The Secret Agent [Hardcover]

Francine Mathews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2002

In her acclaimed debut, The Cutout, former CIA analyst Francine Mathews defined a world of intrigue where only the savvy survive. Now, in The Secret Agent, Mathews propels us deep into the baffling history of a maverick American’s glittering life and his sudden, cataclysmic disappearance…. Here is the masterful story of secret agents of many kinds--in a realm where truth is the most dangerous secret of all.

Who was Jack Roderick?

Trained by the OSS, Jack Roderick plummeted into Bangkok one rainy morning in 1945 and never left. Silk King, pirate, ruthless collector of beautiful objects--especially women--Roderick was feared and respected as a foreign spy, a business kingpin, and a trader in men’s souls. And then, at the height of the Vietnam War, caught in a killing web of treachery and revenge that would determine the fate of his only son, Rory, Jack Roderick walked into the jungle…and vanished from the face of the earth.

Four decades later, can the mystery be solved?

International fund manager Stefani Fogg is recruited by a man whose job it is to know the unknowable. Wealthy beyond corruption, impervious to romance, and equipped with a mind that can crack any enigma, Stefani signs up for the adventure of a lifetime: playing Secret Agent to Max Roderick, grandson of Bangkok’s long-vanished Legendary American. A world-class skier tangled in a sordid Thai murder investigation, Max is consumed with the riddle of Jack Roderick’s disappearance--and with his own father’s death in the jungles of Vietnam.

Seduced by Max’s charm and intrigued by his family history, Stefani ignores the warning signs and follows her heart. But when Max’s quarrel with the Thai police turns deadly and a killer strikes, she knows she must return to the place where it all began, to unravel the lies, penetrate a deadly conspiracy, and expose a killing truth. She flees Max’s France for Bangkok’s khlongs--into the ruins of the Silk King’s dark past and the mesmerizing shadow of the Roderick family curse. What she finds, in Jack Roderick’s story and in the fate of his fighter-pilot son, is an American dream that crashed and burned in the rice paddies of Vietnam and a chilling legacy that haunts our own to this day.

Propelling us masterfully through half a century, from Manhattan to the Alps to the colorful and treacherous heart of Bangkok, and based on the life of American expatriate Jim Thompson, The Secret Agent is at once a murder mystery, a touching love story, and a lavishly atmospheric journey through the exotic landscape of love and history--an historical thriller of the first rank.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mathews, a former CIA agent, delivers the goods in a powerful, atmospheric thriller suggested by the colorful life and mysterious disappearance of Jim Thompson, who served as the first chief of U.S. Intelligence in Bangkok and founded the famed Thai silk company that still bears his name. In the author's telling, Thompson is Jack Broderick, whose grandson Max stakes his claim to the treasure of ancient artifacts and jewels amassed by the Silk King and appropriated by the Thai government after he vanished into the jungle at the height of the Vietnam War. When Max hires Oliver Krane's "risk management" firm to help him secure his legacy, Krane offers the brilliant and beautiful Stefani Fogg an irresistible challenge: prove Max's claim by solving the riddle of who Jack Broderick really was. Cutting back and forth between the past and present, Mathews weaves a fascinating web of intrigue and adventure that encompasses four decades of American involvement in southeast Asia as Krane leads Stefani into a shifting, shadowy world where nothing is ever as it seems, including the truth. The characters are unforgettable, the pacing is impeccable, and the narrative never loses focus despite the complicated plot in a page-turner that richly fulfills the promise of the author's first espionage novel (The Cutout). --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Mathews, writing as Stephanie Barron, has had considerable success splicing mystery plots with the real-life story of novelist Jane Austen. Now she takes another true story, that of a legendary American spy and silk merchant named Jim Thompson, and tries - with somewhat less success but lots of old-fashioned panache - to turn it into adventure fiction. Like Thompson, her protagonist, Jack Roderick, worked for the OSS (and its successor, the CIA) in Bangkok from 1945 until he disappeared in Malaysia in 1967. Unlike Thompson, Roderick had a son, Rory, who was killed in Vietnam, and a grandson, Max, who becomes an Olympic ski champion. It's Max who starts the narrative engine here when he tries to pressure the Thai government to turn his grandfather's fabulous house in Bangkok over to him. Soon, Max is one step ahead of a murderous plot that leads him to call on the services of a risk management expert called Oliver Krane. Krane in turn persuades Stefani Fogg - an attractive, deceptively fragile financial expert with a checkered past - to help Max in his quest. If this all sounds complicated and confusing, it is - especially since Mathews interrupts her present-day story (which zooms from the Scottish Highlands to the French Alps and then to Vietnam and Bangkok) with constant flashbacks to Jack Roderick's adventures and Rory's Vietnam saga. It's easy to see why Mathews, who worked for the CIA herself as an analyst, became fascinated with Thompson and Bangkok, but even her strong narrative skills (and superb action set pieces involving natural disasters like a typhoon and an avalanche) are hard-pressed to keep this jerky train on its tracks.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1St Edition edition (June 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553109138
• ISBN-13: 978-0553109139
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,223,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Francine Mathews, who also writes as Stephanie Barron, is the author of twenty novels of mystery, history, and suspense. A graduate of Princeton and Stanford, she spent four years as an intelligence analyst at the CIA, and presently lives and works in Colorado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Testosterone to Estrogen, January 7, 2005

By 

W. Phinizy (Fountain Valley, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Agent (Mass Market Paperback)

The whole world is divided into two types of people: those who divide things into two groups and those who do not..

..seriously, Ms. Matthews book oscillates wildly between "chick flick" material and the obligitory, leader-of-the-pack, head-of-the class, "high lift, low-drag" (thank you, Harry Coyle) heroine and characters that occupy the pages of this spy/CIA/former OSS agent genre. The flashbacks to post World War II Siam save the book, in my humble opinion, but she could come off a little better if she softened the hardened-bitch-longing-for-a-relationship-to-restore-a-loveless-past schtick engaged in by Ms. Fogg. (a relative of that other world-traveler, Phineas?) She could also redo the character of Oliver Kane and lose some of that too-cute dialog he is always spouting at the other end of the pay phone, ducky. Entertaining at times and *definitely* better than Finder's "Extraordinary Powers" -- but then, almost every work of fiction is (he said, gratiuitously). Still there is this indulgence in brand-name-dropping and labels. Why do we need to know *every* brand of caviar, liquor, skis, etc. Is this some kind of product placement deal?

*sigh*

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bored to Tears, July 19, 2003

By 

"nevermindthenickname" (APO, AE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret Agent (Mass Market Paperback)

She may be a former CIA agent, but that does not make her an interesting writer of spy fiction. Bored-to-tears through page 50 at which point the book was tossed into the "give to the Red Cross" bag. Good spy books are supposed to be heavy on the plot and setting, not all that deep on character. Just enough to outline the players with out being overbearing. There is plenty of character development (too much) that leads to nothing. I'm a former military intel guy. Tradecraft isn't all that interesting to me but storyline is. If you enjoy Littell, Deighton or LeCarre, avoid this book. Maybe the "beach book" readers will find it interesting. That's the worst thing that I could say about any espionage book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Maybe you can borow someones copy, August 24, 2004

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Secret Agent (Mass Market Paperback)

I have seen some of the reviews of this book, especially Newt's. It was his that made me buy it. Perhaps I am not enough of an "insider" to appreciate this story, but I found it compelling at times, boring at times and the flipping back and forth between the present and the past at the least, distracting.

So, I would say, for a paperback price it may be worth your reading.