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Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller #2
The Star of Istanbul
Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award-winning author Robert Olen Butler exploded onto the thriller scene with The Hot Country, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year and the first in his series featuring American war correspondent Christopher Marlowe Cobb. Now Butler raises the stakes with The Star of Istanbul, in which Cobb crosses paths with a sultry and mysterious actress hiding a secret agenda that may be the key to saving—or toppling—two empires.
World War I is in full swing. Christopher Marlowe “Kit” Cobb has been asked to follow a German intellectual and possible covert SS Brauer into perilous waters aboard the ship Lusitania, as the man is believed to hold information vital to the war effort. Aboard the Lusitania on its fateful voyage, Cobb becomes smitten with famed actress Selene Bourgani, who appears to be working with German Intelligence. Soon Cobb realizes that this simple actress is anything but, as she harbors secrets that could pour gasoline on the already raging conflict. Following the night of the infamous German U-Boat attack on the Lusitania, Cobb must follow Selene into the darkest alleyways of London, then on to the powder keg that is Istanbul. He must use all the cunning he possesses to uncover Selene’s true motives—which could bring down some of the world’s most powerful leaders. On his own across the war-torn stages of Europe and the Middle East, Cobb must venture deep behind enemy lines, cut off from his only allies, knowing full well he may not return.
A classic tale of adventure, romance, and war, The Star of Istanbul mixes page-turning fiction with revealing fact, firmly cementing Robert Olen Butler’s place as one of the great historical thriller writers today.
World War I is in full swing. Christopher Marlowe “Kit” Cobb has been asked to follow a German intellectual and possible covert SS Brauer into perilous waters aboard the ship Lusitania, as the man is believed to hold information vital to the war effort. Aboard the Lusitania on its fateful voyage, Cobb becomes smitten with famed actress Selene Bourgani, who appears to be working with German Intelligence. Soon Cobb realizes that this simple actress is anything but, as she harbors secrets that could pour gasoline on the already raging conflict. Following the night of the infamous German U-Boat attack on the Lusitania, Cobb must follow Selene into the darkest alleyways of London, then on to the powder keg that is Istanbul. He must use all the cunning he possesses to uncover Selene’s true motives—which could bring down some of the world’s most powerful leaders. On his own across the war-torn stages of Europe and the Middle East, Cobb must venture deep behind enemy lines, cut off from his only allies, knowing full well he may not return.
A classic tale of adventure, romance, and war, The Star of Istanbul mixes page-turning fiction with revealing fact, firmly cementing Robert Olen Butler’s place as one of the great historical thriller writers today.
369 pages, Hardcover
First published October 7, 2013
130 people are currently reading
961 people want to read
About the author
Robert Olen Butler
86 books452 followers“I’ll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period.”
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published sixteen novels—The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, Hell, A Small Hotel, The Hot Country, The Star of Istanbul, The Empire of Night, Perfume River—and six volumes of short fiction—Tabloid Dreams, Had a Good Time, Severance, Intercourse, Weegee Stories, and A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, which won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Butler has published a volume of his lectures on the creative process, From Where You Dream, edited with an introduction by Janet Burroway.
In 2013 he became the seventeenth recipient of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature. He also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. He has also received both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. His stories have appeared widely in such publications as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Zoetrope, The Paris Review, Granta, The Hudson Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, and The Sewanee Review. They have been chosen for inclusion in four annual editions of The Best American Short Stories, eight annual editions of New Stories from the South, several other major annual anthologies, and numerous college literature textbooks from such publishers as Simon & Schuster, Norton, Viking, Little Brown & Co., Houghton Mifflin, Oxford University Press, Prentice Hall, and Bedford/St.Martin and most recently in The New Granta Book of the American Short Story, edited by Richard Ford.
His works have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Polish, Japanese, Serbian, Farsi, Czech, Estonian, Greek, and most recently Chinese. He was also a charter recipient of the Tu Do Chinh Kien Award given by the Vietnam Veterans of America for “outstanding contributions to American culture by a Vietnam veteran.” Over the past two decades he has lectured in universities, appeared at conferences, and met with writers groups in 17 countries as a literary envoy for the U. S. State Department.
He is a Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Under the auspices of the FSU website, in the fall of 2001, he did something no other writer has ever done, before or since: he revealed his writing process in full, in real time, in a webcast that observed him in seventeen two-hour sessions write a literary short story from its first inspiration to its final polished form. He also gave a running commentary on his artistic choices and spent a half-hour in each episode answering the emailed questions of his live viewers. The whole series, under the title “Inside Creative Writing” is a very popular on YouTube, with its first two-hour episode passing 125,000 in the spring of 2016.
For more than a decade he was hired to write feature-length screenplays for New Regency, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Disney, Universal Pictures, Baldwin Entertainment Group (for Robert Redford), and two teleplays for HBO. Typical of Hollywood, none of these movies ever made it to the screen.
Reflecting his early training as an actor, he has also recorded the audio books for four of his works—A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, Hell, A Small Hotel and Perfume River. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the State University of New York system. He lives in Florida, with his wife, the poet Kelly Lee Butler.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 140 reviews
March 22, 2016
A spy story that involves romance and derring-do on the ill-fated Lusitania in 1915, a trip on the Orient Express, and a dangerous quest to foil the German schemes with the Turks in Constantinople would seem to have the necessary ingredients for a fascinating and entertaining read. And given that the author won a Pulitzer Prize for a short story collection in 1993, one might hope for some literary heft behind the tale. However, for me the tale came out as average in the thrills department and the same for its historical atmospherics.
