The Cairo Affair Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00GGLHXKC | Format: PDF
The Cairo Affair Description
Sophie Kohl is living her worst nightmare. Minutes after she confesses to her husband, a mid-level diplomat at the American embassy in Hungary, that she had an affair while they were in Cairo, he is shot in the head and killed.
Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight calls. But his heart skips a beat when he hears the voice of the only woman he ever truly loved, calling to ask why her husband has been assassinated.
Omar Halawi has worked in Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to play the game. Foreign agents pass him occasional information, he returns the favor, and everyone's happy. But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fall-out wherever it leads.
American analyst Jibril Aziz knows more about Stumbler, a covert operation rejected by the CIA, than anyone. So when it appears someone else has obtained a copy of the blueprints, Jibril alone knows the danger it represents.
As these players converge in Cairo in The Cairo Affair, Olen Steinhauer's masterful manipulations slowly unveil a portrait of a marriage, a jigsaw puzzle of loyalty and betrayal, against a dangerous world of political games where allegiances are never clear and outcomes are never guaranteed.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 12 hours and 22 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Scheduled Audible.com Release Date: March 18, 2014
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00GGLHXKC
As has been mentioned by at least one other reviewer, THE CAIRO AFFAIR by Olen Steinhauer is reminiscent of the espionage novels by John le Carré and Len Deighton, which focus more on the nuts and bolts of the spy game rather than dramatic action. This isn't a thriller, but, as a complex story with a beginning, middle, and end involving multiple, realistic characters and questions to be answered, it's commendably satisfying. Thus, THE CAIRO AFFAIR separates itself from another spy procedural I recently read, Dynamite Fishermen, which incorporated no mystery or conflict between antagonists worth mentioning and was, I think, much the inferior book for those reasons.
THE CAIRO AFFAIR also resembles the novels by Gerald Seymour in that there's no clear winner among the players, none of whom might be considered heroes or villains in the usual sense constructed in popular fiction, and whatever victory is achieved is perhaps Pyrrhic in nature.
Olen Steinhauer's perspective in his espionage novels that I've read to date is relatively unique for an American writer. From his first series set in Eastern Europe, I thought he was a European national, but later learned that he was raised in Virginia but lived for a while in Budapest. This apparently gives him a worldview that frees him from a de rigueur focus on the U.S. or British spy agencies in his plots. True, the CIA plays a key role in THE CAIRO AFFAIR, but in the end the Egyptian intelligence service takes center stage. I appreciate that lack of provincialism.
A key component of the plot is the lead-up to the recent overthrow of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
This is a stand-alone novel by Steinhauer, not part of the Milo Weaver "Tourist" series. As such, it should be judged on that basis, and you should also be aware it's not a part of that series.
As the story begins, American diplomat Emmett Kohl is brutally murdered in front of his wife Sophia as they're dining at a French restaurant in Hungary. This sets off a ripple of events that spreads through the international intelligence community as the agencies of several countries get involved in trying to find out why this act of brutality took place.
Did it have something to do with Sophia's illicit extra-marital affair with an American spook based in Cairo? Emmett's knowledge of an aborted CIA op known as "Stumbler", conceived to overthrow the tyrannical regime of Muammar Khaddafi? Was it an echo of something that Emmett and Sophia became embroiled in decades ago when, as a young newly-married couple they'd gone adventure-seeking in Yugoslavia as that country's civil war was just breaking out?
These questions, and several more, are the nexus around which the plot of this story revolves. We follow the investigation as players from several countries try to resolve them; Egyptian agents and officers, CIA operators, even Sophia herself.
It's an engaging tale, but certainly not a "thriller", if that's what you're looking for. It's more a "procedural" story, with some complex turns.
The characterizations are, for the most part, full and effective. The portrayal of the complexity of the espionage game is certainly reminiscent of Le Carre or Deighton, as I said, and Graham Greene also comes to mind.
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