The Cairo Affair: A Novel

Written by Olen Steinhauer

Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

Sophie Kohl is living her worst nightmare. Minutes after she confesses to her husband, a mid-level diplomat at the American embassy in Hungary, that she had an affair while they were in Cairo, he is shot in the head and killed.

Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight calls. But his heart skips a beat when he hears the voice of the only woman he ever truly loved, calling to ask why her husband has been assassinated.

Omar Halawi has worked in Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to play the game. Foreign agents pass him occasional information, he returns the favor, and everyone's happy. But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fall-out wherever it leads.

American analyst Jibril Aziz knows more about Stumbler, a covert operation rejected by the CIA, than anyone. So when it appears someone else has obtained a copy of the blueprints, Jibril alone knows the danger it represents.

As these players converge in Cairo in The Cairo Affair, Olen Steinhauer's masterful manipulations slowly unveil a portrait of a marriage, a jigsaw puzzle of loyalty and betrayal, against a dangerous world of political games where allegiances are never clear and outcomes are never guaranteed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Mar 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781427236104

Olen Steinhauer

Olen Steinhauer was raised in Texas and now lives in Budapest, Hungary. He was inspired to write his Eastern European series while on a Fulbright Scholarship in Romania. His first four novels have been nominated for many awards, including the CWA Historical Dagger and an Edgar, and have been critically acclaimed. ‘The Tourist’ has been optioned for filming by George Clooney.

Reviews for The Cairo Affair

[myckyee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A bit complicated to follow, but it seems like most spy novels are. Despite that, I really liked this book and am happy to have found a new author to add to my list of must-reads. Though I have his first book, The Tourist, in my TBR pile, I've haven't read it yet but I'm more inclined to push it closer to the top after reading The Cairo Affair.It's got all the plot points I like in these novels: suspense, a certain creepiness in that you are never sure who is actually good and who is not; the characters are constantly looking over their shoulders and the smart ones trust no one. I can't say I liked the main character (or who I thought of as the main character given that the story is told from the perspective of several) but I did like some of the others and that was a saving grace for me. All in all, I think anyone who enjoys a good contemporary spy novel would enjoy this book.

[velopunk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. I had read one other book by Steinhauer from his Milo Weaver series. This novel is about the death of an American diplomat, an assassination actually. The diplomat is sitting with his wife in a Budapest restaurant confronting her about her infidelity at their last posting in Cairo. As he is doing so a gunman walks in the restaurant and shoots him. The diplomat is a CIA operative in the Cairo embassy. He is suspected of leaking documents to foreign powers. His widow goes back to Cairo rather than to the U.S. for her husband's funeral. There are many twists and turns in the story and it held my interest to the end.

[karenskullerud · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The storyline is a tricky plot. You have to write down the names of the characters in order to keep them straight, but I enjoyed the back and forth play of the timeline. And when you get to the end, read carefully the name of incidental character. NO ONE is incidental! He is a clue as to what is about to happen.

[col2910_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis/blurb…..Sophie Kohl is living her worst nightmare. Minutes after she confesses to her husband, a mid-level diplomat at the American embassy in Hungary, that she had an affair while they were in Cairo, he is shot in the head and killed.Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent, has fielded his share of midnight calls. But his heart skips a beat when he hears the voice of the only woman he ever truly loved, calling to ask why her husband has been assassinated.Omar Halawi has worked in Egyptian intelligence for years, and he knows how to play the game. Foreign agents pass him occasional information, he returns the favour, and everyone's happy. But the murder of a diplomat in Hungary has ripples all the way to Cairo, and Omar must follow the fall-out wherever it leads.American analyst Jibril Aziz knows more about Stumbler, a covert operation rejected by the CIA, than anyone. So when it appears someone else has obtained a copy of the blueprints, Jibril alone knows the danger it represents.As these players converge in Cairo in The Cairo Affair, Olen Steinhauer's masterful manipulations slowly unveil a portrait of a marriage, a jigsaw puzzle of loyalty and betrayal, against a dangerous world of political games where allegiances are never clear and outcomes are never guaranteed.----------------------My take.........I have previously read and enjoyed a couple of the author’s earlier books back in the middle of 2011 – The Istanbul Variations and Victory Square, so was looking forward to catching up with his latest offering. Both of those books concerned Eastern Europe in the aftermath of WW2 and the Cold War. The Cairo Affair has a more contemporary feel with events concerning the Arab Spring in 2011, particularly with regard to Libya.Difficult to decide what to put into a review and what to leave out, without basically re-hashing the synopsis above. The narrative jumps between two timelines; the early 90’s and 2011. The delivery of events is presented from the perspective of several of the main players within the book; an approach which worked for me. I was reminded of a recent read – Penance by Dan O’Shea where a similar construction paid off. A few bullet points then ………Egypt, Libya, Langley, Budapest, 2011, Yugoslavia, Serbs, Croats, 1991, America, desert, marriage, honeymoon, affair, diplomacy, intelligence services, police – both secret and other, heritage, freedom, loyalty, money, secrets, surveillance, Mubarak, Gaddafi, assassin, death, politics, plans, plots, truth, lies, trust, manipulation, cooperation, relationships, family, betrayal, revenge, poetry and much more.A few more bullet points and a verdict ……. Interesting, enjoyable, clever, intelligent, stunning, entertaining, educational, informative, eye-opening, satisfying and amazing.Well-fleshed characters – not all of them likeable and great detail, the plot and the premise for “Stumbler”, makes you wonder whether Steinhauer has his own mole working inside Langley.Time to dust off his other books.5 from 5Accessed via Net Galley. In the UK – The Cairo Affair was released last month.

