author of Winter Work now recasts the spy novel for the post-9/11 world—anyone might be watching, everyone is suspect.
“Exceptional…. Fesperman writes so well that it's easy to follow wherever he leads…. Chilling.” —The Washington Post
Freeman Lockhart, a humanitarian aid worker and his Bosnian wife have just retired to a charming house on a Greek island. On their first night, violent intruders blackmail Freeman into spying on an old Palestinian friend living in Jordan. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a Palestinian-American named Aliyah Rahim is worried about her husband, who blames their daughter's death on the U.S. anti-terror policies. Aliyah learns that he is plotting a cataclysmic act of revenge; in a desperate effort to stop him, she flies to Jordan to meet her husband's co-conspirators. There she encounters Freeman neck-deep in his own investigation. As their paths intertwine, the story rises to its fast-paced, explosive climax.
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Excerpts-
  • Chapter Two At our end of the island, far from any noisy taverna or buzzing scooter, two owls hold a nightly conversation in the treetops by the sea. They start around midnight, hooting back and forth like village gossips while the landscape stands at attention. The only interruption is the slap and sigh of the Aegean, a timeless incantation that seems to whisper of myth and fallen heroes.I like to imagine the owls are offering a sort of predator hotline, with frequent updates on the whereabouts of targets in the shadows below. After all, they’re the professionals at that sort of business. Maybe that’s why I was listening so closely on the night in question. Break their code and I’d learn which creatures were at risk–Freeman Lockhart, power broker of the local animal kingdom, beneficent warlord of meadow and brook.Obviously I failed. Because nothing in their tone caused me the slightest alarm, yet shortly after the hooting stopped, three predators in gray tracksuits crept into our bedroom, and later I realized that every creature but me must have detected a warning. Even Mila, shivering at my side until they took me away, bruised and bleeding, had noticed the fellows earlier that day on the ferry from Piraeus.My only vivid memory of our ocean passage was of Mila herself as she prepared to vomit from the stern. She wasn’t prone to seasickness, but there she stood, hands braced against the rail in a swirl of briny mist while gulls hovered just above, awaiting the spoils. Her face was pale, accentuating the underfed look of her sharp features and high cheekbones. She looked as vulnerable as a stowaway, so I took her gently by the shoulders in hopes of steadying her with a little warmth.“Must be the excitement,” she gasped, still holding it inside.“Probably,” I answered, although I suspected trepidation was more to blame. This voyage was our running start to a long-planned leap of faith, our grand exit to a new life. Having given up on the world at large, we had decided to finally get everything right by going it alone. Stakes like those might make anyone queasy.We had been at sea for several hours, among fifty or so passengers on one of the few remaining smaller boats–or caïques–that still ply these waters. Most people make the crossing to Karos in half the time, on one of the huge hydroplane “fast boats.” But Mila and I share an aversion for their towering hulls, wide-body cabins, and churning speed. They are as coldly efficient as 747s. Being a firm believer in clean getaways, I am also unsettled by their tremendous wakes, mile-long stripes of foam across the sea, pointing a giant arrow at your route of escape.Besides, when you’re going somewhere for the duration, you want to be attuned to the passing of every mile. So we opted for the smaller, slower sort of boat we had taken on our first trip to Karos, three years earlier. What we hadn’t counted on was the bluster of early autumn, which soon built the Aegean into ten-foot waves as the deck heavedbeneath us. After a few minutes of unproductive gagging, Mila finally cut loose. The waiting gulls cried sharply in triumph, yellow beaks plucking at her discharge as it streamed toward the foaming water. They fought noisily over the bounty. “You okay?” I asked, massaging her back.“No.”She barely got the word out. Then she pushed away my hand and thrust her face back toward the water. I made my exit toward the bow, not for lack of empathy but because of the memories she had stirred. The transaction with the gulls reminded me uncomfortably of our recent profession and all its shortcomings. Until a week ago, Mila and I were aid...
About the Author-
  • Dan Fesperman is a reporter for the Baltimore Sun and worked in its Berlin bureau during the years of civil war in the former Yugoslavia, as well as in Afghanistan during the recent conflict. His novel Lie in the Dark won the Crime Writers' Association of Britain's John Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for best first crime novel and The Small Boat of Great Sorrows won their Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for best thriller.
Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    January 7, 2008
    War correspondent Fesperman, the winner of the CWA’s John Creasey Memorial Dagger Award, shines the light of his insider’s knowledge into the dark corners of Jordan and Jerusalem in his gripping fifth thriller. After a career as an aid worker in some of the world’s hot spots, 55-year-old Freeman Lockhart has retired with his 37-year-old Bosnian wife, Mila, to the Aegean island of Karos. The first night in their new home they wake to find three intruders, who spirit Freeman away to a nearby location where he’s ordered to fly to Jordan to spy on a former friend and co-worker, Omar al-Baroody. When Freeman declines, his captors tell him that if he doesn’t do what they ask, they’ll tell the world his dark secret involving Mila from their days working in Africa. Freeman heads off to Amman to do their bidding. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a wealthy doctor, Abbas Rahim, plots an act of terrorism that will threaten the lives of the government’s highest power brokers. Freeman may be an amateur spy, but Fesperman (The Prisoner of Guantánamo
    ) proves once again that he’s a consummate professional. Author tour.

