The Prodigal Spy

by Joseph Kanon

In a time of accusations, treachery and lies, some secrets were heartbreaking....

Others were deadly.

Once, Nick Kotlar tried to save his father. From the angry questions. From the accusations. From a piece of evidence that only Nick knew about and that he destroyed—for his father. But in the Red Scare of 1950 Walter Kotlar could not be saved. Branded a spy, he fled the country, leaving behind a wife, a young son—and a key witness lying dead below her D.C. hotel room.

Now, twenty years later, Nick will get a second chance. Because a beautiful journalist has brought a message from his long-lost father, and Nick will follow her into Soviet-occupied Prague for a painful reunion. Confronting a father he barely remembers and a secret that could change everything, Nick knows he must return to the place where it all to unravel a lie, to penetrate a deadly conspiracy, and to expose the one person who knew the truth—and watched a family be destroyed.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Thriller, Espionage, Mystery Thriller, Historical

537 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 6, 1999

Reviews

[Tom Tischler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Kotlar is the son of working class immigrants who attends Yale and becomes
part of the establishment. He's caught up in the 50's fear of the Red Menace and
forced to testify before the Committee on Un American Activities. -He seems a very
unlikely Communist but before the hearing is concluded he has disappeared - defected
to the East, though not before the chief witness against him has committed suicide. 19
years later his son Nick receives a message that his father wants to see him in Prague.
Nick wants to reject this but a deep curiosity drives him to go to Prague only a year after
the Russian invasion. He discovers that his father is dying and eager to come home. He
learns that the events preceding Walter's defection were not as simple as he thought, but
before he can work out what happened his father is dead, probably murdered. Sure now
that his father was a victim Nick knows that he can only prove this in America.But he is
stuck in a country where rules of evidence and justice are ignored and getting out is going
to be a real problem. This is a very good story and I gave it a 4. I'm going to babble a little
bit here . This book is from 1998 and I found it in our neighborhood library. It was on
the let's get rid of these table and it was 50 cents and in great shape. I'm retired and with
the government and state of PA taxing me to death along with grocery stores and utility
companies raising prices every other month us retirees have to find bargains wherever.
So if you have small local libraries please support them. They need your help and it is
deeply appreciated. Thanks for reading this and if you can please try to help.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Kanon has been writing spy novels set largely in post-World War II Europe since 1997, when his debut novel, Los Alamos, was published. That book won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel — well-deserved recognition for an outstanding thriller that was also an accomplished work of historical fiction. Most of his six later novels were equally captivating: well-written, well-researched, and well received by critics and readers alike.

The Prodigal Spy, the only one of Kanon’s seven novels that I hadn’t yet read, was his second book. Unfortunately, like so many second novels, it appears to have been a struggle to write. The novel is very slow on the uptake, requiring a long, sometimes tedious recitation of the childhood observations of its protagonist, Nick Kotlar. Only in Part Two of a three-part novel does the action really get going.
Un-American activities

Unlike Kanon’s previous work, which is set in the years 1945 to about 1950, The Prodigal Spy opens in 1950, slips directly to 1953, and then gets really interesting in 1969. The subject matter revolves around the anti-Communist witch-hunt in the United States in the 1950s. The story focuses on a Congressional committee that is a stand-in for HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, which is distinguished by having conducted its affairs in a markedly Un-American manner without having uncovered more than a handful of ineffectual Communists. In Kanon’s novel, an investigation by the Committee leads to the exposure of a genuine Communist spy in the State Department. That spy turns out to have been Nick Kotlar’s father, Walter.
An action-filled spy novel

Nick Kotlar grows up under the shadow of his notorious father and cuts a path through life that is meant to prove that he is a true patriot. He even serves as a soldier in Vietnam for a time. When his mother remarries a wealthy family friend, “Uncle Larry” Warren, a senior Washington official, Nick is happy to take his new name.

When the book finally gets around to 1969, Nick is 29 and a graduate student at the London School of Economics, and the action gets underway. He is befriended by a young woman who, it turns out, is carrying a message from his father. Nick had long thought his father dead in Moscow. Now he resolves to visit the old man in his new home in Prague, with the young woman in tow. Naturally, romance blooms, though not right away.

