Company of Strangers
- Book Review,
by Robert Wilson
Amazon.com
Robert Wilson, whose award-winning A Small Death in Lisbon broke him out as an international thriller writer in the Ambler, le Carré, and Furst tradition, scores with this exceptionally well-plotted novel of wartime intrigue in England and Portugal. Andrea Aspinall, a brilliant young British mathematician, is recruited by the British Secret Service and put through a rush course in spycraft before being sent to Lisbon, where she quickly falls in love with a disenchanted German agent and, in less than two weeks, manages to lose her virginity, unmask a conspiracy, and interrupt Germany's plan to build the first atomic bomb. The action covers a long time span--from the early years of Word War II to the era of glasnost, when Andrea, now an Oxford mathematician long retired from spying, encounters the man she once loved and lost. Karl Voss has become an East German double agent who's bent on revealing the Russian mole in England's service. The narrative wanders a bit, but the strong, spare writing and deft characterization set this apart as one of the year's better international espionage novels, one that should introduce Wilson to a bigger audience. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
This tense thriller from the author of A Small Death in Lisbon (2000) mixes mathematics with wartime intrigue to fine effect. British intelligence hires Andrea Aspinall, a mathematical wunderkind, to make use of her extraordinary gift in hunting atomic secrets. But Andrea disappears in Lisbon, where she adopts a new identity and meets Karl Voss, an attach‚ at the German legation, who's plotting against the Nazis. The action shifts to Portugal and cold-war Berlin, where intrigue and counter-intrigue are routine, until a bleak ending brings the reader up short. The narrative spans the years from WWII to glasnost and the collapse of the Berlin Wall, yet for all the inevitable social commentary the novel remains at heart a conventional sociopolitical thriller with strong echoes of le Carr‚, Ambler, Deighton and others not to mention Gravity's Rainbow. As the story lengthens and the calendar pages fall away, suspense inevitably slackens, though for the most part the novel remains supremely readable. Wilson's spare prose style never becomes skeletal, and the characters, while lightly sketched, remain believable. The author portrays Andrea in particular with sympathy and insight, and adumbrates her remarkable ability early on when she describes what might be called the joys of mathematics: "The number six... has three divisors one, two and three which if added together come to... six. Isn't that perfect?" The verdict: an evocative and compelling thriller. 5-city author tour; 75,000 first printing. (Oct. 19)Forecast: After the success of A Small Death in Lisbon, winner of Britain's CWA Gold Dagger Award, a lot is riding on this follow-up; expect sales to exceed those of the previous novel.Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Wilson here sticks with what worked so well in his stylish debut, A Small Death in Lisbon, crafting a thriller that moves from the outer edges of the Third Reich to postwar Berlin. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This uneven but ultimately satisfying novel follows the life of Andrea Aspinalt, recruited by British intelligence to gather secrets in Lisbon near the end of World War II. Following a disastrous affair with Karl Voss, the German military attachE, a relationship that apparently results in his execution, Andrea marries a Portuguese major. When her husband and son both die fighting in the colonial wars in Africa in 1968, Andrea returns to London. She becomes involved with Communists, returns to work for the SIS, and is sent on a risky mission to East Berlin, where traitors abound and long-held secrets hold their own risks. Wilson, award-winning author of A Small Death in Lisbon returns to the same atmospheric settings in Portugal (where he is at his best) and Germany, but the Byzantine plot and half-century time span detract from the penetrating analysis of the human heart that makes this novel worth reading. Recommended for larger public libraries.-Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
The care with which a British intelligence agent and a German double agent protect themselves, their allegiances, and their personal love in Portugal during WWII makes this book's conclusion somewhat incomprehensible. But as a high-action spy thriller, spanning the timeframe between the London Blitz and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, this title is a compelling read. Sean Barrett carries off a large cast of characters, domiciled in a variety of Eastern and Western European sites and speaking English with precision-perfect accents and dialects. One listens to this story of lost love with a pulsating yearning. M.D.H. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
Wilson writes a gripping espionage thriller that will keep readers guessing from beginning to end. Mathematics whiz Andrea Aspinall is recruited by the British SIS at the beginning of World War II and sent to Portugal for her first posting. Within a week, she's blown her cover, uncovered a murder, and met German double agent Karl Voss, the love of her life. Their affair is short lived, as Karl is soon captured, sent to prison, and reported dead. Andrea later marries a Portuguese general and raises a family but never forgets either Voss or her days as a spy. Reactivated by the SIS decades later, Andrea takes on a far less visible but much more dangerous role in the espionage game. The results are both unpredictable and deadly. Wilson's latest has all the right ingredients--danger, death, violence, sex, patriotism, and war--plus intriguingly complex characters and a keep-'em-guessing plot that starts slowly but quickly picks up speed. Fans of Wilson's highly regarded Small Death in Lisbon [BKL O 15 00] will find much to admire here. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Los Angeles Times
Absorbing and brilliantly written...
Rocky Mountain News
A nearly perfect thriller...insightful and enthralling.
Denver Post
A sweeping novel of international espionage.
Chicago Tribune
Complex, chilling, and cleverly written...A beguiling story of lost loves, intrigue, [and] double agents.
Review
"A plotter's delight . . . [Wilson] creates an intriguing moral maze for his heroine to negotiate."-The Guardian (London)
Book Description
In the clandestine world of 1944 Lisbon, a man and a woman discover the perilous consequences of love in war, understand the true meaning of betrayal, and share a secret so dangerous and so intimate that it could save or destroy them both.
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