The Amateur Spy [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Dan Fesperman (Author), Phil Gigante (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2008

Burned out by years of humanitarian-aid work, Freeman and Mila Lockhart have retreated to an idyllic Greek island. But on the first night of their new life they are surprised by three intruders who seem to know everything about Freeman - including a haunting secret he has long kept from Mila. They use it to blackmail him into spying on an old Palestinian friend in Jordan. Overnight, Freeman is plunged into the maelstrom of the Middle East and is quickly in over his head. In suburban Washington, D.C., meanwhile, a prosperous Palestinian-American couple, Abbas and Aliyah Rahim, are still grieving for their daughter, accidentally killed while vacationing abroad. Abbas, a surgeon whose patients number among the nation’s elite, blames her death on the bureaucratic machinations of overly suspicious officials. Aliyah fears he may be reeling toward fanaticism, and her efforts to avert this take her to Jordan. Like Freeman, she is soon overwhelmed by the region’s dangerous passions and complexities. As their paths converge, Freeman and Aliyah - both desperately worried about the loved ones they left behind - must swiftly separate fact from illusion, enemy from friend. The consequences of failure could be catastrophic. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

War correspondent Fesperman, the winner of the CWA's John Creasey Memorial Dagger Award, shines the light of his insider's knowledge into the dark corners of Jordan and Jerusalem in his gripping fifth thriller. After a career as an aid worker in some of the world's hot spots, 55-year-old Freeman Lockhart has retired with his 37-year-old Bosnian wife, Mila, to the Aegean island of Karos. The first night in their new home they wake to find three intruders, who spirit Freeman away to a nearby location where he's ordered to fly to Jordan to spy on a former friend and co-worker, Omar al-Baroody. When Freeman declines, his captors tell him that if he doesn't do what they ask, they'll tell the world his dark secret involving Mila from their days working in Africa. Freeman heads off to Amman to do their bidding. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a wealthy doctor, Abbas Rahim, plots an act of terrorism that will threaten the lives of the government's highest power brokers. Freeman may be an amateur spy, but Fesperman (The Prisoner of Guantánamo) proves once again that he's a consummate professional. Author tour.(Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Burned-out aid worker Freeman Lockhart wants nothing more than to retire to a Greek island with his beautiful young wife. He makes it to the island, but three men break into his house with a job offer: they want him to get back in the business, this time to spy on an old friend whose Jordanian charity may be financing terrorists. Fesperman is a former globe-trotting journalist whose nonfiction informs his novels. But after a terrific debut (Lie in the Dark, 1999), subsequent works have gradually grown more cerebral and less thrilling—and this latest effort is hamstrung by both a surplus of expository dialogue and by curiously old-fashioned prose (Lockhart, allegedly American, exclaims “Good Lord!” and calls other men “fellows” and “scoundrels”). Although politically savvy travelers will find much to interest them in the background, the action in the foreground is somewhat slack. We don’t doubt Fesperman’s reportorial skills, but given the contemporary nature of his knowledge, it would have been nice if this novel didn’t read like a work from the past. --Keir Graff --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio Unabridged Lib Ed; Library edition (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423317823
• ISBN-13: 978-1423317821
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.1 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A long, tedious path to a somewhat exciting climax, November 4, 2009

By 

Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Amateur Spy (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

I found this to be very slow going. The major part of the novel has the main character acting very much the amateur and takes his time doing so. Seems like he makes boo-boos that even we armchair spies wouldn't make. And the reading of his bumbling is just plain dull. The climax is exciting, but it takes a heck of a long while to get there.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb espionage thriller, March 6, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Amateur Spy (Hardcover)

After years working in the world's most dangerous spots as an aid worker, fifty-five year old Freeman Lockhart retires. He and his thirty-something Bosnian spouse Mila take residence on the island of Karos in the Aegean Sea.

However, on their very first night, three home invaders abduct Freeman. They demand he do their bidding. He is to go to Jordon to spy on a former aid co-worker Omar al-Baroody. If he refuses, they will publicly destroy him and his wife by revealing his darkest secret involving his spouse when they worked in Africa. Stunned, he travels to Amman while in Washington, D.C. Dr. Abbas Rahim plans a terrorist attack that ties back to Freeman's Jordanian mission.

THE AMATEUR SPY is a superb espionage thriller and the audience will show their appreciation by reading it in one entranced sitting. Freeman is terrific as the title character blackmailed into a scenario that is out of his skill level but failure is unacceptable as he knows the price. Fans will sympathize and root for him while watching him bungle his way through a dangerous mission in which he knows no matter what he does someone will die.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but curiously unmoving and unengaging, March 22, 2008

By 

Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Amateur Spy (Hardcover)

I won't go into a full rehash of the story, as the publishing reviews and other member reviews have done that in great detail. Essentially, this is the story of a retired aid worker (Freeman Lockhart) who's recruited by a murky intelligence agency to perform some spying for them targeting one of his former associates, a Palestinian now running a charitable fundraising organization. Of course, the question Lockhart is to determine is if, in fact, that's really all his old friend is up to. As leverage, three agents from the unnamed agency threaten Lockhart's young wife while also threatening to reveal to her a secret from Lockhart's past he doesn't want revealed because he's afraid of how it will affect her.

Okay, I know that all sounds complicated; well, it gets even more so as the story progresses.

At the same time, in Washington, DC, an American doctor of Middle Eastern descent and his wife, whose daughter was killed in a passport screwup while overseas which may have been caused by delays due to her Middle Eastern last name -- or so the doctor believes -- find themselves involved in a plot to commit a terrorist act against a gathering of high government officials.

See what I mean?

There are some interesting ideas here: an "amateur spy" with absolutely no intelligence training or experience bumbling his way through an operation; the byzantine politics of the Middle East, with its various competing factions; the world of aid distribution and cease-fire monitoring.

Unfortunately, author Fesperman had so many balls in the air he ends up dropping several of them.

When we finally learn the identity of the agency that's behind his "recruitment", that entire thread of the story abruptly disappears. Somehow or another, the threat they posed to his entire lifestyle becomes an absolute non-issue. The parallel stories of Lockhart and the doctor and his wife are dependant on far too many incredible happenstances. Lockhart's wife Mila -- the motivating factor in all his actions -- is almost a cartoon character, a virtual non-entity, simply the "McGuffin" of the story (to borrow from Hitchcock). He acquires a gun, and then never does anything with it, including never getting any ammunition. Fesperman throws up beaureaucratic obstacles to a couple of characters' departure from Jordan that suddenly -- and for no discernible reason -- disappear when it suits the story's timeline for them to leave the country.

For me, the parts of the story dealing with the refugee world in Jordan and the parasites of various persuasions that feed from and upon it was very interesting, and earned the three stars I gave this book. But I don't think le Carre is in any danger of losing his throne in this genre.