American Spy: A Novel

by Lauren Wilkinson Narrated by Bahni Turpin

Overview

What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love?

It's 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She's brilliant, but she's also a young black woman working in an old boys' club. Her career has stalled out, she's overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she's given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes.

Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Sankara is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she's being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent.

In the year that follows, Marie will observe Sankara, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American.

Inspired by true events — Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa's Che Guevara” — American Spy knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War you've never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice.

Editorial Reviews

APRIL 2019 - AudioFile

This is not your grandfather’s audio spy thriller. Marie Mitchell, a young African-American officer, is routinely bypassed and underestimated by the old boys in the intelligence networks she works for, and it has made her a much harder-headed customer than is suggested by the warm, feminine voice with which Bahni Turpin skillfully misleads you. When Marie is finally offered a plum assignment, shadowing the charismatic new socialist president of Burkina Faso, her handlers seem to think she won’t figure out that she is the bait in a honey trap. Nor do they consider that she remembers and understands what happened to Patrice Lumumba. This is indeed an American spy story, thrilling because it shifts the ground beneath your feet. Brava, both Turpin and Wilkinson. B.G. 2019 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2019 - AudioFile

This is not your grandfather’s audio spy thriller. Marie Mitchell, a young African-American officer, is routinely bypassed and underestimated by the old boys in the intelligence networks she works for, and it has made her a much harder-headed customer than is suggested by the warm, feminine voice with which Bahni Turpin skillfully misleads you. When Marie is finally offered a plum assignment, shadowing the charismatic new socialist president of Burkina Faso, her handlers seem to think she won’t figure out that she is the bait in a honey trap. Nor do they consider that she remembers and understands what happened to Patrice Lumumba. This is indeed an American spy story, thrilling because it shifts the ground beneath your feet. Brava, both Turpin and Wilkinson. B.G. 2019 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169470307
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	02/12/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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