Customer Reviews

Agents of Treachery (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Original)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me start by saying - if you love thrillers, especially spy thrillers - buy this book. The editor has collected deeply layered and entertaining stories by some of the best in the business. I already look forward to re-reading it. Among my favorites are McCarry's The End of the String which brings to life a humble spy and an intriguing African dictator, Child tells the story of a black op with a twist, Weisman's Father's Day is a heart pumping ground-pounder, Morrell's The Interrogator lays bare human morality, and Klaven's Sleeping with My Assassin is an incredibly intriguing premise. But all of the stories were strong which is no surprise given the authors including Finder, Hunter, Wilson, Fesperman, and Steinhauer.

Most striking for me is the difference between the Cold War tales and those that deal with the current threats of today. The Cold War activities seem almost quaint when compared with the direct, less subtle tradecraft used in an era of global terrorism. Lynds' story, Max is Calling, sums up the difference in this passage: "The days are over of putting on your tux for an embassy party every night to try to get buddy-buddy with some East Bloc official so you can convince him his ideology sucks and he should play on our team. Now you've got to infiltrate the tenements, the mud huts, the terrorist cells."

This is a collection of fourteen original short stories written by some of the best thriller writers in the business, including Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Charles McCarry, Olen Steinhauer and Stella Rimington. They span a range of timeframes and countries, from 1940s Switzerland to the current war in Iraq.

The standard is somewhat uneven. I thought a few of the stories were outstanding, some were just good and a few left me cold. I enjoyed the way that each one reflected the author's writing style and I look forward to exploring some of the authors whose work was previously unknown to me.

Stand-outs for me included Charles McCarry's account of an African dictator which was reminiscent of the film The Last King Of Scotland. The characters are so well developed that they really come alive. Joseph Finder writes a very accessible and clever story about a man who harbors suspicions about his next door neighbors. John Weisman writes about a CIA agent on the frontline in Iraq, working for a boss who values climbing the ladder ahead of retrieving hostages.

Lee Child's story was probably the biggest disappointment and I wondered if it was included for the value that his name adds to the collection rather than on its own merits.

Overall a mixed bag, but with some stand-outs that made it well worthwhile.

Just got this and have only read so far Charles McCarry's lead story "The End of the String", and, McCarry's tale is so good, the book is worth buying just for this story alone. The rest will be gravy. I won't give the story away, but I will tell you that the main character is so strong, I swear I could hear this man breathing. The plot line is tense, the emotional tone close to the terseness of a Heminway short story. McCarry is a great writer. He put me in the story's location from the first sentence right to the last. I could see the places, hear the people, the sounds, I could smell it. To be able to do that is amazing, but that's his magic. Great read. I find my self still thinking about it and wanting to re-read it.

This is collection of short stories which revolve around the spy and that type of espionage. Interestingly Otto Penzler claims in the introduction that this is the first collection of this type of short story. I'm not sure that's true but then again I can't think off the top of my head of another collection so maybe he's right. There are some big name authors of novels contributing to this collection, do they all write as good a short story as they do a novel? Some do, some don't. Overall I think the collection passes the time but there's not really any masterpieces you'll be thinking about years or even weeks after you've read them. The format of this collection is a bit weird too, there's a contents page which lists the stories and their page numbers, but each author isn't named. Nor is there a copyright page doing this either. Initially I wondered if this was one of those guess who wrote what story collections, but the authors are named on the first page of each story.

Even though each story has never before been published. Depending on when you are reading this review they may well have been published in something you have read. So if you're just a fan of one or two authors and are wondering what story in here is theirs, the stories and their authors inside are
The End of the String - Charles McCarry
Section 7 (A) (Operational)- Lee Child
Destiny City - James Grady
Neighbors - Joseph Finder
East of Suez, West of Charing Cross Road - John Lawton
Father's Day - John Weisman
Casey at the Bat - Stephen Hunter
Max is Calling - Gayle Lynds
The Interrogator - David Morrell
Sleeping With My Assasin - Andrew Klavan
The Hamburg Redemption - Robert Wilson
The Courier - Dan Fesperman
Hedged In - Stella Rimington
You Know What's Going On - Olen Steinhauer

The best stories in here in my opinion are Finder's Neighbors about an Arabaian man who moves in next door to a racist. The racist is determined to prove the Arab's background is not what he says so he can expose him which embarrasses his wife. But is he right? The Interrogator by Morrell is also an interesting look into the mind of a torturer who thinks he's better and more intelligent than the average torturer and that his results are more accurate than theirs where the victim will just tell what they think the torturers want to know to make them stop. However in his explanations of why his way is better he starts to over think some things.

I wasn't sure how to rate this one. As a book overall I wanted to give it a three because the stories were all (too) short, but then this is a collection of short stories, so it wouldn't be right to penalize the book because each of the stories were not of novel length, right? I can't remember the last time I read a collection of short stories so it's hard to compare, but as a collection this book might deserve a five.

I took the easy way out and gave it a four.

Every one of these stories was good, some better than others. The first was one of my favorites. The last story was one I had trouble following in the beginning, but started to catch on just before the whole thing turned upside down. I'm glad I stuck with it because it turned out to be one of the most memorable with multiple twists and turns.