[darcette_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Cairo affair reveals a spycraft conspiracy released in the wild, and a spying plan that is thought to have caused the murder of 6 leaders, while Egypt is in turmoil over the events in Tahrir Square. The thriller is exciting because of the high stakes that start with the 6 high profile murders.Ambassador Emmett Kohl is taken out just days after a meeting with a Langley analyst, and the analyst was investigating after the execution of five leaders who were suspected of fomenting the revolt against Moammar Ghadafi and also worked in Syria to arrange assets being sent in to Tripoli and Benghazi. It turns out that it's a red herring only, because the Mideast area is in a destructive spiral to satisfy the objectives of warring sects. To the characters, though, the Cairo embassy and the Egypt security intelligence are the limited landscape where the main events unfold. Sophi Kohl, wife of Ambassador Emmett Kohl, the murdered ambassador, is the flawed seeker for the cause of her husband's murder. And each of the contacts she has with the many sides involved in this elaborate plot are revealed through not only her first-person account, but through the POV of her lover, the Cairo Station Chief, the Langley analyst, the Hungarian Chief of Security, the Egyptian Security Intelligence Officer in Cairo and many other characters that tell their stories and add to the set of clues the reader gets to understand the losses and grief that ransack their lives.

[hagelstein_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was glad to see a new book from Olen Steinhauer, and equally glad that it wasn’t a Milo Weaver book. The Milo Weaver trilogy was good – but played out two books ago. In The Cairo Affair Steinhauer is working with a new, fresh cast of characters. When an American diplomat is murdered in front of his wife in Budapest, just after she confessed to an affair with one of his colleagues in Cairo, it reveals an intricate web of alliances, murder and deceit involving the intelligence agencies of several countries.Steinhauer creates a complicated patchwork of relationships dating back twenty years among a number of characters. It’s complicated at times and gets hard to follow at the end but the strong characters and vivid writing keep the story flowing and make The Cairo Affair a satisfying espionage novel.

[realfish · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

First of all let me say that I have read several Olen Steinhauer books (The Tourist, The Nearest Exit, An American Spy) and have always enjoyed his novels. Unfortunatley, "The Cairo Affair" did not meet expectations. Not that it was bad, it just did not deliver the same interest and intrigue that I had experienced in his previous books. The story line was predictable and the multiple flashbacks and changes in point-of-view made the reading choppy and confusing. All authors have books that do not quite reach the level of previous works so I will definitely read other books by this author.

[karatelpek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A page turner but rather confusing and unbelievable at times. Which poetry reading CIA contractors need to moonlight as English tutors? Omar was the most believable and sympathetic of the characters, the Americans weren't.

[viking2917_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Solid, byzantine spy thriller. Reminds me a bit of A Perfect Spy by Le Carre, and how a gradually revealed single incident affects so many lives... Multiple perspectives, multiple betrayals, a lot of Eastern Europe, plus a more topical look at the Middle East. Better than his already-great Milo Weaver books.

[jimgysin_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The wife of a diplomat confesses to an affair just in time for her husband to be shot dead, right before her eyes. The only thing keeping this one from being another rare five-star read for me is the fact that Sophie Kohl, the protagonist, is so unlikable and so deserving of everything that she gets--and then some. I found myself rooting again and again for something dire and perhaps even terminal to happen to her, and...well, let's just say that I could have been happier with certain things. But other than that, the other characters and the setting and the plot and the pacing of this one are terrific, and it's a title that I highly recommend to fellow fans of espionage thrillers. In the end, Sophie's late husband deserved better on more than one front. A lot better.

