I love a good spy story and was honestly excited to start The Tourist. Sadly it’s taken me 26 days to finish it. I just could not stay engaged.

I found Miles Weaver, CIA, interesting to follow but the twist became so intertwined that I almost needed a nitro to keep track of what was going on. I’m not a fan of working that hard to read a book. I want to be enveloped in the world, I don’t want to put the book aside for a week just to figure out if I’m enjoying it or frustrated by it. I found myself pushing this one aside more than wanting to finish it.

I’m sure many will enjoy The Tourist and any future novels but I’m not one of them.

Thank you St. Matrin’s Press & NetGalley for providing this book in exchange for my honest review.

Milo Weaver was "The Tourist", an off the books, undocumented CIA agent, free to do as the agency wished and assigned him. But he retired to a desk job, until now, with the return of his white whale, the "Tiger." Will Milo risk all he has acquired during retirement, his family, home, and peace, to search for the reason for his return?

The first in a series about Mile Weaver, this book was a slow burn for me. It took me awhile to get into it, with all the characters and time periods, but as soon as I did, I found myself turning the pages rapidly. With lots of technical information pertaining to Milo's career, I would get a bit lost in the details, but it did not detract from the suspense or thrill of this story for me. I'm looking forward to the next two books in the series, which I'll read before the publishing of his newest book in the series in March.

Not a bad read.  If you like international intrigue, this is interesting.  Milo Weaver has moved from a field agent for the CIA into desk job.  But people are dying and he is pulled back into finding out why.  

Someone in China isn't happy and he wants the CIA to know it.  Milo has to find out who and why and then try to stop him.

Just be aware that there are language issues here.  Otherwise, a pretty interesting read.

This is a spy story somewhat in the vein of Le Carre - more moral ambiguity and self-examination than car chases and beautiful women in casinos. But it's pretty good - the narrator, world weary and not entirely cynical, navigates a world of lies and misdirection. The writing is solid, the plot twists and turns, and there are some well-choreographed action scenes. Recommended for folks who like thoughtful spy stories.

A Spy Who Thought He’d Retired

Milo Weaver has retried from his black ops job to an administrative desk job. At least he thinks he has. He has a wife and stepdaughter, and a brownstone townhouse, but then the past comes back to haunt him.

Milo was once a Tourist, an undercover operator who travels from place to place with no home or identity to follow espionage leads. He thought he was done with that, but when one of his old cases comes alive, he finds himself back undercover.

This is more a psychological spy novel than a book with lots of action and violence although there is some. I thought the author did a good job balancing violence with drawing the characters. There are plenty of exotic locals and the story is filled with twists. It’s a good entertaining read.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.

Oh there are spys and CIA and FBI not to mention the the departments that are within the departments! I was a little skeptical when I started reading this book but after a few pages I was totally hook great thriller! Thanks so much!!

This spy novel was a bit heavy handed and at times very slow. The plot was simplistic and the various subplots were entirely too convoluted. Most of the characters lacked purpose and a few seemed to appear and disappear without rhyme or reason. Additionally, I listened to the audiobook and felt that the narrator was detrimental. His cadence was stunted and off-kilter. All of the male characters sounded the same and for the female ones, the best he could muster, was a nasally unpleasant tone for all of them.

A decently paced spy thriller. While I found it had is predictable plot points, I thought it was an entertaining enough read.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for my unbiased review. I have to say that this book is definitely not my cup of tea. It had quite a few foreign words in it (because it takes place in foreign countries), which slowed my reading down a lot, simply because I kept trying to pronounce them. Surely I'm not the only person that does that? Also, it was quite a bit shorter than I expected it to be. In addition, the story plot didn't make a lot of sense to me, and the ending, even though I knew that this was the first in a set of three books, did not lead me to believe there would be a sequel. The ending left too much up in the air.

A decent spy thriller. Decent, because it is way too long and there are just too many twists and turns, which make the story feel awkward and over the top sometimes.
It has good points too, of course; an interesting main character and some unexpected changes in the story.
Nothing too spectaculair or outstanding but an enjoyable book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the digital review copy of this book.

