All The Old Knives: A Novel

"Put down whatever you’re reading, or doing, and pick up Olen Steinhauer’s newest spy thriller, a book so taut and, yes, brilliant that it will make your other entertainments seem pale and poorly written. The remarkable thing about it is that nearly the entire novel consists of a conversation between Henry and Celia, two former CIA agents at the Vienna station — and former lovers, as well. Their dinner in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., is in complete contrast to the hostage crisis six years earlier that the two of them raced to resolve — and that Henry can’t forget."