Too Bad to Die

Finished September 24
Too Bad to Die by Francine Mathews, read by Matthew Brenher

This World War II spy novel has Royal Navy intelligence officer Ian Fleming as the main character. Early in the book there are flashbacks to Ian's childhood, where we see the beginning of his long friendship with American OSS agent Michael Hudson. This allows us to better understand the motivations of Fleming as well as the relationship between the two men who have met again as adults.
The book is set in real historical events, with real historical figures, and Mathews has done her homework in bringing these real figures to life.
The story begins in Cairo in late 1943 where Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt have met to confer before the Tehran Conference with Joseph Stalin. Besides the two leaders, we have present Churchill's daughter Sarah and daughter-in-law Pamela Harriman, as well as Roosevelt's son Elliott . Other real life figures include Alan Turing and Lavrenti Beria, It continues in Tehran where the three leaders meet. Through listening to Enigma-coded messages, Turing has discovered a Nazi assassination plot against the three leaders. While this is hardly surprising, the realization from some of the messages that the one sending the messages, code-named The Fencer, and his Kitten, are actually within the trusted inner circle of the Allied camp is a game changer.
Ian has been largely a behind-the-scenes man focused on gathering and analyzing information, but here he is forced into a more active role. Mathews shows the beginning of Ian's later spy novel writing and gives origin stories to several of the plot elements from his novels from James Bond to "shaken, not stirred".
There are plenty of beautiful women, British, Russian, and Chinese, and they are also women that do more than just look good. The character Ian isn't in his element here, but he is earnest and sympathetic. While some of the bad guys are discoverable early, the plot is interesting and the historical elements a great setting. I liked the weave of fiction into fact and the attention to detail.

The Cairo Affair

Finished June 30
The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer, read by Edoardo Ballerini

This fast-moving thriller jumps around to different narrators in the course of the story, often going over the same ground from a different point of view. At the centre of the story is Sophie Kohl, the wife of an American diplomat currently stationed in Budapest. The couple hasn't been in Hungary long, with Emmett's previous posting being Cairo. As the story begins in 2011, Emmett and Sophie are out for dinner, with Emmett accusing Sophie of infidelity during their time in Cairo just before a gunman enters the restaurant and shoots Emmett in the head, killing him.
Sophie is searching for answers and wondering whether his murder has anything to do with her affair in Cairo. With this thought in her head, the first person she reaches out to for help is her former lover Stan Bertolli, a Cairo-based CIA agent. Stan has genuine feelings for her and eagerly jumps in to help, but his impulse to protect her causes her trust to waver, and she reaches out to others.
Omar Halawi is an Egyptian intelligence officer and tied to a man Emmett met with shortly before his death, a man who since then came to Cairo. Is this man part of the story as well.
A contractor for the American government, John does whatever he is asked, whether it is driving someone into Libya or scouting out a meeting location. John has many skills and plays a key role in the story here.
A woman that Sophie and Emmett met decades ago in 1991 on their honeymoon in Yugoslavia, reappeared during their stay in Cairo and reminded them of a time and action they thought was long buried. It is the echoes of this that led to where Sophie is now, looking for the story behind Emmett's death and the actions in Cairo that relate. With intrigue and the passing of information, this story has many twists and turns, with each character adding to the understanding of the situation.