Fast paced with lots of twists and turns keeps you turning the pages in this book. I never read this author before but he writes suspense with panache.

Milo Weaver wanted out of the CIA. Some of the jobs he had to do really got to him. He simply got tired of living a life full of lies. But, he gets drawn back in after the death of assassin leading Milo to begin an investigation of a colleague.

Milo thought he dealt with secrets and lies before. Now, however, he finds that he must dig into some very old cases. This means that he must go undercover yet again. There goes his identity.

Reading a novel about the CIA is something new to me. I chose to grab this series from NetGalley and was able to read all three books, and look forward to the last book in the series coming up next year, The Last Tourist.

The characters, plot and scenarios are truly complicated. Thankfully for me, I had the next two books in the series and read them in order. This helped me to find a place in Milo's world. Also, I was able to imagine myself in an action movie while reading the book. This helped to make the rather unbelievable drama and danger seem not so unlikely.

The Tourist proved to be an excellent spy thriller, and now I have yet another genre to seek out.

Although this was a spy book, I didn't find that there was enough action to keep me hooked so I ended up reading this book over a period of weeks rather than my usual couple of days.. Maybe due to this delay in reading the book I was often confused as to what was going on and it was hard to keep up with the changes.

Fantastic book, I could not put it down. Can't wait to read the next book in this series!! I would highly recommend this book!!

The first book in a CIA thriller series by Olen Steinhauer. A series can live or die based on the efforts an author puts into the development of the characters and back story in the first book. The Tourist is an excellent example of what I look for in a book. The main character is a "tourist", an agent with no local attachments until his actions bring him too close to death. He's now married with a settled life that he protects fiercely. But, as circumstances often do, he must risk his present life to protect the future. A great lead in story that leaves plenty of room for more tension packed adventures.

I like the writing style of the author and always find it to be an enjoyable read. I would recommend this book.

When I initially started reading the Tourist, I was a little skeptical. Milo Weaver, a drug dependent CIA employee who works in the secret society known as the Tourists. A secretive, black ops style group of international intelligence officers, Tourists live a rough, hectic life. Living strung out on drugs is a common occurrence. Had the story continued on with a drug dependent protagonist I probably would’ve have lost interest, fortunately, the story went in another direction. Milo Weaver retires from Tourism and becomes a family man, marrying Tina Crowe and raising their daughter. Milo still works in intelligence, and it isn’t long before the Department of Tourism comes calling. Milo soon becomes involved in a complex web of setups and lies. The storyline picked up in the middle and became a very twisty complex mystery/ suspense story. This is a really solid spy story. A complex storyline with lots of intrigue and international mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I was slightly disappointed in the ending, but since Milo Weaver is an ongoing character, he will be back.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Unfortunately, I really didn't enjoy this book. Main reason? It was just tedious - the one thing that a "spy thriller" should not be. More and more "plot twists" kept being tossed in, but none of them seemed to have any real point, and it was never clear why the author threw them in. It really seemed that the real point of the book was to get to the big plot twist near the end - fine, but this could have been a much better book, with the same plot twist, if you cut out about half of the book leading up to it.

I enjoyed this spy novel. It was not a stunt filled, chase, car crash, hanging from helicopters, surviving an attack by 5 men and rabid dogs kind of book, but a more cerebral exploration of loyalties, crosses and double crosses, and good guys who are really bad guys kind of novel. It was exciting enough though and kept me involved throughout. Now I'm starting on the next book in the series, (The Nearest Exit) and intend to read the third also. Many thanks to NetGalley, Olen Steinhauer, and St. Martin's Press for providing ARC copies of all three books.

Milo is an undercover agent with no home, no identity and only known as a tourist with the CIA. This book was well written, fast paced and gripping- hard to put down! There are many twists and turns that keep you guessing. I am excited to read the next two books in the series. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy in exchange for an honest review.