EDIT: I changed my mind. I'm going to give it a five. I'd rather read a full novel than a short story. As short stories though, this was a good collection.

And I just noticed that my review showed up for the paperback version. I bought and read this on my Kindle. I wonder what that's about?

...Paul believed, though he had no evidence of it, that other spies did not suffer from this. But evidence holds little sway over belief, and so it was for him...."

Death, or at least the threat of it, motivates some crucial aspect of each of the original stories contributed by various prominent mystery and thriller writers. But many other themes give this collection dimension: love, loyalty, intrigue, politics, betrayal, redemption, subterfuge, war, sacrifice, and futility. Otto Penzler edited this anthology which includes spy tales by Olen Steinhauer, Andrew Klavan, Joseph Finder, Lee Child, and Dan Fesperman.

Lee Child's "Section 7(A) (Operational)" describes how "the team first came together late one Tuesday evening in my apartment." Child adds, "I had none of them, and then I had all of them." He proceeds to describe the men and women who would 'be going into action" -- including the traitor, who "like all traitors...would be motivated by either ideology, or money, or blackmail." This gathering of operatives is really a prelude of sorts. It isn't a story so much as a clever compilation of characters, and it that shifts from one reality into another in the conclusion. It is a writer's preparation, a writer's gathering of a cast for possible future use, a writer's staging...

And that brings me to a reader's observation about anthologies like this and this one in particular. Sometimes, especially when contributing authors are well known, one can feel that they wrote their portions with a sense of obligation but not necessarily ringing inspiration. Put another way, some writers focus more on their next novel than they do on a short story for a paperback. Or, they use the short story as groundwork for longer fiction. Although I got a whiff of that from Child's contribution, I hasten to add that I enjoyed reading "Section 7 (A) (Operational)" and admired the smooth twist at the end. A few of the other stories struck me as ideas that the authors didn't want to use elsewhere but felt comfortable exploring for this collection. Some of the plots appear to be stews of stray ideas. For instance, one can make that case for "East of Suez, West of Charing Cross Road," by John Lawton. This is a an entertaining story about a seemingly unexceptional army man named George Horsfield who manages to have his identity confused with a more notable Horsfield and gets himself involved with Russky blackmailers as a result. Yet despite its charms, Lawton's story suggests itself to be a concatenation of various unused items from his ideas file cabinet.

Let's move on to some of my favorite selections: "Sleeping with My Assassin," by Andrew Klavan has a Russian-born narrator who has been a sleeper in the U.S. for most of his life. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, his fate has been uncertain. Add to that his desire for an America that reflects the little town in the Ukraine where he trained to be a sleeper. He wants an "old and innocent America" that actually never existed. Enter the woman who could be both the answer to his dreams...and his nemesis.

Then there are two "lighter" submissions about spy games in the suburbs: "Neighbors," by Joseph Finder, and "Hedged In," by Stella Rimington. Although many readers may catch on early to what Finder has up his sleeve, his is a fun romp. Rimington, in a riff about a self-judged failure of a man who's had it with his presumptuous neighbors, smartly shields her true authorial aims and thus provides a snapping surprise.

Among the most uncompromisingly grim, but unfortunately believable, stories is "Father's Day," by John Weisman. He makes no bones about the utterly despicable depths to which he believes Islamic terrorists would sink, and "Charlie Becker, retired Army Ranger and current spy" irrevocably discovers these depths for himself on the day fatherhood is supposedly honored most especially.

This anthology provides plenty of bang for the buck. Its variations of voice and subject matter, and its four hundred plus pages provide one with many hours of suspenseful and often insightful reading. Although these are not all espionage tales that seem likely to have come from real spy experiences, they each deliver their own unique impact. I would not have wanted to miss Agents of Treachery.

I purchased this book based off of Steinhauer's recommendations. I was surprised that most of the stories, expcept for Steinhauer's short story, were so simple and basic. They lacked character and depth. I would have expected more thrilling short stories from such famous authors, but in my opinion they missed the mark. The editor wrote a wonderful forenote about how creative authors have to be to write these types of espionage short stories, but to my surprise, most of the stories weren't as he described- at all. Olen Steinhauer's short story, has so far, been the only true multilayerd short story in the book. The others just kept writing about cruel and gruesome intentions of some terrorist and forgot to write a plot around it. Too bad. Good thrillers and intricate plot espionage stories are hard to come by, most of these authors have proved that.

Of the 14 stories in this collection, at least 10 were absolutely worth reading. The collection had a fine mix of modern and classic tales with stunning tone and plot details. Some entries were campy while others were chaotic. In many of the pieces, there was a stunning amount of accuracy in the plots and characters. Otto Penzler's introduction itself is a great read. There are some big-name authors collected here, allowing fans to enjoy their favorites and newbies to sample some unfamiliar terrain. Penzler has assembled several other great collections, for both Black Lizard press and for the annual Best Mystery Stories series. I'm working my way through them all and hoping for another Agents edition -- it was that good.

The benefit of short stories is that, well, they're short. A few in this collection, like the tales by Lee Child and Joseph Finder, are. A couple are rather long. Each is worth your time. Occasionally there is an O. Henry-like ending that is always fun.

A good summer read.

The book arrived in a timely fashion and its condition was as promised in the ad.