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Secret life turns aid worker into pawn
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Published: April 20, 2008
THE AMATEUR SPY. By Dan Fesperman. Knopf. 367 pages. $24.95.
Dan Fesperman grew up in Charlotte, graduated from UNC Chapel Hill, and embarked on a journalism career that placed him in hot spots such as Sarajevo, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and even Guantanamo Bay. He used his insider's knowledge as source material for his first novel, Lie in the Dark, released in 1999, for which he earned the John Creasey Award for the Best First Crime Novel. Since then he has also written The Small Boat of Great Sorrows (the movie version is set for release in 2009), The Warlord's Son and The Prisoner of Guantanamo, all of which received rave reviews. With The Amateur Spy, Fesperman again proves that he is at the top of his game.
The Amateur Spy opens on the Greek island of Karos, where Freeman Lockhart and his wife, Mila, have retired to peaceful seclusion after dangerous careers as aid workers. But the bucolic life they hoped for is intruded upon by three mysterious strangers -- apparently from the CIA. They compel Freeman to work for them by threatening to reveal his most hidden secret -- a secret of such magnitude that, if revealed, it would surely destroy Mila.
Freeman's only recourse is to comply with their demands. His dilemma is that compliance means misleading Mila and spying on an old Palestinian friend, Omar al Baroody, who is heading up a new aid venture to help Palestinian refugees in Jordan.
According to Freeman's handlers, Omar has two sets of books detailing the revenue flow of his organization. One is above board; the other may show which terrorist cells he is financing and which criminal sponsors are supplying funds. Freeman's mission, should he choose to accept it or not, is to infiltrate Omar's organization and report all suspicious activity to his handlers. Freeman's operation takes him to Jordan, Athens and Israel. And through flashbacks we visit many other places of interest from Freeman's past -- eventually leading to the disclosure of the "dark secret" that so haunts and motivates him.
While the main body of the story is a first-person narrative -- a new development in Fesperman's writing style -- parallel plot threads in third-person limited have us following an Arab American, Aliya Rahim, and her husband, Abbas, as a homegrown terrorist plot is hatched that is intended to kill off much of the leading elite of our country.
The beauty of Fesperman's work is that in dealing with the international arena, he proves to be a citizen of the world first. In his fair handling of politically loaded topics, we are shown the often overlooked fact that most Arabs and Muslims are normal, caring people, not wild-eyed lunatics, and that terrorist plots, even when developed by Arab Muslims, may not always be motivated by religious fanaticism. Beyond that, Fesperman provides us with fast-paced, intriguing stories of espionage, filled with emotionally packed content, while leaving them completely devoid of gratuitously graphic violence. Two thumbs up for Dan Fesperman!
■ Steven Beach is a writer who lives in Lawsonville.
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