  • Library Journal

    January 15, 2008
    Foreign correspondent and novelist Fesperman has created another contender for his growing list of prize winners (e.g., "The Prisoner of Guantnamo"). Freeman Lockhart, the Arabic-speaking titular spy, is burdened by guilt for his unwitting participation in horrific blunders as an aid worker in Africa. As Lockhart attempts to retire with his new wife to a Greek island, mysterious strangers play on that guilt to blackmail him into spying on a Palestinian ex-colleague in Jordan. The plot is complex, the sense of place powerful, and the characterization memorable. A parallel plot features an Arab American woman whose story at last converges with Lockhart's. Even with lots of Arabic names and counterspy activity, Fesperman's novel is an easy read, offering neither the excessive blood-letting nor the multiple sexual encounters (although there is an appropriate dollop) that clog many contemporary page-turners. The bad guys, while threatening, are unexpectedly not very physical. Fesperman expertly builds the tension until the reader is enmeshed emotionally. A subtle summary partway through helps keep the plot cooking and the reader's elbows on the table. The conclusion is sudden but the book satisfying in its entirety. Recommended for all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/1/07.]Jonathan Pearce, California State Univ.-Stanislaus, Stockton

    Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

  • Booklist

    February 1, 2008
    Burned-out aid worker Freeman Lockhart wants nothing more than to retire to a Greek island with his beautiful young wife. He makes it to the island, but three men break into his house with a job offer: they want him to get back in the business, this time to spy on an old friend whose Jordanian charity may be financing terrorists. Fesperman is a former globe-trotting journalist whose nonfiction informs his novels. But after a terrific debut (Lie in the Dark, 1999), subsequent works have gradually grown more cerebral and less thrillingand this latest effort is hamstrung by both a surplus of expository dialogue and by curiouslyold-fashioned prose (Lockhart, allegedly American, exclaims Good Lord! and calls other men fellows and scoundrels). Although politically savvy travelers will find much to interest them in the background, the action in the foreground is somewhat slack. We dont doubt Fespermans reportorial skills, but given the contemporary nature of his knowledge, it would have been nice if this novel didnt read like a work from the past.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

  • Sunday Telegraph

    "Intensely provocative. . . . Leaves the reader turning pages and looking over his or her shoulder with equal rapidity."--The Baltimore Sun"Exceptional. . . . Fesperman writes so well that it's easy to follow wherever he leads. . . . Chilling."--The Washington Post"Fesperman has mastered his genre."--San Francisco Chronicle "An unflinching look at the festering atmosphere inside a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan."--USA Today"War correspondent Fesperman shines the light of his insider's knowledge into the dark corners of Jordan and Jerusalem in his gripping fifth thriller . . . Freeman may be an amateur spy, but Fesperman proves once again that he's a consummate professional."--Publishers Weekly"Foreign correspondent and novelist Fesperman has created another contender for his growing list of prize winners . . . The plot is complex, the sense of place powerful, and the characterization memorable . . . Fesperman expertly builds the tension."--Library Journal"More classy suspense from Fesperman."--Kirkus ReviewsPraise from the UK:"Dan Fesperman, a war correspondent with the Baltimore Sun, has served his time in Bosnia, Afghanistan and the Middle East. It shows: The Amateur Spy offers a gritty verisimilitude against a subtle political backdrop . . . Fesperman is especially good on the murky frontier where journalists, aid-workers and spies trade information, each seeking something for nothing. He is honing the genre of intelligent political thrillers. Foreign correspondents should note: they now have some new standards to match."--The Economist"Fesperman has few equals when it comes to generating tension . . . But he is equally good at characterizing his vulnerable, conflicted protagonists . . . Powerful."--Daily Express"Dan Fesperman's novels always offer interesting and thought-provoking commentary on contemporary world events and in The Amateur Spy he tackles Middle East terrorism with a story that contains a disquietingly topical element . . . A fine thriller to add to his impressive body of work."

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