The Prodigal Spy begins well with the McCarthyesque trial of Walter Kotlar experienced through the eyes of his son, Nick. Nick's certainty in his father's innnocence he discovers his father has one shirt the size the star witness claims to have sold him and rushes to get rid of the "evidence." Thinking he has fixed the problem, he is devastated when Walter flees after the suicide (murder?) of the key witness against him to turn up much later as a defector in the Soviet Union. Nick may be a bit precocious, but his actions seem plausibly childlike and realistic in his naive belief that getting rid of the shirt got rid of the problem. There is tremendous emotional power in this section of the book and it draws the reader in with its promise.

Years pass and and the adult Nick is asked by his father to help him come home by finding the important, and still active spy, who orchestrated Walter's defection in order to protect himself from discovery. This sets up what should be a satisfying and intriguing mystery, except the clues are too obvious and Nick to obtuse to see them.

The older Nick isn't as clever as the young Nick or surely he would have solved the mystery of who was the important spy as soon as he discovered his father's lighter was found at the scene of the suicide - now surely a murder. His equally obtuse inability to understand the witness's letter and discover who was the prime mover in this family tragedy was just as frustrating to this reader who wanted to shake him and tell him to just stop and think for one minute.

Over all, this is a fine story. It's well-written. The dialogue is credible and it's emotionally satisfying. However, as a mystery it lacks subtlety.

I fell in love with Kanon's dialogue in Los Alamos but found myself ignoring the love story and wanting more mystery. The Prodigal Spy was much more to my liking in this respect. The dialogue is great, not cheesy and mundane like most books these days. The story between father and son is gripping. Normally I'm not interested in this type of story, family redemption and so on, but this book somehow made it not only work, but made it interesting. The cold war setting is well layed out, and his descriptions of Prague and its Big Brother way of life are eerily well written. It's this middle section of the book, when the protagonist visits his father in Prague and is accused of murder, when he must deal with lack of freedom in a communist state and find a way out of his mess, that really proves Kanon's ability to tell a great story. The ending seemed too quick paced, and sadly it was pretty easy to figure out who the killer was(the last five pages do contain a nice twist though). All in all I highly recomend this to anyone who likes a great history oriented story, and of course, a good old fashion spy yarn.

When I read Walter Kanon's first novel, "Los Alamos," I felt that we had a new thriller writer with real potential on our hands. That book didn't quite work, with the author spending too much time on atmosphere and the characters and not enough time on the plot. After all, in my book you read a thriller for the plot - if you want great characters and atmosphere, read Flaubert or Bellow. With "The Prodigal Spy," however, Mr. Kanon has definitely hit a home run. The characters are truly vivid, and the atmosphere of 1969 Prague is very well done indeed. But it is the plot that will stay in my mind, enthralling in its detail, complexity and surprises; all elements of the story are expertly balanced, making for a very enjoyable experience. This tale of a young man travelling behind the Iron Curtain to meet his long-lost defector father and then returning to the United States to uncover an even more important mole is worthy of comparison with le Carre, Greene and even Eric Ambler himself. I thought the denoument rather predictable, but that didn't spoil "a cracking good read." Bravo!

"The Good German" takes you through a maze of intrigue and tension, eventually delivering a satisfying tale. A war correspondent investigates a murder in post-war Berlin. In the process he rediscovers his true love while sinking deeper into the first battles of the Cold War. Author Kanon does a superb job on the setting where you see, feel and smell the devastation of this bombed-out city. He achieves realistic complexity in his characters - war survivors attempting to rationalize their role while trying to build a new life. This novel's only challenge is that the intial snale's pace cloaks the later excitement and intrigue. I listened to the audio version and thoroughly enjoyed Stanley Tucci's wonderful accents. Therefore, I recommend "The Good German" -- especially the audio tape. It's good drama mixed with some interesting history. Enjoy!

I read this book in two sittings and only because I'm too old to stay up ALL night and still be productive the next day. That is to say, this is one exciting read -- I even blocked out my fear of flying as I zoned in on the absorbing story during my recent flight. I enjoyed Los Alamos, but I'm happy to say that Kanon has continued to develop as a writer -- this book is by far his best yet. Kanon does a masterful job portraying post-war Berlin around the time of the Potsdam conference and all the intrigue, scientist-chasing and frenetic behavior during the last days of the Nazi regime. I don't know if Kanon meant to tip his hat to Hemingway's Jake Barnes, but I found his Jake to be an extremely well drawn portrait of our hero-journalist. The pacing is excellent, the dialogue credible and the plot absolutely mind bending. In terms of genre, I'd put this between Le Carre, Folliet, Clancy combining the best elements. Ultimately, Kanon outdoes them all for just plain good writing. My head is still spinning from the labyrintine plot -- read this one with a friend so you can compare notes. If I could even find a small quibble, I'd say the fortune telling scene was a bit over the top and perhaps Jake's original motivation to pursue a murder mystery once he found Lena, but I was very willing to suspend any disbelief. The Good German succeeds on every level (also a very touching love story) and is already one of my very favorites from this year. Superb reading from one of the best writers out there -- don't miss it.