I loved every other one of Joseph Kanon’s novels. I merely liked this one.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing tale of a boy, Nicholas, whose father defected to Russia in the wake of accusations and testimony before the McCarthy hearings. As an adult, he gets drawn into his father's secrets and has to deploy skills in suberfuge and brave actions to resolve the mystery, mostly in Czeoslovakia soon after the Russian takeover near the end of the Vietnam War. Nice mix of stories about a family torn apart by political events on the one hand and about corruption of national morals in the Cold War on the other.

[Len Northfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the first 'spy novel I've read for about thirty years. I loved it. it was thoughtful, well paced, detailed, and cerebral. it occasionally required a bit of a leap, and the villain of the piece was signalled way at the start, but apart from those few minor niggles, it was a first class effort, and a definite stand out in the genre.

it has got me back into the espionage subculture again, and ill definitely be reading more of Kanon's work.

do yourself a favour, take a trip to 60s London, Prague, and DC.

[Jak60 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I discovered Joseph Kanon with Defectors, which was a very pleasant surprise for me. As a longstanding fan of espionage stories, I thought it offered a interestingly different storytelling angle to a genre which is often repetitive.
That is where I probably made a mistake of judgement, i.e. I thought Defectors was the quality standard offered by Kanon; so I embarked with high expectations into the reading of Los Alamos, which I found thoroughly boring and abandoned well before its half; I wanted to give it anyway another chance and I picked up The Prodigal Spy, that, from the synopsis, looked much closer to Defector.
In fact it is, even more than one would have wanted, as the story concept is exactly the same; the bad news is that The Prodigal Spy is miles away the level reached by Defectors under numerous aspects.
The plot is rather weak and convoluted, with significant issues of plausibility; the last third of the book is a long agony of a story that goes around in circles and I was just longing that every page would be the least....except that it wasn't.
The character development is totally insufficient, even the key ones are kind of 1 dimension and not really engaging.
So, after three books by Kanon, I have come to the conclusion that he had a peak of genius with Defectors and the rest is rather mediocre stuff; so this will be my last read by this author.

Having gone through the complete body of work of Joseph Kanon, I thought I'd be in position to offer an overall view of it. Kanon is a sort of hit and miss type of author, so here is my personal assessment of his novels.
1. Istanbul Passage: a rather exceptional and atmospheric book, with highly satisfying plot and engaging characters (5 stars)
2. The Defectors, Leaving Berlin and Stardust: very good reads, probably one notch down compared to the previous one yet both highly enjoyable (4 stars)
3. The Good German and The Prodigal Spy: two rather average books, the former somewhat stronger than the latter but overall nothing special (3 and 2 stars)
4. Los Alamos: the worst of Kanon's novels, slow and rather boring (DNF)
There's then a new novel coming up in February 2022 (The Berlin Exchange), which I am very much looking forward to.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with this novel is that it is schizophrenic; there is a leisurely character development and exploration of an historical era, and there is an exciting spy caper with a climax including J. Edgar Hoover as a character. At 536 pages, the novel is almost long enough for both. The first half suffers from a lack of movement and when everything does start moving the actions of two amateur detectives performing surveillance in Washington, D.C. is too quickly and unexplainably successful for credibility. At the book's midpoint, is a four page sexual encounter that has him performing an oral act that is so detailed it belongs in a gynecology text or a porn novel.

Thriller - Once, Nick Kotlar tried to save his father. From the angry questions. From the accusations. From a piece of evidence that only Nick knew about and that he destroyed--for his father. But in the Red Scare of 1950 Walter Kotlar could not be saved. Branded a spy, he fled the country, leaving behind a wife, a young son--and a key witness lying dead below her D.C. hotel room. Now, twenty years later, Nick will get a second chance. Because a beautiful journalist has brought a message from his long-lost father, and Nick will follow her into Soviet-occupied Prague for a painful reunion. Confronting a father he barely remembers and a secret that could change everything, Nick knows he must return to the place where it all began: to unravel a lie, to penetrate a deadly conspiracy, and to expose the one person who knew the truth--and watched a family be destroyed.

