THE TOURIST - Softcover

Steinhauer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007296770 ISBN 13: 9780007296774

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2010

Synopsis

Superb new CIA thriller featuring black ops expert Milo Weaver and acclaimed by Lee Child as ‘first class – the kind of thing John le Carre might have written’.

In today's CIA, there are hotspots everywhere. And wherever there's trouble, there's a Tourist: the men and women who do the CIA's dirty work. They're the Company's best – and until he burnt out, Milo Weaver was the best of them all.

Milo has spent the last four years behind a desk, tracking the elusive killer known as 'The Tiger'. When the Tiger unexpectedly gives himself up, it's because he wants something in return: revenge.

Once a Tourist, always a Tourist and soon Milo is back in the field, a world of betrayal, skewed politics and extreme violence. It's a world he knows well – but he's still about to learn the toughest lesson of all.

About this title

Review:

Praise for ‘The Tourist’:

'A spy novel for our times... fascinating and exciting' Literary Review

‘A first class spy novel – wry, intelligent, layered... the kind of thing John le Carre might have written if he knew then what we know now’ Lee Child

‘Relentless action and memorable characters ... a gripping and hugely entertaining read’ Mark Mills (author of ‘The Savage Garden’)

‘Smart... excels when the focus is on Weaver, an intriguing, damaged man yearning to break free of his dark profession’ People

'Utterly credible...Steinhauer, the two-time Edgar Award nominee who can be legitimately mentioned alongside John le Carré, displays a high degree of what Mr. le Carré's characters like to call tradecraft. If he's as smart as "The Tourist" makes him sound, he'll bring back Milo Weaver for a curtain call' New York Times

‘[A] scathing portrait of the CIA... Steinhauer seems to know the world of spies and assassins all too well... it feels real... ‘The Tourist’ is serious entertainment that raises interesting questions’ Washington Post

‘"The Tourist" should be savored... As rich and intriguing as the best of Le Carré, Deighton or Graham Greene, Steinhauer's complex, moving spy novel is perfect for our uncertain, emotionally fraught times’ LA Times

'Intelligent, evocative, and nuanced’ Seattle Times

‘Remember John Le Carre... when he was good? That’s how Olen Steinhauer writes’ Time

‘Compelling and hard to put down. ...[Steinhauer is] superbly accomplished at both plotting and characterization’ Library Journal

‘Outstanding... heart-stopping action’ Publisher’s Weekly

From the Author:

What drew you to the spy thriller?
John le Carré. It wasn’t until I picked up The Spy Who Came In from the Cold that it became clear how much spy fiction can encompass all the social commentary, realism, philosophy and fine writing of literature, yet maintain the vigorous pacing that hooks an audience.

What's the biggest challenge for you in writing a spy thriller? Plausibility. There’s the plausibility of the story itself, which may contain terrorists or competing intelligence agencies pulling off hard-to-believe acts. The spy genre was so well-mined by the 1970s that it’s difficult to find an angle that hasn’t become cliché. You have to come up with something completely new or look at the old plots with a fresh, contemporary eye.

Paranoia and lies preoccupy Milo Weaver, the CIA agent in The Tourist.
My interest in paranoia and lies ties into a basic interest in how people relate to one another. Personal relationships involve a certain level of deception – one deceives a loved one to avoid hurt, or deceives oneself for similar reasons. As a novelist, I’m placing my characters in environments that externalise this internal deception. That way, the external and internal worlds of my characters can play off one another more easily and give a natural sense of unity to the story.

What do you see as the future for the spy thriller?
Genres never die – they just slumber until the reading public becomes hungry for them again. If the spy novel is to remain an important form – one that critiques in a significant way the relationship between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – then outsiders’ views of America must be thoroughly realistically explored.

What's Next?
The Tourist is the first of a trilogy, which will see Milo Weaver through another year or so, taking care of loose strands from the first book and leading him (at least according to my plans) to last year’s Beijing Olympics.

What's the status of the option George Clooney's production company has taken on The Tourist?
Hollywood stays very mum on such things, and I tend to hear about any developments when Variety tells me. But I do know it’s in the scriptwriting stage. Clooney is still set to play Milo, but for the moment I’m not going to bet on anything. That’s the only way to stay sane. -

Oline H. Cogdill, Reproduced with kind permission from Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0007296770
• ISBN 13: 9780007296774
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464