Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2009.
CWA Judges’ comments: 'Unorthodox, unsentimental and gripping spy
thriller. Traditional but with enough of a fresh stance to make it stand out.
The protagonist is tough but sympathetic and convincingly realised.'
Superb new CIA thriller featuring black ops expert Milo Weaver and acclaimed by Lee Child as 'first class -- the kind of thing John le Carre might have written' In the global age of the CIA, wherever there's trouble, there's a Tourist: the men and women who do the dirty work. They're the Company's best agents -- and Milo Weaver was the best of them all. Following a near-lethal encounter with foreign hitman the 'Tiger', a burnt-out Milo decides to continue his work from behind a desk. Four years later, he's no closer to finding the Tiger than he was before. When the elusive assassin unexpectedly gives himself up to Milo, it's because he wants something in return: revenge. Once a Tourist, always a Tourist -- soon Milo is back in the field, tracking down the Tiger's handler in a world of betrayal, skewed politics and extreme violence. It's a world he knows well but he's about to learn the toughest lesson of all: trust no one.
Olen Steinhauer was born in Virginia and grew up in Texas where he attended the state University in Austin.
He was inspired to write his Eastern European series while on a Fullbright Fellowship in Romania to write about the 1989 revolution.
He moved to New York to sell his book and began the second while in Florence. It was in Budapest, Hungary, that he finished it and still resides.
His first two novels, 'The Bridge of Sighs' and 'The Confession', have garnered thus far an Edgar nomination, an Anthony nomination, a Macavity nomination, a Historical Dagger nomination and rave reviews.
'The Vienna Assignment' was his first novel published with HarperCollins and received excellent hardback reviews in the Guardian and Daily Telegraph.
