Milo Weaver used to be a “tourist” for the CIA—an undercover agent with no home, no identity—but he’s since retired from the field to become a middle-level manager at the CIA’s New York headquarters. He’s acquired a wife, a daughter, and a brownstone in Brooklyn, and he’s tried to leave his old life of secrets and lies behind.
But when the arrest of a long-sought-after assassin sets off an investigation into one of Milo’s oldest colleagues and exposes new layers of intrigue in his old cases, he has no choice but to go back undercover and find out who’s holding the strings once and for all.
RECEPTION
Mr. Steinhauer, the two-time Edgar Award nominee who can be legitimately mentioned alongside John le Carré, he displays a high degree of what Mr. le Carré’s characters like to call tradecraft. If he’s as smart as “The Tourist” makes him sound, he’ll bring back Milo Weaver for a curtain call. —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Although readers can hope to see it on the screen, “The Tourist” should be savored now. As rich and intriguing as the best of Le Carré, Deighton or Graham Greene, Steinhauer’s complex, moving spy novel is perfect for our uncertain, emotionally fraught times. —Paula Woods, The Los Angeles Times
The Tourist … raises a lot of questions, but only answers enough to keep the story moving briskly and the reader’s curiosity stoked through to the end. —Jackson West, Penthouse
[I]ntelligent, evocative, and nuanced. —Adam Woog, The Seattle Times
Milo [is] a spy to die for. —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times
Tour de force … scathing … first-rate popular fiction … Steinhauer seems to know the world of spies and assassins all too well… . [I]t feels real… . “The Tourist” is serious entertainment that raises interesting questions… . Steinhauer’s Milo Weaver trilogy could turn out to be something special. —Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post
This is Len Deighton country. “The Tourist” is a complex, contemporary espionage story told with wit and sagacity, and it offers up a dozen or more intricate characters who keep the action on target. While the international intrigue and cross-country chase are the stuff of traditional Hitchcockian entertainment, Steinhauer once again demonstrates how his economical prose can turn unrelenting paranoia into an exciting ride. —David Lampe-Wilson, The Boston Globe
The Tourist is an incredibly multifarious and multi-layered novel… . Steinhauer … goes above the straightforward thriller to show the consequences of a spy’s existence on every level… . Olen Steinhauer has composed a hugely complex successor to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Unlike most espionage tales written in the years since that classic work first saw print in 1963, however, he manages to give his characters — even the most reprehensible ones — a human side and a degree of warmth. Spying is a nasty business that chews up and spits out the people involved in it. The Tourist shines a light on the moral costs. —Jim Winter, January Magazine
Only le Carré can make a spy as interesting. —Kirkus Reviews
Steinhauer manages to push the genre’s darker aspects to the extreme … without sacrificing the propulsive forward momentum… . [Weaver] is the perfect hero for such a richly nuanced tale. —Booklist (starred review)
Superbly accomplished at both plotting and characterization … compelling and hard to put down. —Library Journal (starred review)
An outstanding stand-alone —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
an absolutely superb contemporary espionage novel in the great tradition of the old masters of the genre. Olen Steinhauer is a wonderful storyteller who is smart, observant, and witty. The Tourist has what it takes to become a classic. —Nelson DeMille
A first class spy novel - wry, intelligent, layered … the kind of thing John Le Carre might have written if he knew then what we know now. —Lee Child
Complex…fast paced —Thomas Perry