All the Old Knives

Over the weekend I needed a bit of a get away from it all read, and, as it worked out, my turn came up at the library to read the latest Olen Steinhauer spy novel, All the Old Knives. Several years ago I tore through his Milo Weaver series of novels and loved them. Spy novels have become my brain candy reading when I just need a break from things.

All the Old Knives is a bit of a different read in that all the current action takes place on one day and most of that is in one place, over dinner in a restaurant. Two old CIA colleagues meet up and of course, being a spy novel, you are led to believe it’s for one reason and yet there is so much more going on. It’s a good, quick read, and I admit, the twist got me at the end.

Maybe love is the wrong way to live. Maybe anything that infects good sense is to be shunned. It’s a possibility I’ll examine closer, when there’s time. (loc. 2597)