The Kraus Rendition

4.6/5 ( ratings)

"A young CIA operative gets more than he bargained for in this well-wrought novel of pre-9/11 counterterrorism. Trent Stark joined the Agency fresh out of college, eager to live up to the legacy of his dead father, one of its finest agents. Because of Trent 's youth, Cilla Talbot, third-in-command of the Agency's Counterterrorist Center , and Jim McIlvain, Trent 's boss, choose him for a sensitive overseas operation. Else Kraus, the leader of the terrorist Revolutionary Struggle Front, is still at large after the group committed several attacks in the 1970s and '80s. Liz Perkins, a high-strung expert on Kraus, has evidence that Kraus' daughter is studying at an American university in Bonn , so Trent goes to Germany , posing as a college student to obtain information from the young woman. As "Troy Green," Trent meets Claudia Struve, a fellow student who fits the daughter's description, and becomes enamored of her despite his better judgment. While Trent searches for information, Kraus and an anti-American politician conspire to detonate a nuclear bomb at a German military base and blame the United States . The author's fluid prose and the novel's characters raise it far above the level of a routine thriller. The Agency workers come across as human beings rather than stock characters, and the moments of wry humor that punctuate the text are delightful. This novel should have broad appeal both inside and outside the genre's fan base."--Publisher's Weekly