Eisenhower has just been elected. The Senator from Wisconsin is runny roughshod across anyone in power who doesn't see the world the way he sees it; communists and homosexuals were in his crosshairs. The FBI is run by what some see as a dictator. The old OSS of WWII has evolved into the CIA, but it is still the new kid on the block that the FBI doesn't like nor think is even needed. They've been thrown in the sandbox and told to play nicely.
The OSS/CIA recruits almost exclusively in the Ivy League because their people have to be smart and where are the smartest talent but in the Ivies. Secrecy was paramount. Wives, families, friends had to be kept completely in the dark. It was a time of trench coats, fedoras, suits and ties, cigarettes, and hard drink.
Just after the war, food riots erupted in Vienna. The riots brought out the worst in the Soviet police and some generous acts of kindness by the occasional agents of the west. One act caught the eye of the Russian intelligencia and managed to turn an OSS agent. They now had someone placed inside during the CIAs infancy.
The CIA suspects they have a mole and have dubbed him Protocol. The CIAs operations head meets with his inner circle to formulate a strategy to flush him out. George Muller, an experienced agent with ties back to Vienna is the reluctant point man. But he wants out. His marriage failed and his young son is growing up in Europe. He is a loner with a signed resignation letter in his desk drawer.
The CIA has a couple of relatively insignificant clues, but they realize the only way they will ever uncover Protocol's identity is to turn a Russian. Muller successfully entraps a high-ranking Russian and works him slowly to get that one piece of information that will reveal Protocol's identity.
This is Vidich's debut novel. Readers schooled on Kirk McGarvey, Scot Harvath, Mitch Rapp, John Wells, or even James Bond need to adjust their expectations. Muller is not a bull in the china shop. He would a contemporary of LeCarre's George Smiley. Old school espionage. Nothing better than a good old fashioned mole hunt - spy noir at its finest. Vidich skillfully reveals Muller to be a less than convinced patriot who has to hunt for an enemy amongst old friends.
A most impressive debut. He is being compared to LeCarre, so maybe it might be advised to pick up the with this newest entry to traditional espionage.
ECD
p.s. a few reviews ago, I mentioned that I need to pay closer attention to the publisher. I was referring to my recent entry into reading titles by Emily Bestler Books (an imprint of Atria/Simon & Schuster). Imagine my surprise to find out that Vidich is one of her authors. So far, I'm batting 1.000. Think I'm convinced that she really can deliver the goods.
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