Publisher's Weekly Review
Former Mossad agent Ben-David (Duet in Beirut) makes the most of his professional expertise to craft a complex and moving story of a reluctant operative's attempts to return to a normal life. When Yogev Ben-Ari was recruited into the Mossad, he organized operations against enemies of Israel, such as a Syrian negotiating with North Korea to acquire chemical weapons. To his dismay, he soon becomes more than just a planner and observer when he's designated to pull the trigger on a target in Hong Kong. That shift, and the deceptions it entails, causes tremendous tensions in his marriage, already affected by the time he must spend away from his wife, childhood sweetheart Orit; the two of them are desperately trying to conceive a child. The narrative effectively toggles between that relationship and one that Yogev begins with a Russian woman during an assignment in St. Petersburg. Convincing tradecraft, coupled with a plausible look at the inner life of a spy with a license to kill, will remind readers of the best of John le Carré. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Yogev Ben-Ari, an operative for Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, has been posted to St. Petersburg, Russia. His assignment: use his cover as an international businessman to gather intelligence. When he meets a beautiful woman, and they promptly fall in love, Yogev doesn't mind well, not too much, anyway that Anna is probably not whomshe says she is; after all, neither is Yogev. But when his masters back in Israel decide his relationship with Anna is too risky to permit, Yogev finds himself at war with his own people. The novel has a solid sense of intrigue and suspense, and its depiction of the world of international espionage feels accurate (as it should, since the author is a former Mossad agent). The characterizations are precise, too: these aren't stick figures in a spy story but real people in a real environment. A nice blend of classic spy-novel conventions with a thoroughly contemporary setting.--Pitt, David Copyright 2016 Booklist
