Written by Liz Crowe
This present-day spy novel has a lot going for it you’d expect: * handsome, romantically-down-on-his-luck FBI agent * someone trying to build a nuclear bomb piece by piece * post-cold war descriptions of Russia and Poland as gray, monolithic, truly sad places to live * double crossing, greedy police officers * a military guy who thinks he should be king or emperor, or both But it adds in a few unique twists that you don’t: * a gay CIA agent willing to do whatever it takes to get the information he needs * a truly whacky, egomaniacal mad scientist * a love interest for the FBI agent that sort of goes nowhere (although this could be filed under “what you’d expect” for some readers of the genre) * a surprisingly tender story about a marriage gone bad that leads to involvement in a lot of the above items The Fourth Courier moves fast. The dialogue reads more like a screenplay than a novel in many places, which is something I normally enjoy. It also has a fairly large cast of characters which, at times, made for some confusion, given the lightning fast pace. But the author is truly gifted at putting you in a place where you experience the pelting cold, the dreary monotony, the general gray-ness and overall futility of life in Poland and Russia. It’s the sort of book you pick up and don’t put down too often until you reach the ending in a breathless rush of “wait, what?” It’s entertaining and well worth the time spent. 4 stars
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