Our hero, Christopher Marlowe Cobb, is an American war correspondent with a track record of spy missions for his country in Mexico, which was featured in the first book in this series, “The Hot Country.” Under cover of news reporting on the exploding war of Europe, he is tasked with investigating the espionage schemes of a German-American academic headed for England on the Lusitania. On board he succeeds in seducing a famous foreign-born actress of the burgeoning silent film industry, one Selene Bourgani. The sex is good, and the Boy Scout side of our hero has begun to lean in the direction of love when he discovers this mysterious, sultry beauty has dealings with his target. Cobb has to figure out if she is a player or a pawn in an anti-American plot. Some reviewers liken the femme fatale aspect to the Bogart-Bergmann pairing in “Casablanca”, but I didn’t find it to reach that level of intrigue and heart wrenching.
Just knowing the Lusitania is going to be torpedoed by the Kaiser’s navy adds to the suspense but tends to overshadow the action aboard. Cobb comes off as cool and confident like James Bond, but we don’t feel the same level of pizzazz or enjoyment of the luxuries of the setting. When the sinking occurs, it felt a bit anti-climactic to me, and the full tragedy of the loss of 1,000 plus lives gets lost in the shuffle. Soon we are off on a journey to Constantinople, now renamed Istanbul by the Young Turks who have assumed power and represent a critical ally for Germany to solidify for their war plans.
The intrigue and mystery are fair and relatively plausible, but I was disappointed how the Germans come off as cardboard symbols of evil. At least with espionage tales of Follett and Furst, the opponent characters are more fleshed out as believable humans. The exotic locale of Istanbul gets wasted, as the rich details of the city didn’t come through for me. As a teenager, I once came to that city by boat as the characters here did, and the majesty of the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque was breath-taking, whereas here they aren’t even mentioned. It seems there was a lot of missed opportunities for entertainment in this novel which would help if the series is simple a crass effort to make some money missed in his more literary efforts.
Our hero, Christopher Marlowe Cobb, is an American war correspondent with a track record of spy missions for his country in Mexico, which was featured in the first book in this series, “The Hot Country.” Under cover of news reporting on the exploding war of Europe, he is tasked with investigating the espionage schemes of a German-American academic headed for England on the Lusitania. On board he succeeds in seducing a famous foreign-born actress of the burgeoning silent film industry, one Selene Bourgani. The sex is good, and the Boy Scout side of our hero has begun to lean in the direction of love when he discovers this mysterious, sultry beauty has dealings with his target. Cobb has to figure out if she is a player or a pawn in an anti-American plot. Some reviewers liken the femme fatale aspect to the Bogart-Bergmann pairing in “Casablanca”, but I didn’t find it to reach that level of intrigue and heart wrenching.
Just knowing the Lusitania is going to be torpedoed by the Kaiser’s navy adds to the suspense but tends to overshadow the action aboard. Cobb comes off as cool and confident like James Bond, but we don’t feel the same level of pizzazz or enjoyment of the luxuries of the setting. When the sinking occurs, it felt a bit anti-climactic to me, and the full tragedy of the loss of 1,000 plus lives gets lost in the shuffle. Soon we are off on a journey to Constantinople, now renamed Istanbul by the Young Turks who have assumed power and represent a critical ally for Germany to solidify for their war plans.
The intrigue and mystery are fair and relatively plausible, but I was disappointed how the Germans come off as cardboard symbols of evil. At least with espionage tales of Follett and Furst, the opponent characters are more fleshed out as believable humans. The exotic locale of Istanbul gets wasted, as the rich details of the city didn’t come through for me. As a teenager, I once came to that city by boat as the characters here did, and the majesty of the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque was breath-taking, whereas here they aren’t even mentioned. It seems there was a lot of missed opportunities for entertainment in this novel which would help if the series is simple a crass effort to make some money missed in his more literary efforts.
September 23, 2022
I'm so glad I stumbled onto this series. I read the first in the series because I had been alerted that there was something about Mexico, Germany and the US early in WWI, and I wanted to get a taste of what that was about without having to get bogged down in some academic nonfiction. Neither The Hot Country nor this is what any of us would expect of a war novel. Christopher Marlowe Cobb is a war correspondent turned spy.
As can be told from the title, this installment has us visiting Turkey. First, however, Kit Cobb has to get there and early on we find him on board the Lusitania. As Cobb is the series MC and there are more installments, we can assume he makes it off the sinking. It is what goes on *before* the sinking that sets the stage for what is to come.
I will not suggest that characterization is what endears me to these. Still, Kit Cobb has feelings and we are exposed to them. He is attracted to the beautiful actress Selene Bourgani, almost like a moth to a candle. Almost - he's really too good to get so close it might be fatal. The writing is above the standard one might expect for a thriller.
Anyway, his story builds with each novel. I am reading in order. I think each installment could be read as a stand alone, but I believe they are enhanced by the knowledge of what goes on before. At least this one was. I'm sorry to see there are only two more. There were four years between the third and the fourth, so with fingers crossed Butler hasn't finished yet. 5 stars? No, but 4 really good ones!
As can be told from the title, this installment has us visiting Turkey. First, however, Kit Cobb has to get there and early on we find him on board the Lusitania. As Cobb is the series MC and there are more installments, we can assume he makes it off the sinking. It is what goes on *before* the sinking that sets the stage for what is to come.
I will not suggest that characterization is what endears me to these. Still, Kit Cobb has feelings and we are exposed to them. He is attracted to the beautiful actress Selene Bourgani, almost like a moth to a candle. Almost - he's really too good to get so close it might be fatal. The writing is above the standard one might expect for a thriller.
Anyway, his story builds with each novel. I am reading in order. I think each installment could be read as a stand alone, but I believe they are enhanced by the knowledge of what goes on before. At least this one was. I'm sorry to see there are only two more. There were four years between the third and the fourth, so with fingers crossed Butler hasn't finished yet. 5 stars? No, but 4 really good ones!
June 11, 2025
Great fast-moving spy story taking place during World War I. The hero finds himself on The Lusitania, then in a Europe at war, and finally, in the Ottoman Empire...Part of a series, this is actually the second one and I should go back to the first of the series.
