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Amazon.co.uk Review
The novel begins in 1950 in the Kotlar home in Washington, D.C., as young Nick tries to make sense of the masses of reporters who have gathered outside his house. Though his parents struggle to shield him from the truth, he inadvertently sees a newsreel that reveals his father's predicament: State Department Undersecretary, Walter Kotlar, is under the intense scrutiny of Congressman Kenneth Welles of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Kanon perfectly captures the sensibilities of a child with a parent in peril; disbelieving Nick becomes a fledgling spy, trying to erase any clues in his home that might support Welles and his committee. But one night, after an explosive conversation with Nick's mother, his father disappears. That same night, the woman who had accused Walter Kotlar of spying commits suicide--or was she murdered? In 1953, Mr. Kotlar gives a press conference from Moscow announcing his defection. The book then moves to London in 1969, where Nick meets a young woman who tells him that not only is his father still alive but he has been keeping tabs on his son for the 19 years since he fled to the Soviet Union. This revelation draws Nick into a meeting with the seriously ill elder Kotlar and propels Nick into some intelligence gathering of his own--to uncover the man who caused Walter Kotlar's defection and who killed his father's accuser. With The Prodigal Spy, Kannon has once again breathed new life into spy fiction. --Patrick O'Kelley, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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HE WAS NOT allowed to attend the hearing. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
With The Prodigal Spy, Kanon has triumphantly conquered the second book blues. A former publishing industry executive, he has distilled a lifetime of experience into crafting this expert tale that brilliantly evokes the MacCarthyite witch-hunts of the 50s and the snarling paranoia of the later Cold War.
But this is not formula fiction. The Prodigal Spy combines - almost uniquely - the three essentials of an intelligent historical thriller. Take Alan Furst's atmospherics, Robert Harris's plots and Len Deighton's knowing, sardonic characterisation and you are somewhere close to what Kanon achieves in this expert twist-laden tale of two superpowers, a father and a son, a man and his lover searching for truth and redemption.
Mid-market fiction perfection.
Before making the journey he finds himself asking one simple question – why does he want to see me? The book is a tense thriller combining several different threads, notably the relationship between Nick and his father, and his memory of the events which scarred him as a child.
I can’t quite put my finger on what it is about this book that really appealed, perhaps it’s just the originality. I’ll definitely be reading some of Kanon’s other books in the future.
There are enough surprises (at least until the final pages) to sustain the narrative thrust but at the same time they restrain a reviewer from revealing too much of the plot. Suffice to say that it is soundly based in McCarthy era America and Iron Curtain Czechoslovakia still recovering from the suicide of Jan Masaryk. The atmosphere is convincingly oppressive.
But that may still be the least of the book's virtues. The characters live beyond the pages, and they speak the way human beings speak (dialogue in thrillers rarely enjoys an ear as acute as Joseph Kanon's). Within the conventions of the espionage story, The Prodigal Spy explores profound issues of love and betrayal in adult, thought-provoking terms.
The fact that the end becomes predictable should not deter; it is inherent in the setting and the characters who inhabit it. Kanon sits comfortably on the shelf beside Le Carré, Furst, McCarry - a select band
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