The Amateur Spy slows down about halfway through; also about the same point the dialogue loses some of its snap, as if the author had a difficult time with it. I feel he could have left out quite a bit in this section, tightened up the remaining narrative, eliminated the unneeded and sometimes clumsy complications in the plot, and had a much more readable and effective story, as well as making the plot and the action unbroken throughout.

Fortunately, Festerman finds his pace and style again, making the last hundred or so pages as fast-paced and dramatic as the first half of the book. Freeman is in over his head a good part of the time, but considering his background, his current predicament, and the complication of his situation, it’s understandable. The twists and turns of the world of international spy games are daunting at times. And as they should, the loose ends tie up neatly at the end.

What’s particularly striking and commendable about The Amateur Spy is that it attempts to give a more balanced view of the Arab-Israeli situation than one is used to seeing in U.S. newspapers and other media. The book doesn’t go into it too heavily, however, which is appropriate for any novel, but it does get into it enough to whet the appetite for more details, which is also appropriate. In today’s U.S. media, the situation is parallel to a situation described in the book. When a person attempts to present a fair and balanced overall picture of the situation in the Middle East, he or she is tabbed as anti-Semitic. Which is ironic in itself, considering that Arabs, too, are descended from Shem, the eldest son of Noah, much to the chagrin of many. Pragmatically, there’s negligible difference between the Sunni-Shiite rift and the Arab-Israeli rift. It’s all about religion, isn’t it?