Spy Wednesday

by William Hood

Sometimes you can’t just walk away...

Alan Trosper has his sights on a new career prospect. One that doesn’t involve secret intelligence.

But the Firm has other ideas for him…

When faced with a blast from the past, Trosper’s innate desire for a challenge picks up a scent.

A scent he finds hard to ignore. Before he knows it, it feels like he never left.

Embarking on this operation, Trosper’s natural instincts come into full force.

He is the man for this job and the Firm know it: they want to marry Trosper’s experience and knowledge of Moscow with covert action.

When Walter Bates took over from Darcy Odlum, the Firm’s founder, and was appointed Controller, Trosper’s resentment for him materialized.

Now, he’s facing Bates again and even worse, spying is not something he’s keen to do any more.

However, when ‘Oma’, a live drop used in previous operations, has a caller, she ensures the Firm is aware of the circumstances.

Herr Kinzl is looking for an American she once worked with and, convinced Kinzl is a Russian spy, the Firm are suspicious.

But can they really trust Kinzl?

It’s up to Trosper to find out.

Spy Wednesday is an espionage thriller that will keep you in suspense until the very last page.

Praise for William Hood

‘A skillful spy novel’ - The Wall Street Journal

‘A gripping espionage thriller’ – Thomas Waugh

William J. Hood (1920-2013), was a retired senior officer in the Central Intelligence Agency and a writer. During World War II, having just transferred from the Army into military intelligence, he volunteered for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the C.I.A. After the war, he remained in Europe. His hobbies included photography, marksmanship, sailing, jazz, and collecting first editions.

Genres: Fiction, Espionage

284 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[John Treanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was definitely a winner and right in my wheelhouse. An early 70's cold war spy thriller written by a guy who spent his career as an intelligence officer. A fast read because I was eager to find out what happened next. Am moving on to the next in the series, Cry Spy.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

If there are "police procedurals", then are there "espionage procedurals" as well? Alan Trosper, retired spy, is called in to investigate a wannabe defector who is offering information about another wannabe defector and about a real defector who may be a false defector after all. Does this sound confusing? In the shadowy world of double-bluff and double-cross, this seems to be just another day around the office, or in this case, in the safe house in Vienna. Alas, the Big Kahuna at the top of the super-secret agency that Trosper reports to, does not believe that his favorite defector may be a Russian agent after all, blabs to someone.. and things start getting too hot under the ground for the 2 wannabe defectors in Moscow. Fortunately Trosper can rely on a British friend who was on the ground in Vienna in the confusing days after the end of WWII and who can help him both with establishing the identities, background and reliability of the 2 candidate defectors, and with obtaining false papers for an illegal crossing from Hungary into Vienna.

It was all fine, but nothing special. Not too much tension, no real signs that the KGB is on the trail of our protagonists. An almost casual shooting included and a body that gets whisked off to a crematorium a hundred miles away before the befuddled Russian soldiers realize what they are being saddled with. A typical "OK" rating, hence 2 stars.

[Jason W Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an entertaining read by a former career intelligence officer. Mr. Hood recently died and I learned about his books from an obituary I read in the Washington Post. This book is well written and very interesting with a solid plot and some very well conveyed moments of tension. I highly reccommend it to those who like spy fiction. The only thing that irritated me about this book was that at times, Mr. Hood described real historical events but changed the names of the somewhat well known individuals involved in those events. This was a bit of a distraction but did not ruin the book.