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An Agent in Place
With An Agent in Place , Robert Littell proves once again that he is a master storyteller in the ranks of John le Carré, Len Deighton, and Graham Greene. Deep in the vastness of the Pentagon and the bowels of the massive KGB center in Moscow are old Cold Warriors who refuse to fade away. Yet how can they wage their battles when there are no enemies anymore? Their answer is Ben Bassett. Sent to Moscow as a lowly embassy "housekeeper," Bassett meets a fiercely independent, passionate Russian poet, Aïda Zavaskaya, and falls under her spell. Together they become pawns in a dreadful game that leads to the clandestine heart of the Soviet system itself.
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1992
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170 people want to read
About the author
Robert Littell
45 books438 followersAn American author residing in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union. He became a journalist and worked many years for Newsweek during the Cold War. He's also an amateur mountain climber and is the father of award-winning novelist Jonathan Littell.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 30, 2017
Robert Littell's 'An Agent in Place' is the best type of spy novel (except for one thing.... see later): great writing, characters with character, good dialogue, excellent descriptions of tradecraft, an exotic locale, and a tricky plot. I loved every bit of it except for that one thing, which I'll get to later.
'An Agent in Place' begins with the transfer of a lowly US diplomat to Moscow from a short posting in Prague in the communist era. He gets integrated into the embassy scene well enough, but he has some other responsibilities that seem to be secret and much more important. Despite warnings from embassy security, he meets and ostensibly falls in love with a Russian woman. The woman, a somewhat well-known feminist poet, is in a failed marriage and takes care of both her aged father and a son with a potentially fatal illness. The KGB, who monitors activity (and apparently every word uttered...) in the American embassy figures out that the new guy not only has some higher level responsibilities but can also be squeezed for information by using access to drugs for the woman's child as leverage. The KGB 'turns' the American, who begins to supply them with dribs and drabs of information that paints the picture of a spy for the Americans at the highest level of the Kremlin. Does the KGB really want this information? Does the American really want to continue down the path as a foreign agent? You'll need to read the rest to find out......
I've read quite a few Littell novels and I've always been puzzled with their inconsistency. He's written one of the books on my 'favorites of all time' shelf, The Company, but the rest of his output is up and down.
Littell tends to use humor a bit more than other writers in the espionage genre and that will occasionally get in the way of the story. In 'An Agent in Place', he uses it to good advantage by using jokes and asides to humanize a couple of the important characters, the embassy security guy and the woman's estranged husband. The husband, a rich, alcoholic, Jewish black-marketeer, is especially adept at rolling out anti-communist zingers at the right time.
An Agent in Place is a near-great spy novel with great writing and characters.
Now for my problem with 'An Agent in Place'....
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
OK, given the relative sophistication of the Russian KGB, how did they not seriously consider the possibility that the entire bunch of information dumped in their laps was a disinformation campaign? As I was making my way through the book and enjoying every minute of it, I couldn't help but think myself that our guy was just giving them a load of crap and sending them down a path of our choosing. Just the fact that he was giving them remembrances, not actual copies of documents, of the work he'd performed, and only a subset of that as well, should've caused a much higher level of suspicion.
'An Agent in Place' begins with the transfer of a lowly US diplomat to Moscow from a short posting in Prague in the communist era. He gets integrated into the embassy scene well enough, but he has some other responsibilities that seem to be secret and much more important. Despite warnings from embassy security, he meets and ostensibly falls in love with a Russian woman. The woman, a somewhat well-known feminist poet, is in a failed marriage and takes care of both her aged father and a son with a potentially fatal illness. The KGB, who monitors activity (and apparently every word uttered...) in the American embassy figures out that the new guy not only has some higher level responsibilities but can also be squeezed for information by using access to drugs for the woman's child as leverage. The KGB 'turns' the American, who begins to supply them with dribs and drabs of information that paints the picture of a spy for the Americans at the highest level of the Kremlin. Does the KGB really want this information? Does the American really want to continue down the path as a foreign agent? You'll need to read the rest to find out......
I've read quite a few Littell novels and I've always been puzzled with their inconsistency. He's written one of the books on my 'favorites of all time' shelf, The Company, but the rest of his output is up and down.
Littell tends to use humor a bit more than other writers in the espionage genre and that will occasionally get in the way of the story. In 'An Agent in Place', he uses it to good advantage by using jokes and asides to humanize a couple of the important characters, the embassy security guy and the woman's estranged husband. The husband, a rich, alcoholic, Jewish black-marketeer, is especially adept at rolling out anti-communist zingers at the right time.
An Agent in Place is a near-great spy novel with great writing and characters.
Now for my problem with 'An Agent in Place'....
