Sophie Kohl
is living her worst nightmare. Minutes after she confesses to her
husband, a mid-level diplomat at the American embassy in Hungary, that
she had an affair while they were in Cairo, he is shot in the head and
killed.
Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based
CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight calls. But his heart skips a
beat when he hears the voice of the only woman he ever truly loved,
calling to ask why her husband has been assassinated.
Omar Halawi has worked in
Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to play the game.
Foreign agents pass him occasional information, he returns the favor,
and everyone's happy. But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has
ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fall-out wherever
it leads.
American analyst Jibril Aziz
knows more about Stumbler, a covert operation rejected by the CIA, than
anyone. So when it appears someone else has obtained a copy of the
blueprints, Jibril alone knows the danger it represents.
As these players converge in Cairo in The Cairo Affair,
Olen Steinhauer's masterful manipulations slowly unveil a portrait of a
marriage, a jigsaw puzzle of loyalty and betrayal, against a dangerous
world of political games where allegiances are never clear and outcomes
are never guaranteed.