Customer Reviews

The Amateur Spy

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

 

 

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.

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

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.

i have now read five books by this author and am into my sixth. I have no idea what led to this uninspired and lifeless book. Fesperman's main character, Freeman Lockhart, isn't simply an amateur spy, he is a bumbling and inept thinker who wanders through the Middle East in search of an original idea. Amazingly, Lockhart is described as a man with extensive experience in the world's most troubled areas by virtue of a career as a humanitarian aid worker, but his actions reflect none of this as he misreads every situation he faces.

Perhaps the most disturbing feature of the book is the apparent motive for Lockhart's actions. He seeks to protect a secret, not about himself, but about his wife. Lockhart inflates his own moral qualities by this steadfast refusal to reveal the secret. As it turns out, the secret is an implausible reason for any of his actions. Revealing the secret would have . . . well, that is the problem, the result of a revelation isn't a very big deal.

The second story line in the book is equally implausible. No, not implausible, flat impossible. A surgeon who treats nationally prominent politicians plans and pursues the bombing of a church full of national leaders by tunneling from an abandoned pizza joint, across an alley, to the church, almost single-handedly. But for a change of heart by the surgeon, the plan would have succeeded; we even have the surgeon's finger on the toggle switch before Lockhart saves planet earth.

Here's hoping Fesperman regains his balance in his sixth book.

Retreating from the frustrations and disillusions of aid work in Bosnia, Africa and the Middle East, Freeman Lockhart and his thirty-seven year old wife, Mila, a Bosnian, hope to recapture some measure of peace on the Aegean island of Karos. But on the first night in their refuge, three intruders interrupt their idyllic home, bringing back the turmoil of the past as a lever to induce Freeman to travel to Amman, Jordan, to work with a former friend and aid co-worker, Omar Al-Baroody. Omar is organizing plans for a hospital in the Bakaa Refugee Camp, accumulating funds from private donors. Lockhart is to investigate every aspect of his old friend's new venture. Years of experience with NGOs have taught Freeman the moral ambiguities of servicing countries where vast sums of money change hands, the endemic corruption and endless bribery that plague the system. Lockhart has made mistakes along the way, youthful idealism morphing into a weary cynicism that takes him to the edge of reason, brought back to humanity by Mila's care. Now the past has intruded again and Freeman is determined to keep the personal cost to a minimum.

In Jordan, nothing is as it appears, no one trustworthy. Meeting Omar again is bittersweet, a shared history and the suggestion of misdeeds tainting the experience. Putting his doubts aside, Lockhart scours Omar's office after hours with an eye to useful information, funneling details to his handlers. The problem is that Lockhart is never sure who he is representing, his government or another clandestine agency, all obsessed with terrorist activities. Worrying about the identity of his handlers, Freeman doubts the viability of extricating himself from a mission more suspect by the day, an "amateur" spy out of his depth in a dangerous place. Contacting old friends from his years in the field, the cast of characters grows more mysterious and troublesome, a mélange of government interests and local politics, a German physician, the American embassy, assorted strangers who spy on his every move, and that of Mila in Athens and an Arab-American woman who arrives in Jordan on an inexplicable mission that Freeman belatedly learns may have a terrible impact in the states.

The author captures the internal complications of the Middle East, from Jordan to Jerusalem to Greece, years of aid work hardly preparing the protagonist for a world of missed chances and dangerous passions, a world he chose to leave for before it destroyed him. Floundering, Lockhart follows his somewhat rusty instincts, sometimes evading pursuers but caught in the crossfire of unforeseen events and the clever players who manipulate the strings of an unfolding drama. Wearied by his efforts to make a difference, unprepared for the intricacies of spy-craft and the devastating consequences on his future with Mila, Freeman faces an impossible task in a place where all the answers are subject to interpretation. That he does so with great courage is a testament to a commitment to his core beliefs. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

Freeman Lockhart and his wife Mila are newly retired United Nations aide workers . Their home is on the Aegean island of Karos. Upon arrival and opening the front door they smell fresh cigarette smoke. Someones recently been in their home! Freeman dismisses it as the neighbor/friend/caretaker. Yet later during the night Freeman, now himself uneasy, goes and retrieves his shotgun to stick under the bed. Low and behold tho when he goes to load it he finds his box of shells empty! Again, he dismisses it as the neighbor, Stavros.

Later that night three guys break into their house/bedroom. Freeman goes for the gun. Mila goes for the phone. One of the three men steps on Freeman's hand and then punches him BOOM in the face blooding his nose etc.. Mila is yanked around and the phone wrench from her. WHAT FOR FOR CRIPES SAKE?! The three intruders admit to having cut the phone lines and disarming the shotgun PRIOR to their arrival. I guess Mr. Fesperman forgot.

Freeman/Mila are lead to believe that these guys are from the CIA. If these guys are trying to pretend they are fellow Americans from the CIA and are soliciting Freeman's help why are they treating them violently? Why come in the middle of the night?

Plus at the near end of the book we find out who they really are and that makes even less sense! These guys, supposedly the best aren't going to be making such amateur mistakes (smoking in target house, using unnecessary violence).
And as another reviewer mentioned, as soon as we are informed of their real ID, POOF! we hear no more about or from them. I guess Mr. Fesperman just didn't want to go there, possibly stepping on toes, risk having his book labeled anti-semantic....etc.

The whole charade (midnight break-in, strong arm, taking to empty house) to blackmail Freeman into spying is laughable. It set the tone for the rest of the book.

