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A Spy's Life
  

A Spy's Life (Hardcover)

by Henry Porter (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

Henry Porter's A Spy's Life surpasses even its predecessor Remembrance Day, which achieved an unprecedented amount of enthusiastic word of mouth. Here, he brilliantly blends the thriller elements into a bizarre and surrealistic narrative that constantly surprises the reader.

A massive air crash in New York kills 19 people, most of them working for the United Nations. The only survivor is a British ex-spy, Robert Harland. After a traumatic encounter with torture in Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution, he is now working for the UN in a low-key, non-espionage role. Anyone familiar with the genre will know that attempts to retire from the spy trade are always doomed to failure, and Harland's freak survival of the plane crash soon makes him public property again. The FBI and other shadowy forces are keen to find out what he was doing on the plane. And as Harland speedily finds himself in lethal situations again, his life is further complicated by the appearance of a young man claiming to be his son by Eva, a young Czech agent with whom Harland was in love. With a mass murderer called Viktor Lipnik figuring into the equation, the reader is quickly beguiled by the kind of highly dangerous pyrotechnics that distinguished John le Carré's early books. In fact, the influence of le Carré's finest book, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, is evident here, and it's a measure of Porter's success that he is more than able to hold his own in this august company. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The mysterious crash of a private UN plane at New York's La Guardia airport gets this second spy novel by British author Porter (Remembrance Day) off to a rousing start. The only survivor is former British spy Robert Harland, who wakes up to find himself floating in the freezing East River. Harland, once an MI6 rising star, is now a water specialist for the United Nations, doing good and honorable work for a change. After he survives the crash of the U.N. plane, he is suddenly the target of harassment, threats, assault; then somebody tries to kill him. When a nervous young man named Tomas Rath shows up, claiming to be Harland's son, the ex-spy finds himself caught up in a multigovernment dragnet intended to plug intelligence leaks, a grisly expos‚ of a brutal Bosnian war criminal and a confrontation with a painful piece of his past he would prefer to forget. While being hounded by Walter Vigo, a ruthless British spymaster, Harland tries to unravel the mystery of his son, his former Czech lover and the elusive Lipnik, a Serb mass murderer thought to be dead, but actually very much alive and under the odd protection of several Western powers. This is a spy yarn full of suspense, action, unexpected plot twists and the fascinating detail of covert spy operations where everyone is a liar, even the good guys. Porter has the deft touch of a spy handler, manipulating the plot with skill and never letting up on the risk, tension and uncertainty that come with intelligence activity and danger. Agent, Georgina Capel. (Mar.)Forecast: Porter, the British editor of Vanity Fair, writes frequently for numerous publications in the U.K. Similar exposure in the U.S. (he lives part-time in New York) would help him build his rep here, but spy novel aficionados should find their way to his work regardless.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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A Spy's Life
77% buy the item featured on this page:
A Spy's Life 4.0 out of 5 stars (3)
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Porter's one to watch., Jan 22 2003
By P. Skanes (Toronto) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Spy's Life (Paperback)
Spy's Life is a very enjoyable espionage thriller. Robert Harland, a former British spy, begins the novel by surviving a plane crash only to realize that this is the least of his worries. Key events in this spy's life have come back to haunt him and now he is not only fighting for his life, but the lives of his loved ones. Great political intrigue, I especially liked the use of the United Nations in the novel.

Can't wait for the sequel 'Empire State'.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Complex Spy Yarn, April 8 2002
By Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I read the synopsis for this book in Vanity Fair, which highly recommended it. It was only after I had started it I learned the author is the editor for British vanity Fair. That being said it is for the most part an enjoyable espionage thriller. When Robert Harland's U.N. plane crashes in the waters right beside LaGuardia airport he is the sole survivor. Rescued by a bizarre technological stroke of luck, he has only just returned home, when a man show up on his doorstep claiming to be his son; The result of an affair he'd had years before with a Czech woman when he was a spy for the British. What this man has to tell him combined with the crash which Harland believes may have been sabotage,begins to unravel an unsettling and intricately plotted novel that moves from Manhattan to the streets of London, to the war torn fields of Bosnia. I thought Henry Porter created some wonderfully drawn characters, mainly Harland's caring sister, and the brilliant Tomas. I think plot wise I was just expecting a non stop fast paced thriller and instead this is a much more complex political chess game with bursts of action. But if you're a fan of authors like Robert Ludlam you'd probably really enjoy this.
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5.0 out of 5 stars excellent espionage thriller, Mar 1 2002
By Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
When the UN plane crashed near LaGuardia Airport, Robert Harland quickly realizes he is in great danger of drowning, as the rescuers have no idea he was dumped into the nearby East River. He struggles over to where Alan Griswold reclines in a busted up seat, but finds his friend is dead. Robert's personal luck continues when Alan's cell phone rings. This enables Alan to inform the caller where he is. Robert takes Alan's wallet with him before the rescuers save his life.

As Robert recovers from his one in a fifty billion chance of survival, he learns what happened. Transportation blames it on physics, but the FBI hints at sabotage. UN Secretariat Jaidi asks Robert to learn why someone destroyed a plane, murdering officially ten people and unofficially eleven in order to kill Alan. Apparently, Alan had damaging information on someone. A former espionage agent, Robert agrees to uncover the truth even as a young man Tomas Rath comes into his life claiming to be his son through a liaison over two decades ago with Czech Eva Houresh.

Rarely does a novel start off as exciting as a SPY'S LIFE does. Henry Porter never eases up on the throttle from his first page in the East River to the final overseas confrontation. The espionage thriller is very complex though it appears to contain an unnecessary spin or two too many. The cast is developed so that readers appreciate Robert as a fabulous lead character while those who seem on the hero's side and his enemies round out a strong tale of international intrigue.

Harriet Klausner

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