[David Tendo · Rating 2 out of 5]

In one word: boring. This had all the potential to be a gripping espionage thriller, but the extremely slow pace makes it agonising to read.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit that I almost guessed the ending from very early on... either I'm a genius or it was predictable or I'm just getting good at this game. I think I'm a genius.
Reading Kanon is like being immersed in a Hitchcock film... I know I've said that before but it is absolutely true. His stories have a way of taking you and wrapping you up inside them and holding you there wanting to know how it's going to actually work out, even if you think you know who, what or where it all ends up. You can almost hear the Bernard Herrmann soundtrack.
This is, as it turns out, a spy story (I'm not giving anything away by saying that). It starts with that American paranoia, the witch-hunts of the 1950s, watched through the eyes of a young boy and takes us on a journey of mystery and revelation. A good deal of it is set in Prague just after the Warsaw Pact tanks had rolled in in '68 and it has a feel of "Torn Curtain" and so many other films where the hero becomes too involved in local politics and has to extricate himself.
Brilliant read, totally engrossing and gripping.

[Rupesh Goenka · Rating 4 out of 5]

'The Prodigal Spy' is the story of Walter Kotlar, a working class immigrant and a Harvard Law graduate. He is pressurized to give testimony in regard to the Red Scare of 1950 before the committee of House Un American Activities(HUAC). Accused of being a communist spy he flees to the Soviet Union leaving behind his wife and a 10 year old son. The key witness in the trial falls to her death from a Washington D.C. hotel room window. After almost two decades the son, Nick Kotlar receives a message that his father wants to meet him in Prague. Nick learns that his father is wrongfully convicted and wants to return home. But before that Walter is killed. The historical spy fiction moves from the "Red Scare" of the late 1940s and early 50s, then to Prague in 1969, the height of the Cold War, Vietnam War and Nixon Era of early 1970s. Notwithstanding the anticipated climax it is a still a striking novel.
BEST LINES --
"Are you all right now?" he said.
His father smiled, closing his eyes. "As snug as a bug in a rug"...
INTRIGUING!!

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a lot of fun it had many unexpected twists and turns. It's the story of the pursuit of U.S. during the Cold War. Well's, a senator was investigating un-American activities. He was pursuing Walter Kotlar, a young State Department official. During the hearings Walter against the advice of his friend Larry, senior state department official, defects to the Soviet Union. Leaving his young son, Nick and his wife, Olivia. After Walter defects Larry marries Olivia. 20 years later Vietnam war protest in Paris, Nick runs into a Rolling Stone reporter named Molly, and they talk, after a few discussions she tells Nick that his real father Walter, wants to meet him. Molly takes a hesitant Nick to Prague to meet his father. And this is where the story begins.

"Remember before when I said people always take sides? What if it's the wrong one? That ever happened to you?"(Kanon 145).

During this book your perspective is always shifting, you're always looking for the person that's good or bad. The only rock in the story that we know is honest is Nick. And everything he will learn from here on out will change his life. In the story perspective changes the meaning if it's a first person narrator the actions are justifiable, because he will explain his choices or will maybe change the story. But, if it's a third person narrator then it's up to your own interpretation.
You never know what is up and what is down in this book because it is constantly shifting and that is was made this book so great.

This book will require a lot of patience to read and will make you scratch your head. All in all though it is about deceit, and about who can be the best liar.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had not heard of Joseph Kanon before reading this book. This is surprising as I generally enjoy reading spy stories.

While not up to the level of Alan Furst or John LeCarre, nevertheless, this is a suspenseful story. It takes place in two time frames: during the "Red Scare" of the late 1940s and early 50s and, later, during the Vietnam War and the Nixon Administration of the early 1970s. The plot unfolds in two major cities Washington, DC and Prague, Czechoslovakia.

The protagonist, Nick Kotlar is caught up, as a ten year old, in Congressional hearings in which his father, Walter, is accused of being a Russian spy. Later, as an adult, he is invited by his father to visit him in Prague where he has retired after many years living in Moscow. The plot develops from there.

The plot is very complicated. So complicated that the ending, in which all its elements are tied together, is a weakness of the story. There are just too many coincidences required to bring the story to a conclusion. That's why I didn't rate the book higher.

The characterizations are strong and enhance the story considerably. Nick's father, his stepfather Larry, his mother, his girl friend, Molly and all the other supporting characters are all well drawn and realistic.

I enjoyed the book and will be reading more of Kanon's writings in the future.

