Book Reviews—
by William T. Hathaway and Paul Carline
Graham Greene, John le Carré, Ludlum, and now Gaither Stewart.
The spy thriller genre veers closer to the truth
The Trojan Spy, by Gaither Stewart, 424 pp
Punto Press, 2012 / Paperback $17.95; electronic format $6.99.
Gaither Stewart’s The Trojan Spy takes the thriller genre an important step forward, advancing it from the work of his predecessors John le Carré and Robert Ludlum. Le Carré and Ludlum rebelled against the conventions of the classic spy thrillers, which assumed that we’re the good guys who are under attack by bad guys so evil that we’re justified in bending the rules to save ourselves from them. In that world, lies, deceit, sabotage, and even murder are sometimes necessary to defend peace, justice, and the American (or Western) Way against (pick one, depending on when the book was written) Nazis, communists, or terrorists. Continue reading »