April 11, 2015
The Star of Istanbul – A Stylish Spy Thriller
Pulitzer Prize Winning author Robert Olen Butler has written a second Christopher Marlow Cobb Thriller and The Star of Istanbul picks up a little further on from The Hot Country. Cobb has added another string to his bow he is now not just a famous war correspondent but a US State Department Spy that can use his reporting as cover especially now that it is 1915 and Europe is at war.
Butler has written a clear and crisp spy thriller with excellent historical research which helps to make this a taut and spy thriller spoken through the eyes of Cobb and not knowing who he can trust. He has been given a mission but he learns that as the mission develops so will what he has to do and who he can and cannot trust.
Cobb is being sent to London on board the Lusitania on its fateful journey as he is following German intellectual and possible spy Walter Brauer. While on board he develops a fascination and lust for the American film star Selene Bourgani who is also travelling on the ship. He learns during the journey that not everything is as it may seem. But he does rescue Selene Bourgani when the U-Boat strike sinks the Lusitania but manages to lose her in Queenstown once they have been picked up by a trawler.
Metcalf, Cobb’s contact from the State Department meets him in Queenstown where Cobb he briefs him on what he has learnt and what may be the possible mission for the German Brauer. He is conveyed to London where he tries to keep up with Brauer and a mystery group of German spies working in London as well as crossing paths with Bourgani one again. While spying he maintains his cover and files stories about the Lusitania, its sinking and survival of passengers as well as those killed.
Cobb realises he is a wanted man by the Germans who will do him harm if they find him and using papers and passports given to him in London he follows Brauer and Bourgani to Istanbul. It is here that he has his eyes opened but his mission becomes even more dangerous for him as he also wants to protect the object of his desire, Selene Bourgani. It is in Istanbul that he learns how dangerous that his life has become especially when he hears that the Germans have Der Wolf searching for him who has a reputation for killing people and never being recognised.
As he learns more about the complexities of the Ottoman Empire and its relationship to other countries and peoples the mission becomes a matter of life and death. Whether he succeeds in his mission and is able to tell the story you will have to read.
The Star of Istanbul is a fast moving changing plot that is historically correct and the characters are complex and revealing. The story being told through the eyes of Cobb makes this an even more interesting and exciting read. This is an excellent spy thriller which will lead you breathless and highlights some forgotten parts of history especially while the war is raging all round Europe in 1915.
Pulitzer Prize Winning author Robert Olen Butler has written a second Christopher Marlow Cobb Thriller and The Star of Istanbul picks up a little further on from The Hot Country. Cobb has added another string to his bow he is now not just a famous war correspondent but a US State Department Spy that can use his reporting as cover especially now that it is 1915 and Europe is at war.
Butler has written a clear and crisp spy thriller with excellent historical research which helps to make this a taut and spy thriller spoken through the eyes of Cobb and not knowing who he can trust. He has been given a mission but he learns that as the mission develops so will what he has to do and who he can and cannot trust.
Cobb is being sent to London on board the Lusitania on its fateful journey as he is following German intellectual and possible spy Walter Brauer. While on board he develops a fascination and lust for the American film star Selene Bourgani who is also travelling on the ship. He learns during the journey that not everything is as it may seem. But he does rescue Selene Bourgani when the U-Boat strike sinks the Lusitania but manages to lose her in Queenstown once they have been picked up by a trawler.
Metcalf, Cobb’s contact from the State Department meets him in Queenstown where Cobb he briefs him on what he has learnt and what may be the possible mission for the German Brauer. He is conveyed to London where he tries to keep up with Brauer and a mystery group of German spies working in London as well as crossing paths with Bourgani one again. While spying he maintains his cover and files stories about the Lusitania, its sinking and survival of passengers as well as those killed.
Cobb realises he is a wanted man by the Germans who will do him harm if they find him and using papers and passports given to him in London he follows Brauer and Bourgani to Istanbul. It is here that he has his eyes opened but his mission becomes even more dangerous for him as he also wants to protect the object of his desire, Selene Bourgani. It is in Istanbul that he learns how dangerous that his life has become especially when he hears that the Germans have Der Wolf searching for him who has a reputation for killing people and never being recognised.
As he learns more about the complexities of the Ottoman Empire and its relationship to other countries and peoples the mission becomes a matter of life and death. Whether he succeeds in his mission and is able to tell the story you will have to read.
The Star of Istanbul is a fast moving changing plot that is historically correct and the characters are complex and revealing. The story being told through the eyes of Cobb makes this an even more interesting and exciting read. This is an excellent spy thriller which will lead you breathless and highlights some forgotten parts of history especially while the war is raging all round Europe in 1915.
November 25, 2013
A while back, I decided (again) that life is just too damn short to read easy, pop books, and that I would dedicate my reading and living only to challenge. Then, after reading Pynchon's Bleeding Edge (Challenging and I loved it), I gave my brain a rest and read Olen's The Star of Istanbul. One of those spy/mystery novels that just so happen to take place at an auspicious moment in history, this time the sinking of the Lusitania and the imminence of WW I. Olen seems to me to be a frustrated man of letters, because there are many allusions to Shakespeare and other literary works. And parts are nicely writ. But the mystery is not a mystery, as I figured that our 1/3rd through the book, and for the most part there is just too much cliche. Actually 2 1/2 stars. Okay, I'm ready for challenge again.
August 6, 2016
What a fun read! I felt like I was watching a classic movie from the golden age of cinema telling a lost story of World War I. The author is excellent at setting the stage and allowing his characters to inhabit it fully. It moved along briskly and never let me take my time. I liked the adventure and the period details very much. I also enjoyed the characters and their ability to hide their deeper selves from the other characters and the reader. Exposing tiny pieces in glimpses and never making it certain what was real and what was show.