[Sam Reaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joseph Kanon has written a number of very good novels involving espionage and other crimes, set in the second half of the twentieth century in a wide variety of places, from the American Southwest to Istanbul. His characters are well-realized, his plots devious, and his sense of place vivid. In short, I like his stuff a lot.
This one starts in McCarthy-era Washington, D.C. and then jumps to Prague in 1969, the height of the Cold War. It tells the story of Nick Kotlar, whose father, when unmasked as a deep-cover Soviet spy in the U.S. State Department, fled to the USSR, abandoning his wife and son. The wife re-marries, the stepfather adopts Nick, and life goes on. Twenty years later Nick is in London doing research at the LSE when a young American woman who has just returned from Prague gets a message to him: his father wants to come home and is prepared to pay his way by spilling the beans on another high-level spy who is still in place in Washington, leaking secrets to the Soviets.
It's a classic premise for a Cold War espionage tale, and the twists and turns, as Nick and the girlfriend dodge heavies in Prague before returning to D.C. for the rabbit-from-the-hat denouement, are all they should be. Kanon's settings are richly textured and his people credible. A very good writer in command of his materials.

[David Lowther · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Prodigal Son gets off to a very interesting start as the House on un American Activities Committee is seen in action as the US pursues its communism paranoia of the 1950s. Watching the committee at work and examining its effect on the family of those under fire is fascinating and gives rise to hope that The Prodigal Spy might be a classic. No such luck. The book becomes a formulaic thriller with an ending that can be seen long before the half way point.

Nevertheless the two main characters are well-drawn and, seeking sympathy from the readers, allows us to take sides. An entertaining novel but by no means a classic despite the highly promising opening.


David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen, TwoFamilies at War and The Summer of '39, all published by Sacristy Press.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Previously I'd read some of Joseph Kanon's later books, so it was fascinating to see many of the same elements in this early novel--exotic atmosphere, claustrophobic foreboding, and a likeable main character who doesn't give up. The story dragged a bit in the middle part of the book. And in the fast-paced and complicated conclusion, I had some trouble following the developments, so for me it would have been better if Kanon slowed that part up enough just to explain more fully what was happening. It's an absorbing and enjoyable read.

[John Treanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay Cold War spy novel. Was a bit iffy to begin with, and I don't know why Kanon always feels the need to include a love story (at least in his first two books) - it's like he's pre-Hollywood-izing his books for the screen. This one even included a very explicit sex scene, which was weird. But the book recovers and even gets pretty good in Cold War Czechoslovakia. Starts slow, finishes strong.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG so boring!! I couldn't even finish this book. If you need something to help you fall asleep at night, I'd definitely recommend that you pick this one up. I couldn't get through 2 pages of this at a time without my mind wandering or drifting off to sleep. I eventually put it down because life if too short to read boring books!!!

[Brad Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Joseph Kanon and I was very impressed. Great story well written

[Neil Spark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Kanon is a spy author par excellence. I’m working my way through his canon and enjoying every page. Kanon’s dialogue is brilliant, it propels the narrative and reveals character in this Cold War novel.

Spy is the story of Nick Koltar, his father, Walter, second-in-charge at the State Department and his step-father, Larry Warren. Walter and Larry are friends, a relationship strained by Walter’s appearance before the infamous US House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee. The novel opens in 1950 when the Committee questions Walter. Nick is 10, an only child devoted to his father. When Nick finds out one of his father’s shirts holds crucial evidence, he gets rid of it.

Walter defects to the Soviets on the same day a department store salesperson, Rosemary Cochrane, falls to her death from a Washington hotel window. She was passing Walter’s secrets and betrayed him to the committee.

Nick’s vacuous socialite mother marries Larry who adopts Nick. Fast forward to 1969 and Nick is back in the US after fighting in the Vietnam War. Nick meets Molly Chisolm who has a message from his father living in Prague. They go to Prague where Walter tells Nick he is ill and wants to return to the US.

When Nick discovers his father’s body, he suspects murder. He’s questioned by the Czechoslovak police who let him go after the US embassy intervenes. Nick and Molly get back to the US where he embarks on a quest to find out the truth about his father.

The climax is unpredictable but implausible, a flaw that doesn't detract from the tight writing, great dialogue and action that kept me turning the pages.

