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Book Reviews of The Company of Strangers

The Company of Strangers
The Company of Strangers
Author: Robert Wilson
ISBN-13: 9780156027106
ISBN-10: 0156027100
Publication Date: 11/1/2002
Pages: 496
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 14

3.5 stars, based on 14 ratings
Publisher: Harvest Books
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

10 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 34 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Good mystery thriller!
rfdudley avatar reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 75 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I enjoyed the book. The plot was complicated and a lot to keep up with. If I read it again, I would take more time and pay more attention. Good book overall.
bejart avatar reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
WWII opposite spies stay in love for 50 years even though they were together for two weeks. Makes you hungry for Portuguese food.
reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 83 more book reviews
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Robert Wilson, whose award-winning A Small Death in Lisbon broke 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 the Paperback edition.
reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 13 more book reviews
just your average mystrey
reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 215 more book reviews
In the style of John le Carre, author, Robert Wilson is a plotter's delight, creating an intriguing moral maze.

The year, 1944: Anrea ASpinall, mathematician and spy, disappears under a new identity in the torrid summer streets of Lisbon that seethes with spies and informers. The Germans have made advances in the atomic and rocket technology, and the Allies are determined that the ultimate secret weapon will not become a reality in Nazi hands.

Karl Voss arrives in Lisbon as a military attache to the German Legation. There he begins his work against the Nazi regime to rescu his country from annihilation.

In this lethal tranquility of corrupted paradise, Andrea and Karl meet and attempt to find love in a world where no one can be believed or trusted. After a night of terrible violence Andrea is left with a secret that provokes a lifelong addiction to the clandestine world.

Author Robert Wilson is the author of five previous novels, including A Small Death in Lisbon, which won the Gold Dagger Award as Best Crime Novel of the Year from Britain's Crime Writers Association. A graduate of Oxford University, he lives with his wife in Portugal.
book-reader avatar reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 144 more book reviews
Excellent spy book spanning the years from 1940-1990. Hard to put down.
reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 75 more book reviews
How do ordinary people end up being double agents in World War II and the Cold War aftermath? And, how can the tale be crafted as an entirely unsentimental love story? Robert Wilson does a great job pulling this off with a great read.
reviewed The Company of Strangers on + 615 more book reviews
What a saga! A much longer time frame and a deeper story than the average thriller. Many plot twists near the end that I did not see coming.
Heloise avatar reviewed The Company of Strangers on
This is an espionage thriller taking place in 1944. Andrea Aspinall is a mathematician and spy who disappears into the streets of Lisbon under a new identity. Karl Voss arrives in Lisbon and begins subversive work against the Nazis. The two try to find love in a world of secrets. The book progresses from the war years in Lisbon and London up through the Cold War.