The Amateur Spy

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.

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.

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.)