[MisterLiberry Head · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was bothered throughout THE PRODIGAL SPY by a déjà vu, I’ve-ready-this-before feeling about this 1998 spy novel. However, I think it was just because THE PRODIGAL SPY fits so neatly into the Kanon (joke). In many ways a conventional spy yarn about catching the-codenamed-mole-left-behind, the author focuses instead on the moral authority of a son betrayed by his father but still yearning for proof of his love. Although Nick Kotlar’s father endured Red Scare hearings on Capitol Hill as a witness/suspect in 1950 before defecting to Moscow, “it was Nick who knew how to spy” (loc.157), a child creeping around the house for adult information. In 1969, Walter Kotlar, for murky reasons, summons Nick – who by now has acquired his stepfather’s fortune, psychic war wounds and the last name, “Warren” – to Soviet-occupied Prague for an unwanted reunion. Nick, who has to authenticate his father’s love for him, will also try to suss out the truth of his family’s destruction by the cruel imperatives of espionage. Nick’s and his girlfriend’s amateur sleuthing propel the last third of THE PRODIGAL SPY and underscore how talented civilians (Edward Snowden, anyone?) sometimes can rout the spook establishment. Joseph’s Kanon’s other message about the U.S.A. bears repeating: “It’s a wonderful country. Nobody remembers anything.” (loc.1549) and “There’s only the next thing. There isn’t any past here…” (loc.7238). An outstanding spy yarn.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore Kanon's story-telling, but I have to admit that this is my least favorite of those I've read by him, much as I enjoyed some aspects of it. While the characters and story were just as compelling as always, the problem was that I saw one of the twists coming... from the very beginning. So while the characters were, for much of the story, focused on solving one huge question, I was trying to figure out if it was so obvious as I thought it was and they were being idiots, or if the answer was something else entirely. Well, needless to say... I'm afraid I guessed whodunit from the start, even if I didn't wholly know the crime at that point. And, it was frustrating. It is true that there were a number of other twists that came at the end, and that I still enjoyed the story, but at least for me, there's a fair bit of frustration in a reader seeing something pretty clearly when all of the intelligent characters are blind to it--and that somewhat ruined the story for me.

So, would I recommend this? Well, maybe, with that caveat that it's a bit predictable in some respects, though the characters and story-telling are as engrossing as they are in Kanon's other work. Just don't start by reading this by him. His other work is better, simply put.

[COL(ret.) Frank J. Stech, PhD · Rating 3 out of 5]

When the reader knows some tradecraft, it puts spy story writers on the spot-- they have to take extra care not to let the cats out of the bags. Kanon just slips up. By the end of the beginning, the identity of "the third man" is pretty much a given. So the rest is anticlimactic -- when does that inevitable shoe fall. And it did.
But most readers are not spy-catchers, and the bit of backstory that blows the gaff will pass unremarked. Otherwise, Kanon has a good story, tells it pretty well, and his characters are passably lifelike and pretty lively. Some (a Czech policeman, for instance) I wouldn't mind finding on the page again. Other characters Kanon makes odious enough the reader will want to open a window. (No names, but one's initials were J. Edgar.)
Biggest problem? Kanon's characters simply talk too much and move too little. Less talk and more action would serve Kanon and his readers.
And old chestnuts are just so trite. Please, James Bond did the boodle in the urn with the ashes. Use a new shtick. Ask a Czech policeman. After all, in the end, what is a Lenin Medal really good for?

[Frederick Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully written book in the mold of John Le Carre. A story of betrayal and espionage in the cold war era right up there with the best. Nick's life was turned upside down when his father was forced to defect to Russia when the government got wind of an espionage scandals reviving the McCarthy witch hunt.
After twenty years down the line, his father got in touch with him through a journalist wanting to see him for the last time as he struggles with his failling health. But he is no longer staying in Russia but now in Prague with his wife. He told Nick he wants to go home. That is when things got complicated for Nick as he try to unravel the truth from fiction back in the states. He must confront his deepest demon and fear as he races against time to find out the real betrayer all those years. There is a final twist in the tail when he finally confront him. I won't spoil your fun. Read the book. The best.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good holiday reading, but not quite the work of a spymaster.