October 12, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Star of Istanbul': Continuing the Saga of Kit Cobb: Foreign Correspondent, Secret Agent Man
A year has passed in the eventful life of Christopher Marlowe "Kit" Cobb, foreign correspondent and spy and a marvelous creation of author Robert Olen Butler.
We last saw Kit Cobb in Mexico in 1914, keeping his eye on German spies in Butler's debut Kit Cobb thriller, "The Hot Country" (for my Oct. 1, 2012 review: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/45469) "The Hot Country" has just been published by The Mysterious Press in a $15.00 trade paperback editon. In Butler's followup historical thriller "The Star of Istanbul" (The Mysterious Press, 368 pages, $25.00) we learn that Kit's Chicago paper finally decides to sent him to cover the war in Europe, which has been going on for almost a year in the spring of 1915.
The war -- soon to be called the Great War, and much later World War I -- is in full swing. Germany, along with Austria-Hungary, the main opponents of the British, French and Russians, has allied itself with the Ottoman empire, persuading Turkey to join the "Central Powers" and declare war on the British empire. As we know now, this decision of the Ottomans (Turks) turns out to be a disaster of the highest order, as anyone knows who has seen the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" or possesses even a little knowledge of the history of the Middle East).
The Germans and the Austrians also want Italy to join their side, but the Italians haven't made up their minds (when they do in this war, they decide to go with the Allies).
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson -- so willing to invade Mexico in "The Hot Country" -- is reluctant to commit American boots on the ground to the European war.
Wilson's administration, which is overwhelmingly on the side of the Allies, wants more intelligence on what's going on in Europe and the Middle East. A former college professor and president of Princeton University, Wilson assigns James P. Trask, his man in charge of covert affairs, to persuade Christopher Marlowe Cobb to follow a man named Walter Brauer, a German-American intellectual who may be a spy for the German Empire.
Brauer is sailing from New York to England on the R.M.S. Lusitania, a British luxury liner built in 1904, so Kit Cobb books passage on the ship. The Germans have taken out ads in American newspapers warning of the dangers of sailing into a war zone, but the owners of the Lusitania say it can outrun any Kraut U-Boat.
Aboard the Lusitania on what turns out to be its last voyage, Cobb falls in love (or lust) with actress Selene Bourgani, an international star of the silent movies of the era, who appears to be working with German Intelligence. Selene asks if Cobb is related to the famous actress Isabel Cobb and Kit acknowledges that she was his mother, naming him after Christopher Marlowe, the brilliant playwright who was a contemporary of Shakespeare.
Selene's activities are much more complicated than Cobb can imagine (spoiler alert) as Cobb learns later in Turkey, but first he has to survive the infamous May 7, 1915 U-Boat attack on the Lusitania (of the 1,959 people on board, 1,198 died) after the ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off the coast of Ireland.
Cobb follows Selene and Brauer into the alleyways of London, crossing into Germany, where Cobb's proficiency with the German language is vital, then on to Istanbul, in 1915 the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
He must use all the cunning he possesses-- and he's a cunning fellow -- to uncover Selene's true motives -- and even her real name and ancestry -- only to realize her hidden agenda could bring down some of the world's most powerful leaders. Equipped with his Mauser pistol and his Corona 3 typewriter (the same brand Ernest Hemingway used in the 1920s and Cobb's typewriter of choice in "The Hot Country") he must venture deep behind enemy lines.
"The Star of Instanbul" is a worthy sequel to "The Hot Country" and readers who hunger for historical accuracy will be amply rewarded when they read this outstanding work of historical fiction.
About the Author Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fourteen novels, six story collections, and a book on the creative process, "From Where You Dream". A recipient of both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. The Star of Istanbul is his second novel featuring Christopher Marlowe Cobb. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University. His website: www.robertolenbutler.com
A year has passed in the eventful life of Christopher Marlowe "Kit" Cobb, foreign correspondent and spy and a marvelous creation of author Robert Olen Butler.
We last saw Kit Cobb in Mexico in 1914, keeping his eye on German spies in Butler's debut Kit Cobb thriller, "The Hot Country" (for my Oct. 1, 2012 review: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/45469) "The Hot Country" has just been published by The Mysterious Press in a $15.00 trade paperback editon. In Butler's followup historical thriller "The Star of Istanbul" (The Mysterious Press, 368 pages, $25.00) we learn that Kit's Chicago paper finally decides to sent him to cover the war in Europe, which has been going on for almost a year in the spring of 1915.
The war -- soon to be called the Great War, and much later World War I -- is in full swing. Germany, along with Austria-Hungary, the main opponents of the British, French and Russians, has allied itself with the Ottoman empire, persuading Turkey to join the "Central Powers" and declare war on the British empire. As we know now, this decision of the Ottomans (Turks) turns out to be a disaster of the highest order, as anyone knows who has seen the movie "Lawrence of Arabia" or possesses even a little knowledge of the history of the Middle East).
The Germans and the Austrians also want Italy to join their side, but the Italians haven't made up their minds (when they do in this war, they decide to go with the Allies).
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson -- so willing to invade Mexico in "The Hot Country" -- is reluctant to commit American boots on the ground to the European war.
Wilson's administration, which is overwhelmingly on the side of the Allies, wants more intelligence on what's going on in Europe and the Middle East. A former college professor and president of Princeton University, Wilson assigns James P. Trask, his man in charge of covert affairs, to persuade Christopher Marlowe Cobb to follow a man named Walter Brauer, a German-American intellectual who may be a spy for the German Empire.
Brauer is sailing from New York to England on the R.M.S. Lusitania, a British luxury liner built in 1904, so Kit Cobb books passage on the ship. The Germans have taken out ads in American newspapers warning of the dangers of sailing into a war zone, but the owners of the Lusitania say it can outrun any Kraut U-Boat.
