On November 5th, 2019, renowned spy novelist Joseph Kanon’s will release his highly-anticipated 9th espionage thriller, The Accomplice.
Kanon, who the Washington Post previously called the “master of the genre,” last published The Defectors (2017) just two years ago. Now, he’s gearing up to release another spy thriller set within a few decades of World War II, which follows CIA agent Aaron Wiley as he attempts to fulfill his uncle’s dying wish to hunt down and bring an Auschwitz prison camp doctor to justice. See the official plot details below.
From “master of the genre” (The Washington Post) Joseph Kanon, a heart-pounding and intelligent espionage novel about a Nazi war criminal who was supposed to be dead, the rogue CIA agent on his trail, and the beautiful woman connected to them both.
Seventeen years after the fall of the Third Reich, Max Weill has never forgotten the atrocities he saw as a prisoner at Auschwitz—nor the face of Dr. Otto Schramm, a camp doctor who worked with Mengele on appalling experiments and who sent Max’s family to the gas chambers. As the war came to a close, Schramm was one of the many high-ranking former-Nazi officers who managed to escape Germany for new lives in South America, where leaders like Argentina’s Juan Perón gave them safe harbor and new identities. With his life is nearing its end, Max asks his nephew Aaron Wiley—an American CIA desk agent—to complete the task Max never could: to track down Otto in Argentina, capture him, and bring him back to Germany to stand trial.
Unable to deny Max, Aaron travels to Buenos Aires and discovers a city where Nazis thrive in plain sight, mingling with Argentine high society. He ingratiates himself with Otto’s alluring but wounded daughter, uncertain if she is hiding her father or not. Enlisting the help of a German newspaper reporter, a mysterious Israeli agent, and the obliging CIA station chief in Buenos Aires, he hunts for Otto—a complicated monster, unexpectedly human but still capable of murder if cornered. Unable to distinguish allies from enemies, Aaron will ultimately have to discover not only Otto but also himself, the boundaries of his personal morality, how far he is prepared to go to render justice.
“With his remarkable emotional precision and mastery of tone” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Joseph Kanon crafts another compelling and unputdownable thriller that will keep you breathlessly turning the pages.
Joseph Kanon is the Edgar Award-winning author of Defectors, Leaving Berlin, Istanbul Passage, Los Alamos, The Prodigal Spy, Alibi, Stardust, and The Good German, which was made into a major motion picture starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. He lives in New York City.
2019 is shaping up to be a special year for spy thriller enthusiasts, as Kanon and John le Carre are both scheduled to release new novels in the fall, on top of the final completed book from Philip Kerr (who passed away in 2018) and the latest offering from Daniel Silva this summer. The Accomplice is available for pre-order here or anywhere else books are sold.
Praised as “one of today’s finest book reviewers” by New York Times bestselling author Gayle Lynds, Ryan Steck (“The Godfather of the thriller genre” — Ben Coes) has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor and pens a monthly thriller column for CrimeReads. For more information, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He currently lives in Southwest Michigan with his wife and their six children.