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1953: No one is safe from the creature who buries deep, causing the world around them to cave in…
An Honorable Man
What you need to know before your trail
The Cold War is heating up: McCarthyism, with all its fear and demagoguery, is raging in the nation’s capital, and Joseph Stalin’s death has left a dangerous power vacuum in the Soviet Union.
The CIA suspects that there’s a double agent within their midst. Someone is selling secrets to the Soviets, compromising missions around the globe and undercover agents are being killed. But how do you find a mole when exposing that mole could in itself compromise the entire work of the agency.
Enter George Mueller – Yale-educated; extensive experience running missions in Eastern Europe; an operative so dedicated to his job that it left his marriage in tatters. The Director trusts him but Mueller has secrets of his own and as he digs deeper, making contact with a Soviet agent, suspicion begins to fall on him as well.
No one is safe from the creature who buries deep, causing the world around them to cave in…
Travel Guide
Travel BookTrail style to Washington, DC
Washington, DC, circa 1953, at the height of the McCarthy era, is a paranoid and fear ridden place. This was a very particular time across the world but in the city where the CIA is located, the tension and worry was particularly fierce.
Mueller shows us this atmosphere through his eyes and so the claustrophobia of the city is heightened as his mind draws ever narrower and his field of vision is constantly over shadowed by something unseen.
Life as a spy is all about running and hiding, waiting and watching – a bit like the Cold War itself when you think about it.
It was a clever mix of historical truth and fictional threads weaving a very interesting political and spy based tapestry of intrigue. The novel is based on a real life case where a man was found dead in his Georgetown apartment – the situation very similar to that of Robert Altman in the novel. James Speyer Kronthal was a deputy of Allen Dulles who worked in the OSS with him at the Bern station during WW2. He was one of the original men brought to the CIA by Dulles – only the first batch as it were who were brought in before lie detector tests were brought in. Buried secrets did not stay buried for long and Altman/Kronthal’s life was revealed to the nation.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
I don’t normally read a lot of spy fiction so when this landed on the desk at the Booktrail I wasn’t quite sure if I was going to enjoy it. Well, I did, and it’s a very interesting and quite topical subject matter with the way the world is going now so this added to the overall reading experience.
As this is based on a true story, you might know or guess who the mole is but it’s the overall story that is of interest. The Cold War and the fascinating way the city and the world was at that time. Imagine if there’s a mole in the very place meant to protect your country!?
The book is definitely well researched and full of evocative detail and a story line which bubbles quietly before exploding.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: An Honorable Man
Author/Guide: Paul Vidich Destination: Washington DC Departure Time: 1953
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