[tanya8dogearedcopy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A modern day spy thriller in which a junior diplomat is assassinated in Hungary; but all trails are leading back to Cairo. The story is set against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, and the scuttling of spies through the streets and the desert. The plot is fairly well constructed; but slow to gel in terms of suspense. Readers of Scott Turow ('Presumed Innocent') and Scott Smith ('A Simple Plan') will catch on fairly quickly as to "what's what." There's a big continuity error, and a factual error, so while the writing is fairly solid otherwise, John Le Carré has nothing to worry about.

[gpaisley_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars. Great story, a little short on character development, but well-structured and well written. I enjoyed how he told the story from multiple vantage points and back and forth over time. There was a lot to keep track of, but he kept refreshing the reader in a way that wasn't gimicky or patronizing.

Again, close to great, but still not the one I was looking for.

[terran_9 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting details about political unrest and activities in Egypt and Libya during the Arab spring.

[brianewilliams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was pleased to receive a copy of this book as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer because I had read and enjoyed a couple of the author's earlier books. (I also read the prequel to this one.) I was also pleasantly surprized to find a clever whodunit murder mystery set within an exciting spy thriller. Who killed Emmett Kohl? That's the question posed by the assassination early in the book of a mid-level American diplomat in Hungary. His wife Sophie pursues the answer to this question through a complex spy story involving several murky characters in post Arab Spring Egypt and revolutionary Libya. There's lots of local colour from Cairo -- the author seems to know the city well. Few of the characters, including Sophie, are as they initially seem to be or can be relied on to tell the truth. Need to know is the excuse to withhold information and cover up misdeeds. There's a particularly unpleasant Serbian spy -- the Balkan people don't come off well in this story. Nor does the CIA. All in all it's an exciting and thrilling read -- the identity of the person behind the Kohl murder was a little bit contrived in my view, but it still works. It also demonstrates the grubby world of spying. Highly recommended!

[readyreader_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I selected this book because I was looking for a "reads like" John LeCarre. It fulfilled my expectations and I want to read more of Mr. Steinhauer's books.

[ethel55_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love a good John Le Carre, and certainly miss the work of Vince Flynn. Espionage, with the fall of the Cold War, has had to take a different tack and geography to be relevant in the 21st century. I thought the area of Cairo/Libya etc was very timely, and the information about diplomat Emmett Kohl and his wife Sophie seemed realistic. I was a little conflicted about all the multiple narrators and jumps throughout time in the book. I don't mind the layering effect it had, it just seemed excessive at times. There were a couple characters, specifically Zora and to a lesser extent the multi-named Michael Khalil, that I thought needed to have better stories closed off by the end of the book.

[cacky_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed Steinhauer's "Tourist" trilogy and looked forward to The Cairo Affair. I was disappointed. I found there were too many who's, what's, where's, when's and why's to find a focus.I think of a spy novel as peeling back layers of an onion. Some of those layers are opaque, some are translucent and some are hidden. But here it seemed as though I was peeling not only an onion but also an orange, a grape and bedroom wallpaper at grandmother' house.With so many focal points, I lost interest.

[rufusraider · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer is a very good espionage novel set in Cairo, Egypt during the Arab Spring that led to the overthrow of Mubarak. The story is primarily about a couple who had been stationed at the U.S. embassy in Cairo a few years earlier. It covers their life together from the early 1990's to present time in flashbacks to fill the reader in on the background necessary for the story. The husband was an attache at the embassy. At the end of his tour, he was suspected of passing secrets to an enemy agent. The enemy agent was someone they met on their honeymoon after graduating from Harvard. They met the woman in the former Yugoslavia which was in the middle of the ethnic cleansing that took part during the breakup into many smaller countries.Evidence was found that he had some of the documents that were passed to the enemy agent at home on his computer in violation of the rules. They were not able to prove that he was passing the information. The embassy took the easy way out and had him and his wife transferred to embassy in Hungary. He was having dinner in a restaurant with his wife when he gunned down in front of her. This is where the story starts. The wife calls a CIA agent in Cairo at the embassy, with whom she had been having an affair, to find out what is going on. This was the same agent that was investigating the husband about the leaks.The wife, after talking to one of the Hungarian investigators, part of the intelligence community, decides to go to Cairo and figure out what happened. I don't really want to tell you any more because I will start revealing too much of the story line. There is plenty of intrigue as the story takes off. At some point in the story almost all your ideas will be destroyed as to what happened.This is very good novel. I recommend it to any espionage novel fans. Several of the characters seem to have features that made George Smiley the lead character of many le Carre novels beloved by many followers of the espionage novel.

[chatterbox_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read and enjoyed the three books by Olen Steinhauer featuring Milo Weaver and the quirky "Department of Tourism", relishing the nuances that the author introduced into the classic espionage yarns; the complexity of the characters and the unpredictability of the plotsWhat in those novels were assets became liabilities for me in this book, and in my quest for a reason, all I can conclude is that it's Steinhauer's decision to adopt an equally quirky structure that made the difference. Instead of following the story through the eyes of one or two characters, as was the case with Milo Weaver in the case of the "Tourist" novels, this stand-alone book recounts events from the perspective of several very different individuals: Sophie Kohl, who sees her diplomat husband murdered before her eyes in a Budapest restaurant in the opening pages; John, a contractor loosely affiliated with the CIA whose mission into Libya during the collapse of the Qadaffi regime goes badly awry; Stan; Sophie's erstwhile lover, a Cairo-based spook, and Omar, an Egyptian intelligence officer with scruples and loyalties of his own trying to find his way in the earliest days of post Mubarak Egypt. These narrative lines overlap and sometimes repeat and revisit events -- and then occasionally we're back in 1991, in the earliest days of the Kohl marriage, so that Steinhauer can tell/show the reader just how and why certain events transpired as they did.In fact, Steinhauer was so busy being clever with the plot and structure that he forgot to make his characters engaging and I actually found myself getting bored. Yes, the setting is atmospheric -- but not NEARLY as much as the excellent mystery novels by Sudanese novelist Parker Bilal, set in Cairo of 1999-2002. Yes, there are chilling and eerie vignettes, but that's not enough to sustain an atmosphere of menace throughout an entire book. It's great to create a "maze of intrigue", as the NYT's Janet Maslin describes it, but only if you actually happen to engage with the characters navigating that maze as convincing individuals. I simply couldn't. They were constructs, as was the overly elaborate plot and structure. This was stuck halfway between LeCarre, with his richly imagined world, and more pedestrian genre novels. I could admire Steinhauer's intellect and skill but, admiration aside, a story that should have gripped and fascinated me left me cold. The one person in it to whom I connected as a character was Fouada, Omar's wife, with her instinct to mother the spies and waifs and strays whom her husband brings home for her to tend. The other characters were so busy making points on the author's behalf they couldn't take the time to be real. So 4.3 stars for technical merit; 3 stars for emotional impact: 3.4 stars overall. Unscientific, but hey, that's what the reading experience is all about.

[dokfintong · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received an advance review copy of The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer (St. Martin's Press) through NetGalley.com.There is a glaring hole in this book. The story hinges on whether Emmett Kohl, a career diplomat, copied classified documents onto his personal computer in order to sell them. Emmett denies anything more than being a man who liked bring his work home in the evening. When particular documents are leaked, is Emmett guilty? This is a great plot line but a quick check with some State Department friends confirms that it is impossible. As one friend writes:"Sorry that the facts may get in the way of a good thriller. The scenario you've described couldn't happen any more recently than 2005-6. It certainly could never happen today. All the disk drives and various ports on classified workstations are disabled so you couldn't download files onto a thumb drive or anything. The only possible way to move classified documents onto the unclassified system would be with the collusion of someone in the IM/IT office, and every action / every keystroke they take is logged."If you can suspend your disbelief, go ahead. Mr. Steinhauer is a good writer.

[sensory-376444 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A bit complicated to follow, but it seems like most spy novels are. Despite that, I really liked this book and am happy to have found a new author to add to my list of must-reads. Though I have his first book, The Tourist, in my TBR pile, I've haven't read it yet but I'm more inclined to push it closer to the top after reading The Cairo Affair.It's got all the plot points I like in these novels: suspense, a certain creepiness in that you are never sure who is actually good and who is not; the characters are constantly looking over their shoulders and the smart ones trust no one. I can't say I liked the main character (or who I thought of as the main character given that the story is told from the perspective of several) but I did like some of the others and that was a saving grace for me. All in all, I think anyone who enjoys a good contemporary spy novel would enjoy this book.