Freeman was a reckless idiot. Why oh why would he keep calling and talking to his wife knowing full well the phones were tapped. Why couldn't Mila just bloody shut up, sit still and stop putting her husband at risk? How selfish. How was he able to use that laptop, the "cia" laptop, which we're lead to believe came strictly preprogrammed to perform only certain functions, to send emails etc. at Internet cafes? If they were watching him 24/7, which again we are lead to believe, why was he allowed to do so. We aren't given the impression that they have the laptop "bugged" . You'd think they, the worlds best intelligence service, would at least have setup a keylogger.

The American side to this story; famous Arab DC surgeon (to congressmen) turned radical and about to blow up a church filled with lots of Congressmen (his patients) etc., was over the top.
All n all none of this book added up.

I've read and liked most all DF other books. Will, when it comes out, try his 'The Arms Maker of Berlin'.

I was looking for a bright, engaging thriller for a long plane ride. What a disappointment. Consider: three armed goons abduct you at gunpoint, threaten to take over your life in unpleasant ways -- like a visa issue for re-entry to the US -- if you don't come out of retirement to spy on a former colleague. The guns are annoying, but it turns out you don't even mind, even though supposedly you and you spouse are under surveillance by unknown forces. But not to worry, because, as another reviewer points out, not much happens, there is more talk than action, and ultimately we care about as much as the protagonist, which is to say, not much. There is simply not enough at stake for us to care about the characters. I can usually find something positive to say about a well written book, even when I don't like it. But this one is so structurally flawed and devoid of action that even the writing can't save it. So save your money for another book. Two thumbs down.

A lot of the events in this novel just seem to happen too easily- the main character begins spying on his old friend Omar after the briefest of moral struggles. Is he supposed to be amoral ? I wasn't sure. And then he hops into bed with another old friend as revenge for what he imagines are his wife's infidelities. In the real world, all the amateurish snooping around he does in Athens and Amman would get him seriously busted up. Again, it's just too easy for him. I was also underwhelmed by the deep, dark secret Freeman is concealing from his wife, which allows him to be blackmailed in the first place. The nick-of-time ending is totally predictable. The author does a good job of description of the various locales, as well as illustrating the daily humiliations which many Arab-Americans have undoubtedly faced since 9/11.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that the central character is not always engaging. But I think Fesperman intends this. Freeman Lockheart (there's a deliberate choice of name) is as slippery with the reader as he is with the other characters and his descriptions of his past. Thought-provoking on many levels. Definitely worth the 4 stars.

THE AMATEUR SPY is one of those novels that at various points leaves a reader torn between rapidly turning the pages and throwing the book across the room. By turns intriguing and confounding, it reflects our time and our world --- neither of which are pretty --- in a story that is ultimately intriguing but requires one too many leaps of faith.

Freeman Lockhart wants nothing more than to retire from his humanitarian aid work and withdraw from the world with his wife Mila to a small, almost pastoral Greek island. Their idyllic existence never really gets off the ground; their first night on the island is interrupted by three men who subject Freeman to a stiff-legged recruitment pitch for spying on Omar al-Baroody, a Palestinian with whom Freeman had worked and subsequently befriended several years before. Omar is ostensibly involved in a fund-raising project in Jordan to build a much-needed hospital, but may or may not be tied to something more nefarious. The prod for Freeman's cooperation is blackmail; he has a secret that he has long kept from Mila, supposedly for her own good, and her continued ignorance is the coin that his mysterious recruiters are willing to pay.

Freeman is easily --- almost too easily --- able to insert himself into Omar's fund-raising operation, where he finds that his old friend is indeed involved in things above and beyond humanitarian causes. Yet Freeman himself is in way over his head; he is caught between factions, governmental and otherwise, with his every move scrutinized by shadowy figures who seem to be operating at cross-purposes to each other.

Meanwhile, in a Washington, D.C. suburb, Abbas Rahim, a prominent Palestinian-American surgeon and his wife Aliyah continue working through the grief occasioned by the accidental death of their daughter one year ago. Abbas blames, somewhat improbably, the post-9/11 posture of the United States government and, inspired by a radio report of a terrorist act abroad, cooks up a bloody revenge of his own. Aliyah, horrified by her husband's plot, is determined to stop him. So she travels to Jordan for the apparent purpose of acquiring the expertise that Abbas needs to carry out his misguided revenge. Aliyah finds, however, that her actions have only served to clear the way for Abbas to execute his plan. Aliyah's path barely, almost imperceptibly, intersects with Freeman's. Yet it may or may not be enough to prevent the occurrence of Abbas's plan, which, if successful, will dramatically change the complexion of world politics.

Dan Fesperman's writing continues to be compelling. But where THE AMATEUR SPY gets snagged is upon the motives of its principal characters. The event that Freeman so desperately wishes to keep secret from his wife (which I am deliberately not revealing), while a horrible one, ultimately has little to do with their actions and everything to do with those of the terrorists. It is a stretch, to say the least, to hold the Lockharts accountable in any way. The irony of the book --- Freeman, pressed into service to spy on a relatively innocent player, inadvertently uncovers a much larger, more significant plot and cannot get anyone to listen --- is almost lost in the conclusion, which keeps several loose threads dangling in the wind.

Perhaps that is the point of the novel: in the Middle East, nothing is resolved or concluded --- there is merely a succession of events. The ultimate strength of THE AMATEUR SPY, however, is the manner in which Lockhart, a fish out of water, manages to survive in a very dangerous land.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub