A thriller about a disgraced comedian-turned-politician who takes on the role of a lifetime: infiltrating a corrupt Eastern European country to spy on their brutal dictator.
Dan Fesperman, wielding a sharp eye for atmospheric detail and a finely tuned ear for comic relief, has proved to be one of the genre’s most exciting contemporary writers ... Deliciously fun ... As Hal stumbles his way to uncovering a clandestine intelligence-gathering service in the heart of Bolrovia, the plot loses some of its mounting tension and risks falling into Hollywood-style buddy slapstick. I understand why Fesperman chose to set his caper in a fictional country — both legally and creatively — but for me the stakes of the operation never seem tethered to a real world where actual lives hang in the balance ... Still, Hal and Pavel are irresistible creations.