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
OK, given the relative sophistication of the Russian KGB, how did they not seriously consider the possibility that the entire bunch of information dumped in their laps was a disinformation campaign? As I was making my way through the book and enjoying every minute of it, I couldn't help but think myself that our guy was just giving them a load of crap and sending them down a path of our choosing. Just the fact that he was giving them remembrances, not actual copies of documents, of the work he'd performed, and only a subset of that as well, should've caused a much higher level of suspicion.
August 24, 2012
Robert Littell writes very knowledgeably and convincingly about CIA vs. KGB espionage. Reading a Littell novel is kind of like watching a chess game, with the CIA spymasters on one side of the board and the KGB spymasters on the other side. But the focus of the stories is on the chess pieces: the human beings whose lives are often profoundly affected by the spymasters' machinations.
An Agent in Place is set almost entirely in Moscow in the mid-1980s. Glasnost is afoot, but the CIA spymasters don't want the Cold War to end and put them out of work, so they set in motion a scheme designed to take down Gorbachev. The scheme involves a few US Embassy officials and a Russian family: the poet Zenaida, her "soon-to-be-ex-husband" Vadim, and her elderly father and 11-year-old son.
The Russian characters, especially Zenaida and Vadim, are delightful creations who really come alive and are interesting, complex, and unpredictable. (Another Russian "character" is Moscow itself, which Littell obviously knows very well and describes vividly.) But the American characters for the most part lack depth. Another weakness of this book, compared to other works of Littell that I've read, is that the plot follows a straight line; there are few twists and turns. There's also not much visceral excitement, at least until the final 25 pages.
This is an interesting spy story, masterfully told, but it's not a spy thriller. A superior work by Littell, and the one I'd recommend to new readers, is The Sisters.
An Agent in Place is set almost entirely in Moscow in the mid-1980s. Glasnost is afoot, but the CIA spymasters don't want the Cold War to end and put them out of work, so they set in motion a scheme designed to take down Gorbachev. The scheme involves a few US Embassy officials and a Russian family: the poet Zenaida, her "soon-to-be-ex-husband" Vadim, and her elderly father and 11-year-old son.
The Russian characters, especially Zenaida and Vadim, are delightful creations who really come alive and are interesting, complex, and unpredictable. (Another Russian "character" is Moscow itself, which Littell obviously knows very well and describes vividly.) But the American characters for the most part lack depth. Another weakness of this book, compared to other works of Littell that I've read, is that the plot follows a straight line; there are few twists and turns. There's also not much visceral excitement, at least until the final 25 pages.
This is an interesting spy story, masterfully told, but it's not a spy thriller. A superior work by Littell, and the one I'd recommend to new readers, is The Sisters.
September 26, 2020
This guy writes about the Cold War like the best of the old school masters (i.e. Le Carre, Deighton, Greene, Furst). This story is about an off-the-books CIA operation that has a small time agent at the American Embassy in Moscow at the mercy of the KGB just at the beginning of the Gorbachev reforms. This book has a great syle about the writing and lots of interesting (and funny) insights into Communist Russian society.
March 23, 2017
I like a good spy novel, so when I found this book at a used-book store for a couple of bucks, I took a shot.
I am glad I did. Set in the Soviet Union in the days of glasnost, the plot pits cold warriors in the United States and Russia against one another because, dammit, they aren't ready for the Cold War to be over. Their machinations embroil a Russian poet and her young son in some desperate spy games. Secret plots, relentlessly cruel tactics and various levels of mistrust move things right along after a bit of a slow start, and it becomes a genuine page-turner before long.
The prose and storytelling are not as dense and rich as one finds in Le Carre or Greene, but it is good cloak-and-dagger stuff. More cloak than dagger, to be sure, but there is some realistic violence and there are plenty of tense situations.
The book was published in 1991, but it has a sort-of renewed timeliness in these days of an American president apparently entangled in some Russian spy games himself.
I had never heard of Littell before I found this book, but I am genuinely happy to see he has written several espionage novels. I will be on the lookout for them.
I am glad I did. Set in the Soviet Union in the days of glasnost, the plot pits cold warriors in the United States and Russia against one another because, dammit, they aren't ready for the Cold War to be over. Their machinations embroil a Russian poet and her young son in some desperate spy games. Secret plots, relentlessly cruel tactics and various levels of mistrust move things right along after a bit of a slow start, and it becomes a genuine page-turner before long.
The prose and storytelling are not as dense and rich as one finds in Le Carre or Greene, but it is good cloak-and-dagger stuff. More cloak than dagger, to be sure, but there is some realistic violence and there are plenty of tense situations.
The book was published in 1991, but it has a sort-of renewed timeliness in these days of an American president apparently entangled in some Russian spy games himself.
I had never heard of Littell before I found this book, but I am genuinely happy to see he has written several espionage novels. I will be on the lookout for them.
