The Company of Strangers
Robert Wilson, whose award-winningA Small Death in Lisbonbroke  him out as an international thriller writer in the Ambler, le Carré, and Furst  tradition, scores with this exceptionally well-plotted novel of wartime intrigue  in England and Portugal. Andrea Aspinall, a brilliant young British  mathematician, is recruited by the British Secret Service and put through a rush  course in spycraft before being sent to Lisbon, where she quickly falls in love  with a disenchanted German agent and, in less than two weeks, manages to lose  her virginity, unmask a conspiracy, and interrupt Germany's plan to build the  first atomic bomb. The action covers a long time span--from the early years of  Word War II to the era of glasnost, when Andrea, now an Oxford mathematician  long retired from spying, encounters the man she once loved and lost. Karl Voss  has become an East German double agent who's bent on revealing the Russian mole  in England's service. The narrative wanders a bit, but the strong, spare writing  and deft characterization set this apart as one of the year's better  international espionage novels, one that should introduce Wilson to a bigger  audience.--Jane Adams--This text refers to thePaperbackedition.