Aboard the Lusitania on what turns out to be its last voyage, Cobb falls in love (or lust) with actress Selene Bourgani, an international star of the silent movies of the era, who appears to be working with German Intelligence. Selene asks if Cobb is related to the famous actress Isabel Cobb and Kit acknowledges that she was his mother, naming him after Christopher Marlowe, the brilliant playwright who was a contemporary of Shakespeare.
Selene's activities are much more complicated than Cobb can imagine (spoiler alert) as Cobb learns later in Turkey, but first he has to survive the infamous May 7, 1915 U-Boat attack on the Lusitania (of the 1,959 people on board, 1,198 died) after the ship was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 off the coast of Ireland.
Cobb follows Selene and Brauer into the alleyways of London, crossing into Germany, where Cobb's proficiency with the German language is vital, then on to Istanbul, in 1915 the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
He must use all the cunning he possesses-- and he's a cunning fellow -- to uncover Selene's true motives -- and even her real name and ancestry -- only to realize her hidden agenda could bring down some of the world's most powerful leaders. Equipped with his Mauser pistol and his Corona 3 typewriter (the same brand Ernest Hemingway used in the 1920s and Cobb's typewriter of choice in "The Hot Country") he must venture deep behind enemy lines.
"The Star of Instanbul" is a worthy sequel to "The Hot Country" and readers who hunger for historical accuracy will be amply rewarded when they read this outstanding work of historical fiction.
About the Author Robert Olen Butler is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fourteen novels, six story collections, and a book on the creative process, "From Where You Dream". A recipient of both a Guggenheim Fellowship in fiction and a National Endowment for the Arts grant, he also won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He has twice won a National Magazine Award in Fiction and has received two Pushcart Prizes. The Star of Istanbul is his second novel featuring Christopher Marlowe Cobb. He teaches creative writing at Florida State University. His website: www.robertolenbutler.com
October 13, 2015
I thought about ditching out on this book early on and am wondering why I persevered! If you're a spy/espionage aficionado, I think you might like this. Takes place during WWI and starts off on the Lusitania, including our main characters escaping from its sinking. Very dramatic, lots of sex, fighting, murders and international intrigue. The narrators approach added to the drama - maybe a little too much for my taste. This is my second historical espionage, the first being Mission to Paris and I've concluded they're not for me.
January 26, 2019
I liked this book a lot. A great adventure and a great love story. Kit Cobb is more of a spy this time than a newspaperman, working for the US at the beginning of WWI sent on a mission to Istanbul and sailing on the Lusitania, another one of the great unsinkable ocean liners. Uh oh.
The character of Kit Cobb does a lot of the things that James Bond does (well, will do given the time period) but I found him much more likable. Ian Fleming was a great writer but his class snobbism shows through in his books. Cobb is much more a man of the people.
These adventure novels meander a bit which is another reason I like them. I listened to this one on audio on my phone (usually in the car) and found myself coming back to it again and again. I'm looking forward to the 3rd one in the series.
The character of Kit Cobb does a lot of the things that James Bond does (well, will do given the time period) but I found him much more likable. Ian Fleming was a great writer but his class snobbism shows through in his books. Cobb is much more a man of the people.
These adventure novels meander a bit which is another reason I like them. I listened to this one on audio on my phone (usually in the car) and found myself coming back to it again and again. I'm looking forward to the 3rd one in the series.
April 29, 2015
The Star of Istanbul is Christopher “Kit” Marlowe Cobb’s second adventure from Pulitzer Prize winning author, Robert Olen Butler. We were first introduced to Kit in The Hot Country and we will surely see him again as part of a trilogy of thrillers.
Foreign correspondent “Kit” Cobb has been tasked with following a German intellectual aboard the Lusitania in the middle of WWI. He meets sultry actress Selene Bourgani on board, who appears to be working with the German Intelligence and he becomes intrigued by her. Selene has many secrets and information Cobb needs and she will become indispensable in his task for the US Intelligence service. Following the German U-boat attack on the Lusitania Cobb and Selene will travel to London and Istanbul through war-torn Europe to fulfil their duties. Cobb knows he is taking many risks for his country, including his life, and must remain alert at all times.
The Star of Istanbul is a fast-paced spy thriller full of intrigue, deceit, adventure and suspense. It is a very well-researched work full of believable characters and nail-biting intriguing situations. It follows on The Hot Country and in my opinion this is more fun and entertaining than the first novel so I have high hopes for the third instalment. The twists and intrigues in The Star of Istanbul are very intelligently written and the final twist and revelation of the main “baddie” was surprising to me, although I realised the clues were there all along.
This was a very entertaining thriller and I look forward to the third instalment.
Foreign correspondent “Kit” Cobb has been tasked with following a German intellectual aboard the Lusitania in the middle of WWI. He meets sultry actress Selene Bourgani on board, who appears to be working with the German Intelligence and he becomes intrigued by her. Selene has many secrets and information Cobb needs and she will become indispensable in his task for the US Intelligence service. Following the German U-boat attack on the Lusitania Cobb and Selene will travel to London and Istanbul through war-torn Europe to fulfil their duties. Cobb knows he is taking many risks for his country, including his life, and must remain alert at all times.
The Star of Istanbul is a fast-paced spy thriller full of intrigue, deceit, adventure and suspense. It is a very well-researched work full of believable characters and nail-biting intriguing situations. It follows on The Hot Country and in my opinion this is more fun and entertaining than the first novel so I have high hopes for the third instalment. The twists and intrigues in The Star of Istanbul are very intelligently written and the final twist and revelation of the main “baddie” was surprising to me, although I realised the clues were there all along.
This was a very entertaining thriller and I look forward to the third instalment.
March 10, 2014
I received The Star of Istanbul as a free giveaway on Goodreads. An excellent book of political intrigue and spies during WWI, filled with long-forgotten history, it was a hard book to put down. A captivating story line, with riveting characters, and enough twists and turns to captivate the reader. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of a good action-packed thriller along the lines of Ludlum and Higgins.
Read
August 9, 2015Abandoned this book after making very little progress. I was so looking forward to it when it arrived but what i read didn't match my expectations and was tangled and confusing. Such a shame as it could have been brilliant but i don't want to spend more time trying to read it when i have a growing pile of books to read.
June 27, 2019
In his second historical espionage novel featuring Christopher Marlowe Cobb, Robert Olen Butler has enlisted the war correspondent as a secret agent for the United States Secret Service. World War I is raging in Europe and the Middle East, and Cobb has been assigned to trail a German-American academic named Walter Brauer. Brauer is a professor of what were then called "Oriental studies" in London. (Today in the US we call them Middle Eastern studies.) But he is known to American authorities as an agent of the German Empire. What's not known, and what Cobb is tasked with finding out, is what the man plans to do in Europe.
An unlikely mission for the Secret Service
The Star of Istanbul is set in spring 1915. Decades were to pass before the American government would establish an agency to conduct foreign intelligence. That only happened in 1942 with the founding of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). So, it's a literary conceit for Butler to engage the Secret Service in espionage during World War I.
In its early years, immediately following the Civil War, the Secret Service had conducted domestic intelligence and counterintelligence. The agency infiltrated undercover agents into troubled Southern communities. Some were assigned to track down and arrest the moonshiners who were cheating the government out of tax revenue. Others were instrumental in ending the reign of terror by the first incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. But the Secret Service ceded its intelligence mission in 1908 to the agency that later became the FBI. It is highly unlikely the Secret Service dispatched any secret agents to Europe nearly a decade later, and especially not before the US had even entered the war. Its agents were preoccupied with investigating German sabotage and food hoarding at home.
In this historical espionage novel, the star of Istanbul isn't a ship, it's a move star
The book's title, The Star of Istanbul, might call to mind an ocean-going ship. That's certainly what I thought. But no. The "star of Istanbul" is a silent film star named Selene Bourgani, "the most mysterious woman in the world." The only ship that figures in this story is the Lusitania, the British passenger vessel that was sunk by a German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915. And, conveniently, both secret agent Cobb, German spy Brauer, and movie star Bourgani were all passengers on the Lusitania. And they all survived. The contrived coincidence makes for dramatic reading, but it does all seem more than a little far-fetched.
Butler's confounding writing style
Butler has acquired an extremely annoying stylistic habit. When he wants to convey rapid-fire action—in chase scenes, during violent fights, and (of course) when the Lusitania sinks—he insists on using the crude technique of run-on sentences. He strings together one clause after another, usually connecting them with the word "and" without pausing for breath. Butler committed this breach of stylistic good sense over and over again in the first of the Christopher Marlowe Cobb novels, The Hot Country, too. I was disgusted then. I'm even more so now.
A revealing look at World War I in the Middle East
So, why did I bother to read this book to the end? And why have I awarded it a high rating? It's the history that Butler conveys so adroitly. I'd known little about the participation in World War I of the Ottoman Empire other than its fighting on the ground with the British in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Butler explores the role of the Turkish government in its negotiations with Germany and in the Armenian genocide. This is fascinating history, and important. And couched as it is as a historical espionage novel, it's easy to swallow.
An unlikely mission for the Secret Service
The Star of Istanbul is set in spring 1915. Decades were to pass before the American government would establish an agency to conduct foreign intelligence. That only happened in 1942 with the founding of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). So, it's a literary conceit for Butler to engage the Secret Service in espionage during World War I.
In its early years, immediately following the Civil War, the Secret Service had conducted domestic intelligence and counterintelligence. The agency infiltrated undercover agents into troubled Southern communities. Some were assigned to track down and arrest the moonshiners who were cheating the government out of tax revenue. Others were instrumental in ending the reign of terror by the first incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. But the Secret Service ceded its intelligence mission in 1908 to the agency that later became the FBI. It is highly unlikely the Secret Service dispatched any secret agents to Europe nearly a decade later, and especially not before the US had even entered the war. Its agents were preoccupied with investigating German sabotage and food hoarding at home.
In this historical espionage novel, the star of Istanbul isn't a ship, it's a move star
The book's title, The Star of Istanbul, might call to mind an ocean-going ship. That's certainly what I thought. But no. The "star of Istanbul" is a silent film star named Selene Bourgani, "the most mysterious woman in the world." The only ship that figures in this story is the Lusitania, the British passenger vessel that was sunk by a German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915. And, conveniently, both secret agent Cobb, German spy Brauer, and movie star Bourgani were all passengers on the Lusitania. And they all survived. The contrived coincidence makes for dramatic reading, but it does all seem more than a little far-fetched.
Butler's confounding writing style
Butler has acquired an extremely annoying stylistic habit. When he wants to convey rapid-fire action—in chase scenes, during violent fights, and (of course) when the Lusitania sinks—he insists on using the crude technique of run-on sentences. He strings together one clause after another, usually connecting them with the word "and" without pausing for breath. Butler committed this breach of stylistic good sense over and over again in the first of the Christopher Marlowe Cobb novels, The Hot Country, too. I was disgusted then. I'm even more so now.
A revealing look at World War I in the Middle East
So, why did I bother to read this book to the end? And why have I awarded it a high rating? It's the history that Butler conveys so adroitly. I'd known little about the participation in World War I of the Ottoman Empire other than its fighting on the ground with the British in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Butler explores the role of the Turkish government in its negotiations with Germany and in the Armenian genocide. This is fascinating history, and important. And couched as it is as a historical espionage novel, it's easy to swallow.