November 12, 2011
A great, fast paced read! I have never read a book by Littell before and have read very few political thrillers in general; I found the experience to be like reading the script of a movie, this would definitely translate to the screen and maybe already has. It took a while for me to finish it but I actually only picked it up about three times and read huge amounts of it at once as it really sucks you in!
January 18, 2018
This was meant to be one of those spy stories where near the end the twists and turns are almost impossible to keep up. Lots of treachery. Lots of skullduggery. Lots of deceit. Some of it by the author. As seems to be many times the case, the idea and the book don't quite match up. The author's "what if" is fine, but in the end I think execution got a way from him.
Littell can devise a complicated spy story as maybe spy stories should be. This one just seemed to go a bit awry.
Littell can devise a complicated spy story as maybe spy stories should be. This one just seemed to go a bit awry.
January 20, 2018
Any book that takes place in Russia is always a slower read with the names of people and the names of places. No exception here, but a good read
January 21, 2020
It’s Robert Littel, the best spy novelist ever. If you like that sort of thing, go for this. It’s one of his best.
November 17, 2020
A fabulous read from a writer I'm just discovering who clearly knows Moscow warts and all.
January 9, 2024
“Whatever.”
September 7, 2012
A good magician knows how to do everything physically to do his tricks. Palming cards, stacking decks, constructing traps and so on. A great magician knows these things as well, but his magic comes from knowing what the audience sees or doesn't see. The real trick is managing the expectations of the audience without the audience ever knowing that it even has any expectations.
Perestroika is sweeping over the Soviet Union and both covert sides of the Iron Curtain are wondering where their place will be. The status quo in the spy and military agencies love the steady employment, prestige, and money that come from having a permanent enemy. But Gorbachev is dismantling that seemingly perpetual machine.
However a group of "magicians" feel they can handle or neutralize the threat to their livelihoods with some sleight of hand - to make the audience see what they want to see and make it come crashing down. The action takes place in mainly three areas - the American Embassy where the main character Ben has a mysterious job, the KGB (and a hawkish True Believer sect within), and a Russian/American couple caught between the two.
During the novel, I guessed at most of the plot points before they came, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment. The spy vs. spy stuff was topnotch - done with le Carrean ennui rather than Clancyian gee-whiz. At the end of the novel we are left with an epilogue that calls into question everything we (who are an audience of the author/magician) has deduced.
Perestroika is sweeping over the Soviet Union and both covert sides of the Iron Curtain are wondering where their place will be. The status quo in the spy and military agencies love the steady employment, prestige, and money that come from having a permanent enemy. But Gorbachev is dismantling that seemingly perpetual machine.
However a group of "magicians" feel they can handle or neutralize the threat to their livelihoods with some sleight of hand - to make the audience see what they want to see and make it come crashing down. The action takes place in mainly three areas - the American Embassy where the main character Ben has a mysterious job, the KGB (and a hawkish True Believer sect within), and a Russian/American couple caught between the two.
During the novel, I guessed at most of the plot points before they came, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment. The spy vs. spy stuff was topnotch - done with le Carrean ennui rather than Clancyian gee-whiz. At the end of the novel we are left with an epilogue that calls into question everything we (who are an audience of the author/magician) has deduced.
May 11, 2013
L'histoire d'un diplomate U.S. secondé à l'embassade de son pays à Moscou. L'intrigue fatiguait par moments et certains aspects me semblaient peu probable; y compris un élément sur qui toute l'hisotire tournait. Mais de très bons personnages.
The story of a U.S. diplomat who is seconded to that country's embassy in Moscow. The intrigue left waned a little at times in this story and at times, it all seemed a bit improbable; especially the one twist upon which the whole story turns. But some wonderful characters here.
The story of a U.S. diplomat who is seconded to that country's embassy in Moscow. The intrigue left waned a little at times in this story and at times, it all seemed a bit improbable; especially the one twist upon which the whole story turns. But some wonderful characters here.
March 17, 2015
This thriller's impact has been definitely dampened by history; it takes place in the last days of the USSR and the Cold War, and its big twist, although still something of a surprise, doesn't really have much bite in retrospect. Nevertheless, the trajectory of Russia is still in the news, and is interesting to view within the context of the characters in this novel.
December 26, 2023
Robert Littell can write much better books, or perhaps he sometimes has much better editors. Two big problems with this book: one character is always muttering “whatever” and RL is far too infatuated with his main female character.
September 20, 2010
Great book. Very interesting.
March 3, 2009
More classic Cold War fiction from the master, Robert Littell.
July 26, 2011
Didn't have the level of excitement as some of his other books.
October 11, 2013
Great story. Robert Littell may be my favorite "spy story" author of all.
March 31, 2017
So disappointing! I loved The Company and I thought Robert Littel could do no wrong - wrong! This was just not that interesting and the love story was ridiculous. Whatever.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews