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saareman 's review for:
American Spy
by Lauren Wilkinson
Agent With a Conscience or The Spy Who Came in From the Hot
Review of the Random House Audio edition released simultaneously with the original hardcover edition (February 2019)
[3.5 rounded up]
This reading was part of my investigation of the novels nominated for the 2020 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America. American Spy is a nominee for Best First Novel. The winners are expected to be announced April 30, 2020.
There was quite a lot that I really liked about American Spy: the unconventional narrator, the Le Carré-esque betrayal themes, the basis in historical facts and the flattery of the reader. There is the sense, however, that a first novel writer has been over-edited or overly structured as there is a somewhat chaotic layout to the book making it harder to follow (certainly on audio, but I see hard copy readers making similar comments in their reviews).
FBI agent Marie Mitchell is co-opted by an off the books American intelligence organization to honeytrap the President of Burkina Faso in the mid 1980s. The President is based on the true-life character of Thomas Sankara. NOTE: SPOILER WARNING, if you click on Sankara's name you will know how the real life story ends. Marie begins to admire aspects of Sankara's striving for his country's independence from colonial powers with the predictable resulting conflicts with her handlers. The plot makes a lot of flashbacks to Marie's youth esp. her life with her older sister (whose mysterious fate is the basis of her doubts about the authorities) and flash-forwards to her later life on the run in Martinique.
The framing device of the book being a memoir/diary for Marie's sons is clunky though and unrealistic. You can mostly forget about that though except for the moments when Marie breaks the 4th wall and addresses them personally. The ending wraps up very abruptly with several unanswered questions which increases the likelihood of a sequel, although I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere in the publicity (as of early April 2020). Best to watch https://lauren-wilkinson.com/ for future updates on that.
The narration by Bahni Turpin in all voices was excellent.
Review of the Random House Audio edition released simultaneously with the original hardcover edition (February 2019)
[3.5 rounded up]
This reading was part of my investigation of the novels nominated for the 2020 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America. American Spy is a nominee for Best First Novel. The winners are expected to be announced April 30, 2020.
There was quite a lot that I really liked about American Spy: the unconventional narrator, the Le Carré-esque betrayal themes, the basis in historical facts and the flattery of the reader. There is the sense, however, that a first novel writer has been over-edited or overly structured as there is a somewhat chaotic layout to the book making it harder to follow (certainly on audio, but I see hard copy readers making similar comments in their reviews).
FBI agent Marie Mitchell is co-opted by an off the books American intelligence organization to honeytrap the President of Burkina Faso in the mid 1980s. The President is based on the true-life character of Thomas Sankara. NOTE: SPOILER WARNING, if you click on Sankara's name you will know how the real life story ends. Marie begins to admire aspects of Sankara's striving for his country's independence from colonial powers with the predictable resulting conflicts with her handlers. The plot makes a lot of flashbacks to Marie's youth esp. her life with her older sister (whose mysterious fate is the basis of her doubts about the authorities) and flash-forwards to her later life on the run in Martinique.
The framing device of the book being a memoir/diary for Marie's sons is clunky though and unrealistic. You can mostly forget about that though except for the moments when Marie breaks the 4th wall and addresses them personally. The ending wraps up very abruptly with several unanswered questions which increases the likelihood of a sequel, although I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere in the publicity (as of early April 2020). Best to watch https://lauren-wilkinson.com/ for future updates on that.
The narration by Bahni Turpin in all voices was excellent.