Scan barcode
A review by jane_kelsey
The Fourth Courier by Timothy Jay Smith
4.0
The fourth courier is a slow-paced espionage/thriller so if you are expecting James Bond stuff, you will be disappointed; the tone of the story is more in the lines of Red Sparrow (which I believed to be brilliant). The main character is Jay Porter, an FBI agent sent to Poland to help investigate the murders of these couriers and the concerns around the smuggling of nuclear agents, but there is also a CIA agent (Kurt), a local detective (Kulski) and the director Basia Husarka. It is really hard to go into details without spoiling things, but I actually enjoyed the dynamics between the characters, even if it was a little bit too “lucky” at times for things to have happened that way. Sometimes a little bit too convenient for the plot to meet the right people, however suspending my disbelief I found myself enjoying this novel.
The backdrop is a grey Poland, still struggling post-communist era and seeing these people trying to cope with the new reality made this novel even more important because their issues felt very real. The writing was good and I prefer a to-the-point style of writing and Timothy Jay Smith delivered. The heaviness of the subject was interspersed with dark jokes, revealing more of the bleakness of their lives, and moment of joy. It is clear that the author has a great knowledge of Poland not just as a nation, but also about the people.
On the other side, initially the sex scenes didn’t make much sense, I could not see why it matters, but for these characters, in the end, it mattered very much and it had logic. As already said, the plot is very slow and I not a lot is happening in the first half, then things start to pick up, but even so, it felt like convenience and luck that helped solve the case rather than actual policing. I am not sure I am believing in Jay’s skills as an FBI agent because I haven’t seen much of that.
Overall though, I recommend this book if you like slow-paced, character-based espionage thrillers, especially if you are interested in post-communist Poland.
The backdrop is a grey Poland, still struggling post-communist era and seeing these people trying to cope with the new reality made this novel even more important because their issues felt very real. The writing was good and I prefer a to-the-point style of writing and Timothy Jay Smith delivered. The heaviness of the subject was interspersed with dark jokes, revealing more of the bleakness of their lives, and moment of joy. It is clear that the author has a great knowledge of Poland not just as a nation, but also about the people.
On the other side, initially the sex scenes didn’t make much sense, I could not see why it matters, but for these characters, in the end, it mattered very much and it had logic. As already said, the plot is very slow and I not a lot is happening in the first half, then things start to pick up, but even so, it felt like convenience and luck that helped solve the case rather than actual policing. I am not sure I am believing in Jay’s skills as an FBI agent because I haven’t seen much of that.
Overall though, I recommend this book if you like slow-paced, character-based espionage thrillers, especially if you are interested in post-communist Poland.