Sleeper Spy

by William Safire

A master sleeper spy, assimilated into American life for twenty years, has been made operative and given control of the vast financial assets of the old KGB - and has disappeared with the fortune. His reputation is deadly, and his manipulation of enormous wealth begins to alter the world's political and financial structure. Although the old KGB has been dismantled, new KGB bosses and old KGB hard-liners bent on reinstating the old guard's lethal techniques are determined to find the sleeper. And so is the world's greatest reporter, Irving Fein. Fein is a character only William Safire could create: driven, mean, funny, always the "skunk at the garden party." Relentlessly resourceful, Fein is always suspicious, always thinking; and his access to the top in politics, the CIA, the media, is the best. But Irving isn't charming, nor is he good on television; and he needs a big story. Viveca Farr is Fein's journalistic opposite - a TV anchorwoman who is popular on the air but lacks stature as a reporter. Working together, they decide to "walk back the cat" and break the story of the notorious sleeper spy - even as the sleeper is devising brilliant ways to elude them.

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Suspense, Mystery

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter.

He was perhaps best known as a long-time syndicated political columnist for the New York Times and a regular contributor to "On Language" in the New York Times Magazine, a column on popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a fan of William Safire for a long time but never read one of his novels (I mainly know him through the column he wrote in the NYT Sunday Magazine and his tv appearances). This spy story was reminiscent of vintage John Le Carre--the old Smiley stories It was every bit as confusing and engaging as Le Carre, but upon reflection, I think expected a bit more from Safire.

I enjoyed it immensely, but to say it was spy vs. spy is an understatement. There were layers and layers of deception and disinformation which created a very ingenious plot, but the reader needed either to be sharper than I am to keep up with all of it, or content (as I was) to muddle through the fog at times.

Safire's characters were great and I suspect his protagonist ("the greatest journalist alive") was his alter-ego. There was an element of humanity in the characters that made this more fun and more interesting than routine thrillers. It is essentially a book written to engage and entertain and it did an admirable job of that but I was hoping for a bit more ingenius word play or, perhaps, the sly sense of humor that William Buckley brought to his spy novels.

[Katherine Chartier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but definitely was a struggle for me to read. As with most spy novels, there’s always a lot to learn at the beginning and I’m confused for about the first half of the book. A decent plot twist though, I was convinced it was going to be something else

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good story but too complicated to be enjoyable

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beware - it's hard to keep track of who's working for the same goal

[Fred Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never read a book with more plot and character changes. Hard to follow but well worth reading.

[B Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sat on my bookshelf for years. I finally got around to reading it and am glad I did. A very enjoyable spy story with lots of twists and turns and interesting characters.

[Andrew Leuper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, William Safire died so it 19s time to start reading his books. I started with his fiction although I am more eagerly anticipating his non-fiction, renowned wordsmith that he is. Wow, what a great novel! Characters, plot and details, details details about spooks, book publicists/agents, investigative reporting, Current Russian culture, politics, economics, power plays. How to pose, how to recognize a pose, how to interrogate, how to defend against interrogation. And great prose, as in, 1CClauson did not nod or not nod. 1D Gave me some good ideas too, like using a fake ID saying you 19re over 62 to get discounted airfares.

I didn 19t like that Safire explicitly exposed that Fein read reviews aftear all when the perceptive reader already inferred it. Leave it be and let us feel superior for figgering it out.

SPOILER ALERT: I know that Edward Dominick is the sleeper, They both have a 1Clate 1D wife. And the hearing test was too smooth and too easily led to a diagnosis of hearing loss. And, now that I am writing about it I realize that Safire gave us yet another clue 13 the technology exists for hidden hearing aids.

1CHe suspected Liana Krumins knew more than she knew she knew. 1D 13 pg 212, very clever prose. Playful. Then the paragraph that follows is genius, a great plot advancement, intellectually adept and it further develops the Irving Fein character as having an elegantly strategic mind and being driven by his cheapskate nature.

1C 26on rare occasion, in dependence is independence.

[Hannah]

It was interesting. Not great, but good for trying something outside of my usual genre. I got confused a lot, because economics is not my strong suit. Even the explanations left me still a little confused. But I expanded my repertoire, so there's a positive.

[Ching Borres · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is about a mole planted in NY, the twist is nice. I like the character of Viveca Farr here..

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great spy novel, almost more twists and turns than I could keep up with. Great ending.

[Bob Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting spy novel by an author with great command of the English language.

[KateMoxie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just shaking my head. Glad it's over. Expected better. Convoluted - too many pages that I had to re-read several times to be sure I was tracking.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

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