A Most Private Intrigue by Leo Rosten

High-voltage suspense adventure by a master novelist......"whose writing and imagination seem boundless" - San Francisco Chronicle

copyright 1967 Fawcett Crest Book

THE ORNATE CALLING CARD READ:

THE REV. THEOPHILUS SULENKIAN
Church of St. George the Redeemer
ISTANBUL
TURKEY

But this was Connecticut - and the bald, sweating mountain-of-a-man smiled silkily, "I come to sell you something."

"Sell?" frowned Jarvis. "What Reverend, do you sell?"

"People."

So begins A Most Private Intrigue, a novel that moves from New York to Washington, London to Istanbul - and beyond.....


I give this book a 4.5 rating, a half off for some of the confusion the language caused me. The author, I suppose, gave the Turkish and Russian characters terrible english so that the reader would know they weren't to be fully trusted. It may have been better to have just changed the print type for the English words spoken by foreigners, just as some words spoken in Turkish or Russian were italicized.

That being said, this book was definitely entertaining and a thrill to follow. Though you never really thought of Peter Galton as a heroic type, you believed he was smart and gutsy enough to pull off the deal.

Even when it appeared Galton and his mission were possibly doomed, you never gave up on the man.

The best part of this book is not in the writing but the story itself. The author uses a mystery story approach as he patiently exposes bits and pieces of the people, places and events that are served up to us in this thriller. Never do you feel lost in the story, which makes for a smart read.

As the baiting suspense and intrigue builds, then collapses under an unsuspecting explosion, then builds again to a final climax, you find yourself on the hook for a fully loaded espionage ride.

And the true beauty of this book is it believability and that you never would have guessed how it all plays out in the end.

Very Enjoyable! And I learned what a Turkish Sunnet Room is used for.