The Amateur Spy (Hardcover)

War correspondent Fesperman, the winner of the CWA's John Creasey Memorial Dagger Award, shines the light of his insider's knowledge into the dark corners of Jordan and Jerusalem in his gripping fifth thriller. After a career as an aid worker in some of the world's hot spots, 55-year-old Freeman Lockhart has retired with his 37-year-old Bosnian wife, Mila, to the Aegean island of Karos. The first night in their new home they wake to find three intruders, who spirit Freeman away to a nearby location where he's ordered to fly to Jordan to spy on a former friend and co-worker, Omar al-Baroody. When Freeman declines, his captors tell him that if he doesn't do what they ask, they'll tell the world his dark secret involving Mila from their days working in Africa. Freeman heads off to Amman to do their bidding. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., a wealthy doctor, Abbas Rahim, plots an act of terrorism that will threaten the lives of the government's highest power brokers. Freeman may be an amateur spy, but Fesperman (The Prisoner of Guantánamo) proves once again that he's a consummate professional. Author tour.(Mar.)
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“The Amateur Spy blends Tom Clancy’s readability with Robert Ludlum’s insider touch and a soupcon of Graham Greene anomie. The result is an intensely provocative tale about how we live in a world where terrorism is a given, mayhem presumed and genocide little more than collateral damage . . . Darkly compelling.”
–Baltimore Sun

“Fesperman’s novel transcends the formulas . . . He has mastered his genre [but] you can sense him trying to move toward writers like Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad, writers with a nuanced and ambivalent vision of the world and its conflicts.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Exceptional . . . The greatest strength of The Amateur Spy is this portrait of Jordan, a world that most of us know almost nothing about . . . Fesperman writes so well that it's easy to follow wherever he leads . . . Chilling.”
–Washington Post

“War correspondent Fesperman shines the light of his insider's knowledge into the dark corners of Jordan and Jerusalem in his gripping fifth thriller . . . Freeman may be an amateur spy, but Fesperman proves once again that he's a consummate professional.”
–Publishers Weekly

“Foreign correspondent and novelist Fesperman has created another contender for his growing list of prize winners . . . The plot is complex, the sense of place powerful, and the characterization memorable . . . Fesperman expertly builds the tension.”
–Library Journal

“More classy suspense from Fesperman.”
–Kirkus Reviews

Praise from the UK:

“Dan Fesperman, a war correspondent with the Baltimore Sun, has served his time in Bosnia, Afghanistan and the Middle East. It shows: The Amateur Spy offers a gritty verisimilitude against a subtle political backdrop . . . Fesperman is especially good on the murky frontier where journalists, aid-workers and spies trade information, each seeking something for nothing. He is honing the genre of intelligent political thrillers. Foreign correspondents should note: they now have some new standards to match.”
–The Economist

“Fesperman has few equals when it comes to generating tension . . . But he is equally good at characterizing his vulnerable, conflicted protagonists . . . Powerful.”
–Daily Express

“Dan Fesperman’s novels always offer interesting and thought-provoking commentary on contemporary world events and in The Amateur Spy he tackles Middle East terrorism with a story that contains a disquietingly topical element . . . A fine thriller to add to his impressive body of work.”
–Sunday Telegraph