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"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 Carr, 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."
About the Author
is the acclaimed author of (2016) and (2017) , and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the , and others. He lives in New York. Praise for Top 10 Mystery/Thriller Pick for Spring 2020 and reviews. "Vidich . . . writes with the nuanced detail and authority of a career spook. With this outing, Vidich enters the upper ranks of espionage thriller writers. " - (starred review) "A worthwhile thriller and a valuable exposé. " - "Vidich presents a fast-paced, historically accurate thriller, placing him alongside other great spy authors such as John le Carré and Alan Furst. Readers of the genre will want this slow-burn chiller that shows how far government will go to keep secrets. " - (starred review) is more than an entertaining and well-crafted thriller; Vidich asks questions that remain relevant today. " - JEFFERSON FLANDERS, picked as a Top Espionage Novel of 2020Praise for AN HONORABLE MAN:Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top 10 mysteries and thrillers coming 2016. STARRED Review. "Cold War spy fiction in the grand tradition--neatly plotted betrayals in that shadow world where no one can be trusted and agents are haunted by their own moral compromises. " -- Joseph Kanon, bestselling author of Leaving Berlin and Istanbul Passage. "A cool, knowing, and quietly devastating thriller that vaults Paul Vidich into the ranks of such thinking-man's spy novelists as Joseph Kanon and Alan Furst. Like them, Vidich conjures not only a riveting mystery but a poignant cast of characters, a vibrant evocation of time and place, and a rich excavation of human paradox. " -- Stephen Schiff, Co-Producer and writer, The Americans. "As I read AN HONORABLE MAN, I kept coming back to George Smiley and THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD. That's how good this book is. Much like John le Carre and Eric Ambler before him, Vidich writes with a confidence that allows him to draw his characters in clean, simple strokes, creating dialogue that speaks volumes in a few spare lines while leaving even more for the reader to fathom in what's not said at all. At the center of the novel is George Mueller, a man who walks in the considerable shadow of Smiley but with his own unique footprint, his own demons and a quiet, inner strength that sustains and defines him in endless shades of cloak and dagger gray. Pick up this book. You'll love it." --Michael Harvey, bestselling author of The Chicago Way"An Honorable Man" is wonderful -- an unputdownable mole hunt written in terse, noirish prose, driving us inexorably forward. In George Mueller, Paul Vidich has created a perfectly stoic companion to guide us through the intrigues of the red-baiting Fifties. And the story itself has the comforting feel of a classic of the genre, rediscovered in some dusty attic, a wonderful gift from the past. - Olen Steinhauer, Bestselling author of The Tourist and The Cairo Affair."
