The good assassin : a novel / Paul Vidich.

Title:

Author:

Vidich, Paul

ISBN:

9781501110429

150111042X

9781501110436

1501110438

Publication Info:

New York :

Description:

275 pages ; 22 cm

Summary:

"Paul Vidich follows up his acclaimed debut spy thriller with a suspenseful tale of Cold War espionage set in 1950s Cuba, as foreign powers compete to influence the outcome of a revolution. Former CIA Agent George Mueller arrives in Havana in August 1958--the last months before the fall of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista--to look into the activities of Toby Graham, a CIA officer suspected of harboring sympathies for the rebel forces fighting the unpopular Batista regime. Mueller knew Graham as an undergraduate and later they were colleagues in Berlin fighting the Soviet NKVD. Under the guise of their long acquaintance Mueller is recruited to vet rumors that Graham is putting weapons, covertly provided by the CIA to Batista, into the hands of Castro's forces. Public exposure of the CIA weapons mission, and the activity of one rogue agent, threaten to embarrass the agency. Mueller uncovers a world of deceit as the FBI, CIA, and State Department compete to influence the outcome of the revolution in the face of the brutal dictatorship's imminent collapse. Graham, meanwhile, is troubled by the hypocrisy of a bankrupt US foreign policy, and has fallen in love with a married American woman, Liz Malone. Paul Vidich has written a powerful story of ideals, passions, betrayals, and corrupting political rivalries in the months before Castro's triumphant march into Havana on New Year's Day 1959. This sequel showcases the widely praised talents of Paul Vidich, who Booklist says, "writes with an economy of style that acclaimed novelists might do well to emulate.""--

"Paul Vidich follows up his acclaimed debut spy thriller with a suspenseful tale of Cold War espionage set in 1950s Cuba, as foreign powers compete to influence the outcome of a revolution"--

Corporate Subject:

United States. Central Intelligence Agency -- Fiction.

Subject(s):

Spy stories.

Cold War -- Fiction.

Holds: Copies (not including on-order items):

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Shelf Location	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Penrose Library	Book	VIDI	Fiction	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

"Paul Vidich's likable and reluctant spy, George Mueller, will keep readers guessing in this eerily real Cuba of 1958. The Good Assassin is a keen historical adventure from the best noir tradition."--Elizabeth Kostova, #1 New York Times bestselling author

" The Good Assassin opens up Hemingway's Cuba. Possessing Alan Furst's attention for period detail and the deft character touches of John Le Carré, Vidich has quickly carved out a place for himself among the very first rank of espionage writers. It's a masterful effort and the author's best work to date."--Michael Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Chicago Way

" The Good Assassin is first-rate literary espionage . . . Author Paul Vidich has evoked not only the intrigue and brutality of Batista's Cuba, but the island itself . . . a masterful work of noir fiction."--Susan Isaacs, New York Times bestselling author of A Hint of Strangeness

Paul Vidich follows up his acclaimed debut spy thriller with a suspenseful tale of Cold War espionage set in 1950s Cuba, as foreign powers compete to influence the outcome of a revolution.

Former CIA Agent George Mueller arrives in Havana in August 1958--the last months before the fall of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista--to look into the activities of Toby Graham, a CIA officer suspected of harboring sympathies for the rebel forces fighting the unpopular Batista regime. Mueller knew Graham as an undergraduate and later they were colleagues in Berlin fighting the Soviet NKVD. Under the guise of their long acquaintance Mueller is recruited to vet rumors that Graham is putting weapons, covertly provided by the CIA to Batista, into the hands of Castro's forces. Public exposure of the CIA weapons mission, and the activity of one rogue agent, threaten to embarrass the agency.

Mueller uncovers a world of deceit as the FBI, CIA, and State Department compete to influence the outcome of the revolution in the face of the brutal dictatorship's imminent collapse. Graham, meanwhile, is troubled by the hypocrisy of a bankrupt US foreign policy, and has fallen in love with a married American woman, Liz Malone.

Paul Vidich has written a powerful story of ideals, passions, betrayals, and corrupting political rivalries in the months before Castro's triumphant march into Havana on New Year's Day 1959. This sequel showcases the widely praised talents of Paul Vidich, who Booklist says, "writes with an economy of style that acclaimed novelists might do well to emulate."

Author Notes

Paul Vidich has had a distinguished career in music and media. Most recently, he served as Special Advisor to AOL, Inc. and was Executive Vice President at the Warner Music Group, in charge of technology and global strategy. He serves on the Board of Directors of Poets & Writers and The New School for Social Research. A founder and publisher of the Storyville App, Vidich is also an award-winning author of short fiction. He is the author of An Honorable Man and The Good Assassin.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Cuba in the late 1950s provides the backdrop for Vidich's simmering, old-fashioned literary spy tale, the sequel to 2016's An Honorable Man. The CIA director persuades retired agent George Mueller to go to Cuba during the perilous last throes of the Batista regime to investigate Toby Graham, a CIA operative suspected of assisting Fidel Castro's rebel fighters with diverted CIA weaponry. Posing as a magazine travel writer, Mueller reconnects with Jack and Liz Malone, old friends who have relocated to Cuba and are unable to see the coming upheaval in their lives, both political and personal. Toby's betrayals aren't limited to his mission, and Mueller must make a choice between justice and duty, between loyalty to his profession and to his friends. A novel of prerevolutionary Cuba can scarcely escape nods to Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, but Vidich most deliberately evokes F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, from the opening epigraph to the denouement. The high quality of the author's prose makes this a worthy homage. Agent: Will Roberts, Gernert Company. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

It's 1958, and George Mueller (last seen in An Honorable Man, 2016) has left the CIA to teach literature. But CIA director Allen Dulles asks him to take on a special assignment: go to Cuba and check out agent Toby Graham, a friend of Mueller's at Yale and a former CIA colleague in post-WWII Vienna. Dulles fears that Graham might be supporting Castro's revolt against Cuba's corrupt and brutal dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Vidich spins a tale of moral and psychological complexity, recalling Graham Greene. His portrait of often-boisterous Havana, with Mob-controlled casinos filled with nervous U.S. revelers, is tilted early on by a bomb blast just outside La Floridita, Hemingway's favorite bar, that stuns Mueller. Most everyone knows that Batista will be toppled, but his secret police and random bombings menace everyone, and Vidich builds on the tension that afflicts the entire country. Toby is a fascinating cipher, even for the insightful Mueller, who can't ignore the affection and respect he holds for his friend. But Mueller's thinking is complicated by Toby's love for the long-suffering wife of another Yale classmate. Vidich offers a rich, rewarding stew of uncertainty.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2017 Booklist