The Matchmaker, Paul Vidich
The Matchmaker, Paul Vidich
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Matchmaker

Author: Paul Vidich

Narrator: Jeff Harding

Unabridged: 7 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/12/2022


Synopsis

Berlin, 1989. Protests across East Germany threaten the Iron Curtain and Communism is the ill man of Europe.

Anne Simpson, an American who works as a translator at the Joint Operations Refugee Committee, thinks she is in a normal marriage with a charming East German. But then her husband disappears and the CIA and Western German intelligence arrive at her door.

She had been targeted by the Matchmaker—a high level East German counterintelligence officer—who runs a network of Stasi agents. These agents are his "Romeos" who marry vulnerable women in West Berlin to provide them with cover as they report back to the Matchmaker.

The CIA are desperate to find the Matchmaker because of his close ties to the KGB. They believe he can establish the truth about a high-ranking Soviet defector. They need Anne because she's the only person who has seen his face and she is the CIA's best chance to identify him before the Matchmaker escapes to Moscow. Time is running out as the Berlin Wall falls and chaos engulfs East Germany.

But what if Anne's husband is not dead? And what if Anne has her own motives for finding the Matchmaker to deliver a different type of justice?

About Paul Vidich

Paul Vidich is the acclaimed author of The Mercenary, The Coldest Warrior, An Honorable Man, and The Good Assassin, and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, LitHub, CrimeReads, Fugue, The Nation, Narrative Magazine, Wordriot, and others. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul

As the author, I am biased. The book follows the upending of one woman’s life as she learns of her disappeared husband’s secret life and motivations, launching into a mission to expose a network of East German spies at the end of the Cold War. Kirkus Review: " Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make fo......more

Goodreads review by Diana

Do you ever pick up a book, read the blurb, check out the cover and think, "hey, this is a great idea! I'm gonna buy it?" THIS IS THAT BOOK! Then you get into it and it is.....simplistic.....and, quite frankly, unbelievable -- not because of the Cold War premise, but because of the main characters, a......more

Goodreads review by Jack

To be honest this was a disappointment compared to his earlier books. Too many repetitive phrases, some typos (not the author's fault), a little heavy on the assumptions, the relationship between the two wives asked a little much of the reader...I could mention a few other things but.....Kruger's en......more

Goodreads review by Bill

There are some interesting scenes involving life in East Berlin when the wall came down, but otherwise, a very pedestrian spy novel.......more