July 4, 2017
I wanted him to stop talking. The pistol and I were getting to know each other. I turned away from him and lifted the Mauser and settled the front of its barrel in the rear V-sight, with the head of a rose in the wallpaper as the target. All through last year’s little adventure in Mexico, I’d carried a Colt 1911. A fine but large weapon that was now at the bottom of the North Atlantic, a loss that only just now fully struck me. Too bad. But this covert, diminutive Mauser, with a .32-caliber kick, seemed just fine too. Like going to a lighter bat to get around on a Walter Johnson fastball. Very nice.
I lowered my arm.
I looked at Smith, who was looking at me with an expression that seemed part respect, part fear, and part distaste.
This is an odd little thriller, set in World War I before the United States entered the war. Kit Cobb, a journalist cum spy, holds it against President Wilson that he continues to oppose the United States entering the war on behalf of England.
It’s the second in a series; I haven’t read the first, but apparently Cobb was recruited into an early United States spy agency by the end of that one (which involved “last year’s little adventure in Mexico”). Because of the confluence of journalism, spies, and theater (his mother was a famous actress), this reads like a very light-hearted version of what a Ward Just novel would be like if he wrote thrillers.
It’s also a lot like what if James Bond came out of journalism and told his stories in first-person.
There are some very movie-like qualities to the book as well, which aren’t in its favor; Cobb and the female character fall in with each other very quickly, which I’m willing to forgive in a movie because they’re tight for time, but not so much in a book. And later in the book, Cobb’s very low-powered .22LR—chosen specifically because it is low-powered, as this also means it makes less noise—had the very movie-like effect of, when it hit the target, it “blew him backward to thump against the wall”.
But this was otherwise a fun period romp through England and Istanbul.
April 10, 2019
The second go-around with Christopher Marlowe Cobb is tauter than the first - there is only one action scene relayed in a breathless run-on-sentence that I can remember, and there are a number of quite dramatic changes of setting as opposed to an endless series of Mexican deserts - but "The Star of Istanbul" still doesn't quite rise to the level of a 4-star read. First and foremost, there is far too little of Istanbul in a book called "The Star of Istanbul," and what little there is fails to invoke any sense of the exoticism, mystery, or majesty that is promised by the title. Apart from descriptions of men wearing fezes, the Turkish setting could have been anywhere. I also failed to develop any real interest in the romance between Cobb and Selene - I also didn't believe that someone as practical and worldly as Cobb is supposed to be would fall for someone as moody, evasive, and dramatic as she is written. Still, I'm a sucker for a spy novel and there are a lot of elements and vignettes that work well in the novel even if it doesn't entirely satisfy.
June 25, 2023
I've been reading this series out of order and over much time. The history, just before and during World War I, is the draw for me. The protagonist, war-chasing correspondent/spy Kit Marlowe, who has a "knack" for languages, acting, and getting involved with sketchy women, not so much. Here he's sent, via the Lusitania on its last, fatal voyage, to figure out what the Germans want with a mysterious silent film actress.
Again, the historical setting is the star here. The doomed ship, zeppelins bombing London, trains full of casualties of Gallipoli, an empty village outside of Istanbul, the Pera Palace - Butler puts you right there, right down to the Art Nouveau ironwork on the elevator in an otherwise Louis XVI hotel. There might be too much detail for the average action fan, though there's plenty of action as well, the kind with firearms and the kind with no clothes. Thankfully, Kit's mother does not appear except in conversation, which makes this my favorite so far.
Again, the historical setting is the star here. The doomed ship, zeppelins bombing London, trains full of casualties of Gallipoli, an empty village outside of Istanbul, the Pera Palace - Butler puts you right there, right down to the Art Nouveau ironwork on the elevator in an otherwise Louis XVI hotel. There might be too much detail for the average action fan, though there's plenty of action as well, the kind with firearms and the kind with no clothes. Thankfully, Kit's mother does not appear except in conversation, which makes this my favorite so far.
April 7, 2025
A new author for me, highly rewarding for his clear prose, expert pacing and depth of historical background. I'm looking forward to digging more gems like this from our tiny local library.
What I liked best:
* A great sense of immediacy, extended over a large set of stages, from the decks of the Luisitania, to the back streets of London and Constantinople
* A certain level of glee as the protagonist discovers he has "the knack" for mayhem and murder
* a romantic sub-plot full of ambiguity and shifting allegiance
* the writing: this is really good stuff!
What I liked least:
* the protagonist prides himself on the survival skills (for a spy) of reading people and their emotions, their motivations and their likely actions from observing antagonists' facial expressions and/or lack thereof. What their face reveals becomes something of a running thread. What appears somewhat clever to begin with, becomes tiresome as a lens through which action is generated and observed.
What I liked best:
* A great sense of immediacy, extended over a large set of stages, from the decks of the Luisitania, to the back streets of London and Constantinople
* A certain level of glee as the protagonist discovers he has "the knack" for mayhem and murder
* a romantic sub-plot full of ambiguity and shifting allegiance
* the writing: this is really good stuff!
What I liked least:
* the protagonist prides himself on the survival skills (for a spy) of reading people and their emotions, their motivations and their likely actions from observing antagonists' facial expressions and/or lack thereof. What their face reveals becomes something of a running thread. What appears somewhat clever to begin with, becomes tiresome as a lens through which action is generated and observed.
January 29, 2018
This is the second of the Cobb books in the series, and the second I have read. It is also the last one I will read. The story took forever to tell, filled with lots of pretty irrelevant stuff that kept the story from making significant progress. Intrepid Chicago war-correspondent Kit Cobb, fresh from his exploits in Mexico, has been called upon by the US Government to act as a spy against the Germans in Europe, before the US has entered WWI. He sails to Europe on the Lusitania (is that foreboding, or what?) and things proceed murkily from there. He has supposedly learned enough German in a few weeks to pass as a native speaker, and the improbabilities just keep adding up from there. At the end I was just sorry I had wasted so much time to get to the end and the resolution of the plot, but...
