A Gathering of Spies

Rating:
Summary: Stole the plot from Le Carre
Review: Are you kidding me with this book? In the course of the first few chapters I caught on immediately. The plot and construct of the main character are largely stolen from John LeCarre's "The Spy who came in from the Cold."

Same deal: an aging protagonist, inserted into an espionage plot so deeply under cover, with loyalites to his country and the woman he loves so conflicted that we, the readers, are left to wonder which way he will turn.

Here's what's very telling. Altman gets glowing reviews on the book jacket form other spy writers. But if you read his bio, Altman's only credentials are that he comes from a family of writers.

Thhe bio also promises that Altman is busy on his second book. I can hardly wait.

Rating:
Summary: page turner thriller
Review: From the moment Katarina Heinrich, a German spy, kills Catherine Danielson and assumes her identity, I was caught in a web of thrills that kept me turning pages as Katarina, now Catherine, marries a Princeton professor, and moves to Los Alamos where she discovers AlbertEinstein's 'secret'letter toFranklin DelanoRoosevelt detailing a secret,the development of the A Bomb. Altman takes you through a plot of spy and counterspy which keeps you glued to the page. Will Katarina deliver her secret to the Germans? A subplot involving an English spy whose wife in interred in Dachau provides excitement while the reader learns if a man will do "anything" to get his wife out of a concentration camp. Hitler and his cohorts that run the Nazi machine come to life as real, manipulative and vulnerable. Reading A Gathering of Spies until six thirty in the morning was worth the loss of sleep.

Rating:
Summary: What a great read!
Review: I bought this a few months ago but only got around to reading it yesterday. Luckily the few whiny reviews didn't yet exist! I have no idea what book they were reading - maybe they're the people whose only remaining impression of Die Hard 2 was the Pacific Bell telephone in 'Dulles' Airport. Or maybe they're just the Comic Book Store Guy.

I started the book at 10pm - expected to read 50 or so pages to get into it. Fortunately, or unfortunately today, I didn't put it down until finished. First time I've done that in a while!

The dialogue is crisp and pretty well-done, especially compared to the best-selling hacks out there who always throw in a poorly-written sex scene and some awkward combat. The plot twists drew me further into the book - I really wasn't sure how it would end even when only a few pages remained.

It's not perfect - the deus ex machina is used a little too often. I can't speak for the historical accuracy, but it's a freakin' spy novel! A work of fiction!

A huge plus is the totally likeable protagonist. Or heroine. For some reason I kept rooting for her on her Natural Born Killers trail across the US! Eventually I started rooting for the British. Always root for the winner.

Rating:
Summary: A real page-turner
Review: I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys WWII spy thrillers or to anyone looking for a great, fast read this summer. WWII Britain, Germany, and the U.S. come to life brilliantly. Altman skillfully weaves together the adventures of his Nazi villainess/heroine, the personally-driven actions of a British double agent, and tantalizing glimpses of historical places and figures. The result is an extremely well-written page-turner -- I couldn't put it down. It could have been predictable, but it wasn't. In fact, Altman manages to keep up the suspense until the last pages, leaving us waiting anxiously for the sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating thriller
Review: I picked this book up after reading Mr. Gingrich's review and then reading the sample pages on Amazon. While I can't give it the same glowing review that Mr. Gingrich did, I can say that it's a very enjoyable book for its genre and well worth reading.

This is a great World War II spy novel that is only let down by the unbelievability of the main protagonist. Winterbotham is an aging academic, and yet we are supposed to believe he suddenly develops spy skills good enough to join in a manhunt for a German spy who could be anywhere in the British countryside? I found my suspension of disbelief wearing a bit thin once that happened, and it stretched further after some of his other deeds.

That being said, the book is a very enjoyable read, especially if you like spy novels like I do. Katarina is an intriguing character: a spy and killer who comes in from the cold when she finds a secret too big for her to keep quiet. I didn't quite buy her transformation, but everything that led up to it was good. She's good at what she does, but she's very rusty after ten long years of neglect. She relatively emotionless (or would like to be, at least) and kills without compunction. Usually it's a male character who is like this, so it is a refreshing change.

Winterbotham too is interesting, once you get past his believability. He's a man more driven my emotion than duty. His devotion to his wife is his utmost driving force. He's willing to risk everything to find her. We never really find out why this woman deserves such devotion, as Altman never really tells us much about their relationship. He does mention a few details, but they show more why she would be difficult to live with. Winterbotham obviously loves her very much, but we don't see why.

Despite all this, Altman writes the character so well that you tend to disregard all this when you read about him. He gives him some academic mannerisms (constantly smoking his pipe), and a cold personality. While you don't get a good illustration of the love for his wife, you do get to see how it motivates him to do what he does throughout this book. He's very single-minded and willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve his goal.

Altman interweaves real people with his characters to show exactly what's at stake in this game of cat and mouse. Most of them use the reader's basic knowledge of history to characterize them. Hitler is a ranting lunatic, Himmler is a visciously thorough man, Goring is a fat ex-soldier who only cares about his artwork, etc. Still, they establish the setting well enough and do point out just how big this secret is.

The best thing about this book, and the reason for the 4 stars, is how engaging it is. It's a real page-turner that you won't be able to put down. The action grips you, the characters (with the caveats above) make you care what happens to them, and there's a sense of unpredictability about everything. You're not really sure how it's going to end until it actually happens. I like that in a book, and I would certainly recommend reading it.

Rating:
Summary: A solid thriller
Review: Katarina Heinrich is a German spy in America. Winterbotham is an English professor in England ... but his wife is a prisoner in Poland. Katarina has hit upon an American secret she is afraid may win the war, and she will do anything to get it back to her homeland -- or will she? And Winterbotham has been asked by his government to participate in Operation Doublecross, by pretending to be a traitor to his country and infiltrating Germany, offering up carefully orchestrated information in return for everything his eyes and ears can find. He agrees, but for only one reason. He will do anything to get his wife back. Or will he?

A Gathering of Spies is a first novel, and as such it's brilliant. Yet, while there's certainly no lack of action or bloodshed -- too much bloodshed sometimes, it seems -- and while the stakes seem high, I did not find this book overly gripping. I enjoyed it, but I never really felt the lead characters were in danger. I had a comfortable feeling. In a way it was nice, because so many thrillers flog their leads most thoroughly, sometimes ad nauseum. And I did care about both Heinrich and Winterbotham, an accomplishment on Altman's part since the two are so much at odds.

The details about Germany were very interesting and the 1945's setting had me convinced. I could taste, smell, and see the setting, and I did not hit any of those long and eye blurring paragraphs that some novelists love and which belong in travelogues, not novels of intrigue.

In summary, A Gathering of Spies is well written, fast paced, clearly plotted, and well peopled. And while it may not be a nail biter, it is still an excellent read.