Safe Houses - Softcover

Fesperman, Dan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1788547888 ISBN 13: 9781788547888

Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2019

Synopsis

A SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB STAR PICK.

West Berlin, October 1979. Helen Abell is a young American, employed by the CIA to oversee a number of safe houses. She arrives in Berlin, expecting excitement and intrigue, and is disappointed to find the city a Cold War backwater.

But one night, during a routine house inspection, she stumbles upon two dark but very different secrets. If made public, they could damage the careers of high-ranking people with powerful ambitions. But Helen decides that the price of silence might be costlier still, so she covertly works to reveal the truth even as she risks her career.

Maryland, August 2014. In a small farming town, a young man called Willard Shoat gets up one night and shoots his parents while they are sleeping. His sister Anna hires a private investigator to help her understand her brother's motives. As they delve into the events leading up to her parents' deaths, Anna uncovers some startling secrets from her mother's past...

'An intelligent novel with psychology foregrounded ... But can also raise readers' pulses' GUARDIAN.

About this title

Review:

'Fesperman raises the bar sky-high with this one. Smart, sophisticated, suspenseful, and intensely human. One of the great espionage novels of our time' Lee Child.

'Prolific spy novelist Fesperman delivers another winner, this one as fiendishly clever as it is richly entertaining' Kirkus Reviews.

'Expertly handled ... Illustrates the kind of weight that the spy novel, in the right hands, is capable of bearing' Mick Herron.

'A terrific book combining the gripping immediacy of a present-day murder mystery with the high-stakes sexy intrigue of a Cold War espionage thriller' Chris Pavone, bestselling author of The Expats.

'The narrative choreography demanded by Fesperman's split timelines is expertly handled, and the dilemma faced by Helen [...] illustrates the kind of weight that the spy novel, in the right hands, is capable of bearing' New York Times.

'Intelligent novel with psychology foregrounded ... But can also raise readers' pulses' --Guardian

'Dan Fesperman deserves to be better known to British readers' --The Times

'A cracking piece of spy fiction only to be expected from one of the best American exponents of the genre' --Shots Magazine

Book Description:

Anna is determined to understand why her brother apparently murdered their parents while they slept at their small farm in Maryland. The trail will lead her to events set in motion during one night nearly four decades ago in a Berlin safe house run by the CIA.

About this edition

• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1788547888
• ISBN 13: 9781788547888
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 624