All the Old Knives

LoveReading Says

Maxim Jakubowski's August 2015 Book of the Month.

A man and a woman meet for a drink in a conveniently empty California cafe. Years before they had been lovers and both involved in spying until an operation went badly wrong. He is still haunted by her memory and preoccupied as to why she left the espionage business following the fiasco. She is now married and out of the game.

As their conversation unfolds, we realise both suspect each other of past treason and the game of cat and mouse superimposed over the embers of their romance becomes a compelling X-ray of the past, with level over level of subterfuge unveiled. Short, pithy and compelling, this is a spy thriller like no other and a scalpel-like dissection of a relationship that has you guessing differently with every passing chapter and your sympathy shifting endlessly between the two characters.

A melancholy achievement that will leave you gasping until the bittersweet final twist. A total gem. ~ Maxim Jakubowski

Reviewed by Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a London-based novelist and editor.
More reviews by Maxim Jakubowski

About All the Old Knives

'One of the sparest, most elegant spy novels I have come across in a long time . . . Written in glistening prose - with not a word wasted - it proves Steinhauer truly is John le Carré's rightful heir.' - Daily MailNow a major film on Prime Video starring Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton and Jonathan Pryce.Celia used to lie for a living. Henry still does. Can they ever trust each other?Six years ago, Henry and Celia were lovers and colleagues, working for the CIA station in Vienna, until terrorists hijacked a plane at the airport. A rescue attempt, staged from the inside, went terribly wrong. Everyone on board was killed.That night has continued to haunt all of those involved; for Henry and Celia, it brought to an end their relationship. Celia decided she'd had enough; she left the agency, married and had children, and is now living an ordinary life in the Californian suburbs. Henry is still a CIA analyst, and has travelled to the US to see her one more time, to relive the past, maybe, or to put it behind him once and for all.But neither of them can forget that question: had their agent been compromised, and how? And each of them also wonders what role their lunch companion might have played in the way things unfolded . . .All the Old Knives is Olen Steinhauer's most intense, most thrilling and most unsettling novel to date - from the New York Times bestselling author deemed by many to be John le Carré's heir apparent.

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