Defectors

April 3, 2017
Edgar-winner Kanon’s fast-moving, well-written espionage thriller offers few surprises for genre devotees. In 1949, after Frank Weeks, who worked for the Central Intelligence Group’s Office of Policy Coordination, was unmasked as a Soviet spy, his brother and confidante, Simon, was forced to resign from the State Department. Simon landed on his feet when he was hired by M. Keating & Sons, a publishing company he ends up running. In 1961, the brothers reunite in Moscow. Frank is writing his memoirs, which are to be published by M. Keating, and he’s asked his sibling to help him complete the book. Given that Frank cost Simon his career, the reunion is awkward, and their interactions are roiled further by Simon’s renewed connection with Frank’s wife, an old flame of his. Things get messier when Frank seeks to use Simon again, involving him in a complex scheme that leads to violence. As always, Kanon (Los Alamos) gets his period detail right and conveys the setting vividly, even if the characters’ depth isn’t at the same level as in his better outings. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners.

September 4, 2017
It’s a pleasure to listen to actor Lloyd read this spy novel set in Europe in 1949. He manages Russian, Polish, and British accents that are convincing but not exaggerated. His pace is slow enough to be clear but quick enough to carry us along with Kanon’s fast-paced, if improbable, plot. Without becoming melodramatic, Lloyd conveys the narrative’s tension as the KGB and CIA commit treachery and murder. Through careful alterations of tone he reveals the deep fondness that protagonist Simon Weeks, a former State Department official turned book publisher, feels for his apparently double-defector brother, Frank, and his panic at finding himself engaged in violence and espionage because of Frank’s subtle and self-serving manipulation. The listener may have trouble suspending disbelief, but the story is fun, and Lloyd has narration down to a balanced and fine art. An Atria hardcover.