Defectors, Joseph Kanon
Defectors, Joseph Kanon
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
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Defectors

Author: Joseph Kanon

Narrator: John Bedford Lloyd

Unabridged: 9 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2017


Synopsis

The bestselling author of Leaving Berlin and Istanbul Passage “continues to demonstrate that he is up there with the very best...of spy thriller writers” (The Times, UK) with this “fascinating” (The Washington Post) novel about two brothers bound by blood but divided by loyalty.

In 1949, Frank Weeks, agent of the newly formed CIA, was exposed as a Communist spy and fled the country to vanish behind the Iron Curtain. Now, twelve years later, he has written his memoirs, a KGB- approved project almost certain to be an international bestseller, and has asked his brother Simon, a publisher, to come to Moscow to edit the manuscript. It’s a reunion Simon both dreads and longs for.

The book is sure to be filled with mischief and misinformation; Frank’s motives suspect, the CIA hostile. But the chance to see Frank, his adored older brother, proves irresistible. And at first Frank is still Frank—the same charm, the same jokes, the same bond of affection that transcends ideology.

Then Simon begins to glimpse another Frank, capable of treachery and actively working for “the service.” He finds himself dragged into the middle of Frank’s new scheme, caught between the KGB and the CIA in a fatal cat and mouse game that only one of the brothers is likely to survive.

“A finely paced Cold War thriller with [Kanon’s] usual flair for atmospheric detail, intriguing characters, and suspenseful action” (Library Journal), Defectors takes us to the heart of a world of secrets, where even the people we know best can’t be trusted and murder is just collateral damage.

About Joseph Kanon

Joseph Kanon is the Edgar Award–winning author of Los Alamos and nine other novels: The Prodigal SpyAlibiStardustIstanbul PassageLeaving BerlinDefectorsThe AccompliceThe Berlin Exchange, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. Other awards include the Hammett Award of the International Association of Crime Writers and the Human Writes Award of the Anne Frank Foundation. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on June 27, 2017

A master of the technical spy thriller! It is usually a difficult task to find a well written spy thriller these days - don't get me wrong, there's a plethora of great mystery/thriller writers around creating masterpieces every which way you turn but a mystery/thriller with a large aspect of the plot......more

Goodreads review by W. on April 18, 2021

A disclosure: I know Joe Kanon personally. He's a fine gentleman with a good sense of humor, and moves through the literary world as if he's just a lowly suspense writer, instead of being the purveyor of literature that he is. Defectors, like so many Kanon novels, takes us back to a different time. I......more

Goodreads review by Mal on June 22, 2017

The disappearance of British diplomats Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess in 1951 and the subsequent revelation in 1956 of them as defectors to the Soviet Union shocked the world and has subsequently provided fodder for a virtual cottage industry of spy novels. Only much later did it come to light that......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on June 05, 2017

Defectors is a fascinating glimpse behind the Iron Curtain, specifically the Soviet Union, in the 1960’s. Simon Weeks is making an unprecedented visit to the U.S.S.R. to visit his brother Frank, an individual who defected from the U.S. to the Soviet Union in the early 1950’s. Frank has been given pe......more

Goodreads review by Cold War Conversations Podcast on October 19, 2017

Another great espionage novel from Joseph Kanon Defectors is set in 1960's Moscow where ex-CIA agent Frank Weeks, a notorious defector to the Soviet Union, wants to publish his memoirs. Frank’s brother, Simon hasn’t seen his brother in more than ten years, but he comes to Moscow to assist in its publ......more