An American Spy

A Novel

By: Olen Steinhauer

Narrated by: David Pittu

In Olen Steinhauer's bestseller The Tourist, reluctant CIA agent Milo Weaver uncovered a conspiracy linking the Chinese government to the highest reaches of the American intelligence community, including his own Department of Tourism---the most clandestine department in the Company. The shocking blowback arrived in the Hammett Award--winning The Nearest Exit when the Department of Tourism was almost completely wiped out as the result of an even more insidious plot.

Following on the heels of these two spectacular novels comes An American Spy, Olen Steinhauer's most stunning thriller yet. With only a handful of "tourists"---CIA-trained assassins---left, Weaver would like to move on and use this as an opportunity to regain a normal life, a life focused on his family. His former boss in the CIA, Alan Drummond, can't let it go. When Alan uses one of Milo's compromised aliases to travel to London and then disappears, calling all kinds of attention to his actions, Milo can't help but go in search of him.

Worse still, it's beginning to look as if Tourism's enemies are gearing up for a final, fatal blow.

With An American Spy, Olen Steinhauer, by far the best espionage writer in a generation, delivers a searing international thriller that will settle once and for all who is pulling the strings and who is being played.

An American Spy is one of The New York Times Notable Books of 2012.

“Olen Steinhauer’s Milo Weaver novels are must-reads for lovers of the genre.” —The Washington Post

“Readers are irresistibly drawn into Weaver's dogged struggle to unravel a complicated game of cat and mouse.” —USA Today

Critic reviews

Praise for the Milo Weaver series

THE TOURIST
“A protagonist who’s as winning as he is wily.” —Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly

“[Steinhauer] excels when the focus is on Weaver, an intriguing, damaged man yearning to break free of his dark profession.” —People

“The kind of principled hero we long to believe still exists in fiction, if not in life.” —The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

THE NEAREST EXIT
“Milo Weaver, Steinhauer’s hero, is the opposite of Swagger and Reacher—he is conflicted and neurotic and hopelessly sentimental—but no less entertaining.” —Malcolm Gladwell, TheNewYorker.com

“Milo’s company is at least as valuable to the series’s appeal as is his flair for international trickery.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

AN AMERICAN SPY
“Olen Steinhauer’s Milo Weaver novels are must-reads for lovers of the genre.” —The Washington Post

“Readers are irresistibly drawn into Weaver's dogged struggle to unravel a complicated game of cat and mouse.” —USA Today

A Textured Spy Novel

This is a multilayered story told from multiple points of view. There are no superagents-save perhaps a sexy black woman US Spy--rather everyone on all sides are vulnerable and flawed and under pressure from somewhere. In this respect it is a realistic story. It is a thinking persons spy novel. There are many plot twists and most of them are surprises. The reason it does not rate 5 stars is that it goes on a little too long.

I will be ready for the next one in the series!

I have consumed these three books in as many weeks...and so it was easy to keep the thread of the story throughout. After reading a couple of the other reviews, I thought it was going to be hard to keep the Chinese names straight but because of the excellent narrator, his pronunciation, and his magnificent voices/characters, it wasn't difficult...but I was glad others had indicated that you really had to be on the watch for that.

I will be looking for other books by this author and will stay tuned for the next Milo Weaver book...because I can't imagine Steinhauer won't continue with this troubled and interesting character.

Boy this one went on forever

A plot that went through every hoop and seemed endless. i wish there reader could voice women without them sounding like little girls.

Excellent Addition to the Weaver series

What other book might you compare An American Spy to and why?

This is the third in the series and picks up right after

What about David Pittu’s performance did you like?

Mr. Pittu's accents are subtle enough to never get in the way of comprehension but still provide a good feel for the nationality of the characters. He never misses the humor or irony inherent in the text.

Any additional comments?

All three Weaver novels are timely, suspenseful and witty. They are not necessarily an

Not a bad follow-up...

This book didn't have as much of the spy-craft aspects like the first two books, but if you had read the other two in the series you-ll probably like this one too. Milo gets a little whiny and he seems a bit indecisive and naive at times, which is contrary to what you would expect from his character.