The Prodigal Spy [Mass Market Paperback]

Joseph Kanon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 1999

In a time of accusations, treachery and lies, some secrets were heartbreaking....

Others were deadly.

Once, Nick Kotlar tried to save his father. From the angry questions. From the accusations. From a piece of evidence that only Nick knew about and that he destroyed—for his father. But in the Red Scare of 1950 Walter Kotlar could not be saved. Branded a spy, he fled the country, leaving behind a wife, a young son—and a key witness lying dead below her D.C. hotel room.

Now, twenty years later, Nick will get a second chance. Because a beautiful journalist has brought a message from his long-lost father, and Nick will follow her into Soviet-occupied Prague for a painful reunion. Confronting a father he barely remembers and a secret that could change everything, Nick knows he must return to the place where it all began: to unravel a lie, to penetrate a deadly conspiracy, and to expose the one person who knew the truth—and watched a family be destroyed.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Boyd Gaines (The Heidi Chronicles, She Loves Me) reads The Prodigal Spy in a smooth, even baritone, spouting off sentences with the ease and charm of television game-show host. What's more, his renditions of a McCarthyesque congressman, a sassy young journalist, and a Czech American defector--to name a few--are a treat to hear; not to mention his female impersonations, which would make Terence Stamp from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert envious. A master storyteller and consummate ham, Gaines's award-winning acting shines through, making this edition highly entertaining. (Running time: 6 hours, 5 CDs) --Rebecca Warren --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Kanon's second novel, after the very well-received Los Alamos, is somewhat disappointing. He ventures into John le Carre territory, telling the tale of an American State Department official, hounded by the McCarthyites in 1950, who proves them right by abruptly decamping to the Soviet Union in the middle of congressional hearings into his loyalty. The tale of Walter Koltar is told by his son Nick, both at the time of his disappearance, when Nick is a small boy not quite understanding what is happening to his father, and nearly 20 years later, when he receives a mysterious summons to visit his father, now living in Czechoslovakia, just after the illusory "Prague Spring" of 1968. Walter wants to return home and thinks he has a trump card that will make that possible. Will Nick help out? As he proved in Los Alamos, Kanon is very adept at rendering the feeling and atmosphere of another time, and his early chapters are powerful evocations of that strange period in American life. He is good, too, on the bizarre quality of life in Prague after the Soviet invasion. The book is thoughtful, often penetrating, though at its considerable length, and with its comparatively small cast?Nick; his abandoned mother; his stepfather, Larry (another top Washington official); and his girlfriend Molly?it sometimes is a bit claustrophobic. The real problems appear in the last 100 pages, where the pace accelerates, J. Edgar Hoover is introduced as a not altogether convincing walk-on, and Nick takes a catastrophic action that seems entirely out of character with how he has been presented previously. It is as if the conventions of the spy thriller are working against Kanon's real strengths, which are in the creation of character as forged by intelligently re-created history.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Island Books (November 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440225345
• ISBN-13: 978-0440225348
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.3 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #557,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph Kanon is the author of four other novels, Los Alamos, The Good German, The Prodigal Spy and Alibi. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a book publishing executive. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a Home Run, November 12, 2001

By 

bibliomane01 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prodigal Spy (Mass Market Paperback)

When I read Walter Kanon's first novel, "Los Alamos," I felt that we had a new thriller writer with real potential on our hands. That book didn't quite work, with the author spending too much time on atmosphere and the characters and not enough time on the plot. After all, in my book you read a thriller for the plot - if you want great characters and atmosphere, read Flaubert or Bellow. With "The Prodigal Spy," however, Mr. Kanon has definitely hit a home run. The characters are truly vivid, and the atmosphere of 1969 Prague is very well done indeed. But it is the plot that will stay in my mind, enthralling in its detail, complexity and surprises; all elements of the story are expertly balanced, making for a very enjoyable experience. This tale of a young man travelling behind the Iron Curtain to meet his long-lost defector father and then returning to the United States to uncover an even more important mole is worthy of comparison with le Carre, Greene and even Eric Ambler himself. I thought the denoument rather predictable, but that didn't spoil "a cracking good read." Bravo!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story of Deceit, Lies and a Prodigal Bond, February 27, 2004

By 

Tracy Oshima (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Prodigal Spy (Mass Market Paperback)

It is 1950 and the House Un-American Activities Committee accuses ten-year-old Nick's father, Walter Kotlar, an undersecretary at the Department of State, of being a Communist spy. Nick finds out by seeing him being interrogated by congressmen on the newsreel while at the movies. He refuses to believe it, but his father leaves little doubt when he flees the country in the shadow of the suspicious death of a young woman who testified against him.

Jump ahead to the late '60s, and after serving time with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, Nick is in Europe with his stepfather, Larry, who is in Europe to represent the U.S. at the Paris peace talks to end the war in Vietnam. Nick has put his real father, who has since turned up in the Soviet Union where he admitted to being a spy and had received the Order of Lenin, behind him.

While in Paris Nick meets Molly, an American hippie type, who tell him his father is now living in Czechoslovakia and wants to see him. In Prague Nick's father tells him that he had been betrayed and framed for murder. He also tells him he wants to come home and that he'll give up the names of spies still operating in exchange for life in America.

Nick and Molly go to Washington to search out the spies fingered by Nick's father, including one highly placed agent named Silver, who has been selling out his country for decades and who Nick believes is responsible for many deaths. And now this spy named Silver may even be after Nick.

Mr. Kanon has written a super mystery-thriller that tells the sordid story of McCarthyism as you burn the midnight oil, eagerly reading through the pages to see what comes next in this tale of intrigue that has an ending I guarantee you won't see coming.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Cracking Good Read for the Money, December 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Prodigal Spy (Mass Market Paperback)

In a contemporary book world dominated by the macabre, the distasteful and the sappy, it's wonderful (and rare) to find a genuinely entertaining read. Kanon's prose flows swiftly and he excels at building tension into many scenes, particularly those in Prague. These qualities warrant forgiveness for the all too transparent ending and the occasional glitch that greater attention to the research might have avoided. (The Mayflower Hotel--or any other DC hotel--doesn't have 16 floors and the Soviet Embassy isn't on Embassy Row--it's downtown.) Yet Kanon vividly captures the essence of Prague in the 60s (though how he fails to mention Hradcany Castle is beyond me). These are small irritations. A larger disappointment is that the reader is more likely to remember the action at the train station in Prague than the characters who played the scene or their motivation. OK, OK. I'd like to have it both ways--memorable characters in a tightly-woven, suspenseful plot--but these days, you're lucky to get even one of them. Kanon gives us a very good read for the money and I'm thankful for that.