Joseph Kanon first earned my attention with "Los Alamos". This is a second, intriguing read. "The Good German" offers a look at Berlin in late 1945, recovering from the war. As part of the recovery, people try to assemble their lives shattered by the war. There are the two lovers, one American and one German, separated for four years. There is the German scientist, eagerly sought by the Americans. There are the Russians, stereotyped as intent primarily on rape, revenge and pillage. And then there is the dead American, shot after the fighting, found at the time and location of the Potsdam Conference. This death draws the story together, including the black marketeer, the British journalist, the starving local citizens, and the resurrection that follows deadly combat.

An engaging, entertaining, detailed read, painting vivid pictures of lives drab and destroyed by war.

an okay read to pass the time, if you're really desperate. however, as a native of new mexico, i was horrified by the characterization of it's two largest ethnic groups. all the native americans were maids and the two hispanic characters were murderous brutes. luckily we had the (one-dimensional) new yorker to come in and save us! kanon refers to new mexican hispanics as "mexicans". kanon, we do not like to be referred to as mexicans and have been a part of the southwest landscape centuries before the existence of mexico (independent of spanish rule), an american territory since the 19th century and an american state more than 3 decades at the time of this story. perhaps kanon should have spoken with some (non-white) locals during his supposedly "well-researched" writing of this mediocre novel. i'm just glad this book was a freebie for me. kanon, go elsewhere for your next novel, do not return to the "land of enchantment". why don't you set your next book in new york, where you live, i'm sure there are plenty of ethnicities to insult there.

As an avid reader and student of military history, and as someone with a surpassing interest in the history of science and technology, I was breathless with anticipation over "Los Alamos." Having read extensively about the history of the atomic bomb I couldn't wait to read a novel with the Manhattan Project as its backdrop. Mr. Kanon, I think, got the science, the setting, and the mood right. But like some of the other reviewers here, I found it difficult to care about Karl's murder. I found the dialogue, through which Mr. Kanon develops his plot more than through narrative, to be a bit noirish and facile for my taste. I thought the book was at its best when tha author wrote of the desert, of the race to build the "gadget", and of the moral and intellectual dilemmas faced by the scientists on the project. Theirs was arguably the greatest technical feat of this century, in a project whose scale and expense was exceeded only by the B-29 project (the delivery vehicle for the Bomb, ironically.) The romance between Connolly and Emma was just too predictable for my taste, and it seemed to have too little to do with the central problem: who killed Karl, why was he killed, and what are the implications for the Project. I think I was hampered by my own expectations. Perhaps I should have reread Richard Rhodes' book, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", instead. I'll be less grumpy after Christmas!

One would never know it by the title of this book, but it is, in fact, a murder mystery. The title gives away the fact that this isn't just ANY murder mystery. It takes place during the days of the Manhattan Project. A security guard is murdered, and an outsider is "brought in" to discern the situation.

The big twist is that Army intelligence does not care so much who murdered the guard. Rather, the $60,000 question is WHY he was whacked. Was he simply mugged, as it would appear? Or did it have something to do with the security of the project? That's what the protagonist, Connolly, is there to find out. And fast!

The plot of the book takes a backseat to the historical setting. Kanon does a wonderful job of interweaving the goings-on of Los Alamos. The fictional character of Connolly interacts wonderfully with figures such as General Leslie Groves and the famous physicists involved in the Top-Secret Project. Legendary names such as Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, Hans Bethe, Richard Feynman and a few others enter into the pages of the story.

This book that is highly recommended to anyone who is even vaguely interested in the Manhattan Project - whether they like "murder mysteries" or not. The ethics of making & using the bomb, the political polemics of Communism, the almost paranoia for secrecy @ Los Alamos & brief glimpses of the "gadget's" scientists are all enclosed within this book.

Although the story is fiction, I can't imagine Los Alamos during the mid-1940s being much different than the way in which Kanon describes it in his novel. I can think of no greater compliment to give a work of historical fiction.