"The Proxy Assassin": "Book Three of the American Spy Trilogy"

by John Knoerle

Overview

October, 1948. Former OSS agent Hal Schroeder is back polishing his bar stool at The Harbor Inn in Cleveland when he gets a surprise invitation from Frank Wisner, who heads the CIA's new covert ops division. Hal is whisked off to Wisner's Maryland shore retreat and introduced to a brace of Romanian royals, including the scarily beautiful Princess Stela Varadja, a direct descendant of Vlad Tepes Draculea. Then Wisner pops the question. Would Hal consider parachuting into a remote mountain camp to meet with the leader of a group of Romanian anti-Communist guerrillas? Hal has already survived two previous suicide missions and a third does not appeal. 'But I told Frank Wisner I would need a few days to think it over. I had some D.C. sightseeing to do.' As it turns out Hal Schroeder gets to do a lot more sightseeing than he bargained for. A journey that brings the American Spy Trilogy to a surprising conclusion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780982090398
Publisher:	Blue Steel Press
Publication date:	07/12/2012
Series:	American Spy Trilogy
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

John Knoerle was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1949 and migrated to California with his family in the 1960s. He has worked as a stand-up comic, a voiceover actor and a radio reporter. He wrote the screenplay for "Quiet Fire," which starred Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, and the stage play "The He-Man Woman Hater's Club," an LA Time's Critics Choice. He also worked as a writer for Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion."

Knoerle's first novel "Crystal Meth Cowboys" was optioned by Fox TV. His second novel, "The Violin Player," won the Mayhaven Award for Fiction. Knoerle has just completed "The Proxy Assassin," Book Three of "The American Spy Trilogy."

John Knoerle currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Judie.

Editorial Reviews

"For readers of Olen Steinhauer’s TOURIST series, Daniel Silva & Alan Furst, add a terrific new author to your library of cerebral espionage thrillers. JOHN KNOERLE and 'The Proxy Assassin' go right to the top of the list."
—Stan Corwin, author of'Oxymorons I Have Known'.

"John Knoerle has mastered the art of less is more. In 'The Proxy Assassin' he strings compelling words into kinetic sentences that have the reader flipping pages late into the night."
—-Phil Brody, author of 'The Holden Age of Hollywood'.

“John Knoerle is such a smart writer. The humor, heart and intrigue in 'A Despicable Profession' is great.”
—Sarah Branham, Editor, Simon & Schuster.

From the Publisher

Knoerle's ace thriller, the third in the American Spy series, chronicles a noirish tough guy's efforts to protect the world from the Red Menace, circa 1944. Knoerle hits precisely the right note of humility and bravado when his protagonist, American Office of Strategic Services agent Hal Schroeder, declares in the novel's prologue: "You wouldn't believe how much crap you get credit for when you're a hero." What follows is a spare, stylish thriller peopled with wisecracking characters straight out of a Billy Wilder flick. Schroeder, a World War II vet marking time as a librarian in his native Cleveland, is tapped by real-life intelligence heavyweight Frank Wisner for another covert ops "suicide mission" in Eastern Europe. He accepts, of course--after which everything spirals blissfully out of control. Robert Altman–esque cameos of historical baddies, including FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and suave Cambridge Five double agents Guy Burgess and Kim Philby (who made careers of providing British secrets to their Soviet masters) add historical depth to the international political hijinks. However, Schroeder is the star here. The slightly goofy patriot is bright but not extravagantly so--much like author Laura Lippman's nerdy Baltimore PI, Tess Monaghan, or Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks, whose dogged legwork and occasional epiphanies eventually solve the problems at hand. Agent Schroeder is no Sherlock, and that makes him all the more appealing and the novel more accessible. Beguiled readers will want to seek out Schroeder's two prior adventures (2008's A Pure Double Cross and 2010's A Despicable Profession) as a stopgap until Knoerle hopefully blesses fans with a fourth book (à la numerically expansive author Robert Rankin) in this delightful trilogy. A terrific Cold War thriller.

Kirkus Reviews