[maneekuhi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read only one other book by Steinhauer and I didn't care for it ("The Tourist"?, I'm not sure). So I clearly wasn't postively inclined to another by him, but the plot summary of "The Cairo Affair" sounded very interesting. Well, it turns out that Olen Steinhauer's "The Cairo Affair" is excellent, a five star. However, it is long, complex, rife with Arabic names, no protagonist, chapters that loop back -so, not an easy read by any stretch. But it was exciting, interesting, and something to look forward to each time I picked it up. It starts in 1991 with a bright, energetic pair of newlyweds looking to "experience life". The story quickly jumps forward to the present, and now he is a diplomat recently transferred to Budapest. Or is he a spy? There are hints of career problems related to his previous assignment in Cairo. We are quickly sidetracked and meet other characters, including a female blackmailer from the Balkans, an anlyst with the CIA who believes revolution may be beginning in Libya, numerous agents with Egyptian intelligence, and their counterparts at the US embassy in Cairo. Before long there are three dead bodies and everyone is asking the same who and why questions. One or more of the victims is CIA, and most of the characters assume that the CIA has eliminated their own to fix a problem. Blocks of chapters focus on different characters and slowly facts of the case are revealed from their POV. But then we are brought back to a scene a second and a third time, and different perspectives are presented. The reader becomes aware that "who knew what when" will likely be critical to understanding what had happened. There are none of the traditional heroes in the first half of this book, but slowly one of the characters begins very slowly to put things together. I have read 7-8 very good spy novels this year (Then We Take Berlin, Young Philby, Blowback, Star of Istanbul)and The Cairo Affair is the best. I recommend it highly.

[sprocto · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This isn't an action hero, coming soon to a theater near you, type of story. It is much more layered and subtle than all that. This book is rich with character and description! There is no "formula" to Olen Steinhauer's writing so far. Each book has something to say and I love that. I will keep reading as long as he keeps writing!

[crazymamie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sophie and Emmett Kohl were dining in a French restaurant in Budapest when it happened. A man walked up to their table, shot her husband dead, and then quietly disappeared in the chaos that ensued. Sophie is left with many unanswered questions and surrounded by players who will tell her only partial truths. She knows this. She understands this. After all, her husband was an American diplomat, and they had been married for more than twenty years. What is truly disturbing is that their last words to each other were strained ones - Emmett had found out about her affair in Cairo. Now there would be no chance to explain, no opportunity to make him understand. The most she can do for him now is to find the answers that will lead to his killer. I really loved this book. I received it from the November ER batch, and dipped into it as soon as it arrived on my doorstep. I have only read one other book by this author - The Tourist, which I also really enjoyed. This latest offering from Steinhauer, however, is not a continuation of that series - it is that very rare species today in the world of thrillers and espionage, a stand alone book. And it is very, very good. The characters are well drawn, the plot lines are intelligent and complex, and the story flows at a fast pace. It is told from alternating points of view, which I usually find disruptive, but here it works flawlessly. Each additional voice adds layers to the story and tension as the reader is left wondering if every narrator is reliable. I loved how the more that I learned, the more I realized that I didn't know.

[mysterymax_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Until you reach the end you will not know it all. Steinhauer has written a complex, satisfying modern-day spy novel full of loyalties and betrayals; lies and truths. Present day murders that have their beginnings in actions twenty years old are played out with characters that are completely plausible and convincing.In Langley, a North African analyst sees a pattern in a group of disappearances. In Budapest, a diplomat is shot dead in front of his wife in a fashionable French restaurant. In the desert south of Cairo more people will disappear.It's impossible to stay up late enough to finish a 400-plus page novel in one sitting. In fact, this is a book to take your time with; to savor its multiple layers and the history binding all the characters together.Often I have heard people say that spy stories that take place after the end of the Cold War just aren't the same as the stories we came to love in the spy genre. This is truly an exception to that feeling.

[lauranav_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Spies, and the agencies they work for, should know all kinds of information and know what is going on. But that isn't usually the case, and in Cairo, this is very obvious and even dangerous as we follow several characters from the US, Egypt, Serbia, and even Hungary stumble around trying to figure out what is the truth. The characters are sympathetic, and realistic. The events are very current and believable. The stories of a number of people weave in together, but each has their own interests, loyalties, and needs driving them. The story is well written and well paced.

[eachurch-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A well-written, fast read that is marvelously entertaining. Steinhauer uses multiple viewpoints to great effect. His characters are believable, and appropriately complicated. The story unfolds in an unexpected, but completely plausible manner. The way he uses recent events in the Middle East is quite remarkable. Highly recommended.