One of the most dialogue-rich novels I have read in a long time, giving a cinematic feel albeit without Jason Bourne action intensity. The plot is novel with enough twists to retain interest, although the bad guys are fairly obvious. The Prague backdrop and atmosphere is nicely portrayed. A couple of weaknesses are Molly, who is not entirely credible, and the constant flipping between naivety and professional cunning by Nicholas and Molly.

This is easy reading that doesn't see you reaching for wikipedia too often, unlike many historically-inspired novels which are richer in allusions. Nevertheless, some interesting themes about loyalty, privilege and privacy are developed without going into much depth. Historical spy fiction remains fascinating because it reminds us how contemporary technology has reduced the opportunity to remain in the shadows of last century.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joseph Kanon's second book, following the acclaimed Los Alamos. Kanon goes in a very different direction here, successfully. We meet his protagonist, Nick Kotlar, as a young boy who watches his father, a Russian spy, abandon him and his mother to flee to Russia. The story then jumps about ten years to find Nick working as a researcher in London, where he is approached by a beautiful young woman who convinces him that his father wants him to come to Russia to meet with him. A skeptical Nick eventually agrees, and the game is afoot. The tale is long, with many tricky and significant conversations. In the course of a few months, Nick goes from being a somewhat naive post-graduate researcher to blossoming as an observant, persistent investigator, and eventually becomes a tough, brilliant negotiator. Perhaps this rapid evolution is a little doubtful, but never mind. Just enjoy this clever spy story.

[Nick Callaghan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Painfully Obvious. Saw it coming right from the start...

I remember thinking: goodness it can’t be this easy to work out? I had the plot completely sorted in my head very early, and I’m REALLY no Sherlock. The author wouldn’t make it so easy and therefore this obvious, would he? So I kept going, thinking, I know, this is the way we are meant to think, and he’s going to do something strange and wonderful and the surprise will be terrific. What a waste of time. I do hate it when authors treat readers like idiots. Lucky to get one star. After well over 500 books on Kindle this is, if I recall, only the second time I’ve written a review. That’s how much I want you to avoid this

[Louise Fincham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is apparently one of Kanon’s earliest novels and it doesn’t appear always to have received such good reviews. It should. It is just as exciting and absorbing as the later novels and particularly cogent in the west in 2024 when we are increasingly under surveillance, our views if they differ from the “official line” unpopular with those in power. Why is Assange an Australian citizen incarcerated in the British prison with no charges and no trial? And has been for four long years simply for being a journalist. I wonder if Snowden would wish today if he were pardoned to return to the US from his exile in Russia. This novel is thought provoking and a timely reminder that tyranny and totalitarianism are never far away.

[Greer Andjanetta · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best spy/espionage novels I have read. An engrossing, well-written novel from start to finish. It starts with a young boy in 1950 who sees his father forced to disappear after accusations of Communism in 1950, resumes 19 years later with the boy grown, a Vietnam veteran and who suddenly receives a message from his father that he wants to see him. The son's investigation into what really happened back in 1950 portrays a fascinating picture of how things really were back then, what went on behind the headlines we saw while growing up.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

We first meet the main character of the book, Nick, as a child in 1950 as his father his being investigated in the McCarthyite purges. The father flees behind the Iron Curtain but 20 years later summons Nick for one last reunion before he dies and the chance of uncovering the truth.

All of the ingredients then for a cold war thriller that's tense and fast-paced. Unfortunately this book is neither of these things. The pace is pedestrian bordering on the languid, tension is minimal, and astute readers will have guessed the ending by about halfway through.

[Peter Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good spy thriller.I was disappointed at first as it seemed to be moving slowly as the author related plenty of background information to make the story intelligible to those without any knowledge of recent history.I did so it seemed a bit tedious but the story did pick up in the sections dealing with London ,Prague and Vienna.The ending was a little confusing but the villain of the piece was pretty clear long before the end but it was nice to have it confirmed.Overall quite good with an edible portion of history useful to those without such background.

[Carsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent idea - child of a traitor - and generally I liked it. Once again the politics felt well-researched and real (and a reason why I enjoy Kanon's books) and the principal characters believable. My one dissatisfaction was that I was sure early on who would turn out to be the 'villains'. Perhaps this was because I was re-reading it after a decade and remembered something, perhaps even on my first reading I saw the clues too easily.