March 2, 2019
Pretty good. This is the strongest of the four of Robert Olen Butler's Cobb spy pieces that I have read. It's not exactly a thriller, but an interesting combination of that and literary fiction. The body count is a little high--and Cobb probably too good a shot for the real world, a flaw with another character in the first novel. The plot takes us via the Lusitania's last voyage (of course) via London and Germany to Istanbul, where the action plays out.
What's most interesting is that along the way we get something pretty close to a mature male/female relationship, the most authentic part of this novel.
As with at least one other of these I've read, most of this would work better as a movie, where the sudden action and not-entirely-explained plot movements would be a part of the genre.
What's most interesting is that along the way we get something pretty close to a mature male/female relationship, the most authentic part of this novel.
As with at least one other of these I've read, most of this would work better as a movie, where the sudden action and not-entirely-explained plot movements would be a part of the genre.
October 24, 2018
I'm really liking this series. It's like the opposite of Alan Furst. Everything is explicit, fast to develop, American, omniscient first-person narrator. World War I has begun and Kit Cobb is on the Lusitania. I think we can figure out which trip. Somehow he ends up in Constantinople, thanks to falling in love with a "Greek" actress while aboard. He is now in the full employ of the US Government, and yet still a war correspondent. He is also now a more confident and competent killer, for better or worse.
I think Robert Butler is having fun in his old age.
I think Robert Butler is having fun in his old age.
June 20, 2020
Having read Butler's first historical thriller, Hot Country, I decided to give this one a go. In fact, The Star of Istanbul is in my view even better. The action is never-ending, so it's a page turner. What I however appreciated very much is the fact that Butler has done his research on the era (this one takes place in 1915 during WWI) and the book is filled with excellent descriptions of the places (London, Istanbul), history, politics, technology... He captures the period atmosphere very well.
November 10, 2018
This series is becoming my latest guilty pleasure. The main character, war correspondent-turned-spy Kit Cobb, is too much of a macho throwback and one of the big “surprises” was too predictable for my taste. But still, it’s a ripping yarn featuring a secretive film star, German spies and a plot to assassinate the Turkish head of state. The mystery is enriched by the real sweep of history as WWI takes hold, from U-boats in the Atlantic to massacres in Armenia, and an excellent description of the sinking of the Lusitania.
January 25, 2020
Butler is given to excess, he over uses cultural objects as stand-ins for time, place, and atmosphere, and Cobb as tough guy can be too much - but man is the book fun. It reads like the kind of hard-boiled film noire that was derigueur 50 years ago and it kept me willing to ignore the worst of it because the best is so worthwhile. It is, IMHO better than the first Cobb book, and will have me reading the second.
June 21, 2020
Interesting, this appears to be a genre of thriller I hadn't previously encountered, the soft-boiled semi-noir. Cobb seems to wander through the usual mayhem, pile-up of bodies and the tough dame with a shrug, like it was all too hard or something. And for what? I'm still not sure.
But there were some seriously good bits and some interesting and engaging tension along the way. Mind you, I'd like to see this as a movie, I think that could really work.
But there were some seriously good bits and some interesting and engaging tension along the way. Mind you, I'd like to see this as a movie, I think that could really work.
January 31, 2021
Wordy, suspenseful, and character-rich.
I am enamoured of Robert Olen Butlers writing style, his very engaging stories, his hero, and his way of using the time and location as practically another character in the story. I am working my way through them with that particular satisfaction that comes from reading a well-respected authors work when the praise is deserved. I ended the book just now, and am still buzzing just a bit.
I am enamoured of Robert Olen Butlers writing style, his very engaging stories, his hero, and his way of using the time and location as practically another character in the story. I am working my way through them with that particular satisfaction that comes from reading a well-respected authors work when the praise is deserved. I ended the book just now, and am still buzzing just a bit.
April 2, 2019
Much improved
The first Kit Marlowe received only two stars from me. Too many plot lines and too many diversions put me off. The character is so intriguing and the situations so compelling I reason vol. 2.
My suspicions (and hopes) are realized. Istanbul receives 4 stars from me. I look forward to vol. 3
The first Kit Marlowe received only two stars from me. Too many plot lines and too many diversions put me off. The character is so intriguing and the situations so compelling I reason vol. 2.
My suspicions (and hopes) are realized. Istanbul receives 4 stars from me. I look forward to vol. 3
August 9, 2020
(The second book in the Christopher Marlowe Cobb series) I liked the writing style, but I am simply not an espionage fan with the exception of Le Carre'. If you are choosing this book because of the Lusitania sinking, the event as a very short duration. Good if you like spy novels. Kristi & Abby Tabby
August 18, 2020
Implausible plot again from a potentially otherwise decent writer. I like historical fiction and this checks all my boxes with interesting characters and settings, but the pace and central action are so ridiculously unbelievable it ruins the story. Also, the author notably switches style when setting atmosphere and intrigue to dialogue and action. The atmosphere and intrigue is award worthy, while the dialogue and action is written sophmorically and seems out of place. Especially the intimate pillow talk, it's like reading a high school boy's sex journal. A frustrating read at best.
March 25, 2021
The Star of Istanbul by Robert Olen Butler a journey back in time when WWI is getting hotter. His adventures as a war correspondent collide with a beautiful actress who is also on a mission of great secrecy. He has taken on the roll of a spy and the Germans are on his trail. A very well written peek into history along with the stories plot. Interesting, suspenseful a great read.
July 25, 2024
Butler's series is about a hard bitten war correspondent around the time of WWI named Christopher Marlow Cobb. The first one I read was a yarn in Mexico around the time of Pancho Villa. This one involves a steamy actress, the sinking of the Lusitania and a bunch of Germans in the Ottoman Empire. This is fun fiction.
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