A fully satisfying murder mystery set in post-war Europe
A review of The Bridge of Sighs, by Olen Steinhauer. It’s a deeply satisfying novel that matches complex characters with a credible story in a well-researched setting.
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Tag: olen steinhauer
A powerful tale of life in Eastern Europe during the fall of Communism
A review of Victory Square, by Olen Steinhauer. @@@@@ (5 out of 5). The conclusion of Steinhauer’s five-novel cycle of thrillers set in Eastern Europe from 1948 to 1990, from the imposition of Communism to its fall.
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A spy novelist foresees a Second American Revolution in a curious new novel
Olen Steinhauer has gained a reputation as one of the most compelling authors of espionage fiction writing today. He is best known for the Milo Weaver Trilogy (The Tourist, The Nearest Exit, An American Spy) and the five-book Yalta Boulevard Cycle in addition to three standalone novels. All these...
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Olen Steinhauer’s brilliant Yalta Boulevard cycle set in Eastern Europe
In addition to the five novels in his splendid Yalta Boulevard cycle, Olen Steinhauer has authored to date the Milo Weaver trilogy (The Tourist, The Nearest Exit, An American Spy) and three standalone novels. But to my mind the five-book series that begins with The Bridge of Sighs is his best...
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A terrorist hijacking, the CIA, and two former lovers at dinner
Just try to dream up a story linking a terrorist hijacking in Vienna and the CIA with two former lovers at dinner in a gourmet restaurant in Carmel, California. Give up? Well, it’s been done. This curious little book — a novella, really — emerged from the author’s...
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From Olen Steinhauer, a complex spy novel worthy of John Le Carre
In only three days, five politically active Libyan exiles vanished from the face of the earth” in different countries around the globe. Thus opens The Cairo Affair, a complex, multilayered spy novel featuring a young American couple, Sophie and Emmett Kohl — a mid-ranked diplomat and...
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Love, betrayal, and terrorism behind the Iron Curtain
A review of Liberation Movements, by Olen Steinhauer. @@@@ (4 out of 5). Mystery piles atop mystery in this fourth installment of Olen Steinhauer’s five-novel cycle of life behind the Iron Curtain in Central Europe. The book is populated by secret policemen, Armenian terrorists, and a woman with psychic powers.
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Inside the mind’s eye of Eastern European Communism in the 1960s
A review of 36 Yalta Boulevard, by Olen Steinhauer. @@@@ (4 out of 5). The third installment in Olen Steinhauer’s outstanding Central European cycle, focusing on the life and mind of Brano Sev, a World War II partisan fighter turned secret policeman. Fast-paced, well-written.
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An historical thriller set under Communism in Eastern Europe
A review of The Confession, by Olen Steinhauer. @@@@ (4 out of 5). Tthe second in a cycle of five novels by Olen Steinhauer about the troubled policemen of one district in the capital of a fictional Eastern European country spanning the years 1948-1989. This book is set in the fateful year of 1956, when Hungary rose up against Russian occupation.
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