DNF @ 12%

I'm not sure what happened with this one. The author is usually one of my favorites and I usually don't have any problems with his books. This one, however, I didn't connect with. I put it down after the first major section and had no desire to pick it up again. 

Maybe it was the seriousness of the news right now and me not wanting a deep, cerebral espionage thriller with dozens of moving parts, both past and present.

I will probably come back to this one at some point.

The Last Tourist is apparently the fourth in the Milo Weaver series, but it easily stands alone. The novel has plenty of plot twists equaling what's expected in this genre and occasionally words are strung together in near-poetic way. 

The protagonist, Milo Weaver, is a scarred veteran of the spy world, but has returned to the States, married and has a child. Weaver isn't a sauve debonair 007 copy, not is he the skilled Jason Bourne, and he lacks the characterization Daniel Silva has invested his Gabriel Allon with, but he is a relatable character. He's a scarred man who's has traded his old life for a wife, daughter and a normal American home life, but is now forced to return to the world of spook-dom.

This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

This was hard to get through and about half way, I was ready to give up.  There were way to many characters to keep track of, and then there was the mix of fantasy characters then throwing in Trump/Mueller into the story.  That made no sense at all and the only explanation that I could figure out was the author wanted to express his political opinion.

I was having a hard time following the story so I read through the reviews and was relieved to find out that I was not alone.  At first, I worried that I was not smart enough to follow this story line as I felt like I was kind of dropped into the middle of a mystery story.  Confirming that others struggled made me feel better.

The parts that I followed was interesting and if there were less lengthy detailed political sections and just more on the actual story, I would have had an easier time following the actual story.  Half way through the book, I just started to skim over paragraphs were the material was too politically motivated and things that just didn't be needed for the story - climate change lecture!  (Not why I read a book unless it is a specifically chosen subject!)

Maybe if I had read more of this author's books I might understand more of what was going on or maybe not, I don't know!  Unfortunately, what I read does not tempt me to read any further books by this author.

Exciting and sad

Early in the book I laughed that the Library, a mysterious secret spy organization, is hidden in the UN as an obscure sub-agency of UNESCO. The more I thought about it though, the more perfect the setup seemed. Anyone who works for a minute with the UN figures out that the organization is hopelessly inept and that UNESCO is the worst of the bunch. The UN can't do anything remotely efficiently and hiding a secret spy agency there is a great idea. UN passports, lots of professional contacts, arcane budget processes where any expenditure can be hidden. No audits. Brilliant.

I have not read the previous books in the series and so it took some time to get the back story in place. 

Earlier there were "The Tourists", a group of spies who did good work. That's the back story. Most of the Tourists were murdered in a single day some time ago following their outing by a traitor. The remainder are fighting for their lives – bureaucratically fighting that is. Milo Weaver has reconstituted the Tourism Agency as The Library, an organization that feeds high-grade intel to second tier countries who otherwise would be kept in the dark by the big powers. But not the Library has been discovered too, and is under attack. The Librarians (with canine code names, no less) are being picked off, sometime with their families. Milo is trying to save as many as he can. The story is a good one and I enjoyed it very much.

Though I love detective fiction I have rarely been interested in spy thrillers because the concepts are either too far fetched or a little too topical to be enjoyable. However, I could not put down The Last Tourist. Something about the blurb drew me in and I didn't realize it was part of a series so I dove straight in. The characters and pacing hooked me. I enjoyed that it was a little topical and a bit far fetched but was fairly character driven. I was drawn in by the characters and didn't find them difficult to enjoy without having read previous books in the series. There was enough tension and movement in the plot and it wasn't so convoluted as to feel flat. I was so drawn in by the book that I binged and am now eager to read others in the series.

I wasn't familiar with the other books so it was a bit difficult to follow but still a good read. I would recommend for people that are fans of the series.

The Last Tourist takes us back to Milo Weaver of “The Tourist” for the fourth time. It’s a decade later and since the tourism bureau has shut down, Weaver has taken his espionage skills and connections in a completely different direction though still using a metaphor. He is the head of the Library and the spies in his employ are librarians.

The Library is perhaps a quixotic attempt to balance the power through information. The Libary is employed by a committee of secondary powers in the developed and developing world to gather intelligence. First-class intelligence is not the sole province of the superpowers. But, someone seems to want to shut down the library. Milo and his team are on the defense, trying to understand who or what is behind the plot.

This is high-level espionage and counter-espionage involving government intelligence directors and ambassadors and business executives of the world’s great corporations. Milo and his irregulars hardly seem up to the task, though anyone who has read the series knows he has unexpected allies and clever tricks up his sleeve.



The Last Tourist improves upon reflection. When I finished, I felt very dissatisfied but thinking about it more, I understood it is right for the times. It’s hard to write a conspiracist thriller when the world is rife with real conspiracies. It is all too possible, and that makes it an uncomfortable book to read.

I received an e-galley of The Last Tourist from the publisher through NetGalley

The Last Tourist at St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan

Olen Steinhauer

Having read all the previous Milo Weaver adventures, I looked forward to this one -- it disappointed! It was a bit too complicated with many overlapping layers and nuances. Good finish after a long slog through the middle. With the intersection of a huge industrial organization, a Chinese developer, a Russian energy company, an Arab shipping conglomerate and an American social media behemoth involving English bankers and China's Second Bureau it began to look like SPECTRE and Milo was no James Bond. As Toni Osbourne (April 1, 2020) so eloquently wrote: ""The Last Tourist" is a complex tapestry that weaves together a story of politics, espionage and trickery on a global scale. This saga is filled with unexpected twists and turns and has a large cast of characters all outfoxing each other. The sheer number of players and their individual agenda were far too many to follow and so hard to keep up with that I lost interest." THANK YOU TONI! -- Please keep sharing your insights! Thanks also to St. Martin's and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“The Last Tourist” is not about casual vacationing in beautiful exotic locations. It is about espionage, secrets, “black ops” groups, terrorism, politics, and general threats to peace everywhere. Readers get to know Abdul Ghali through his first person narrative. He shares his thoughts about his family and the journey to his job in “data” at the CIA. He spends a lot of time developing a complete background for readers including his own unique background as an “outsider,” from a disputed desert expanse just south of Morocco called Western Sahara. While he is not sure why he was selected for this task despite his connections to the region; others have an opinion. “Now I know why they sent you…You’re expendable.” But there is another reason as well, a bigger more important reason.
The book is divided into three blocks of time. The story begins in January 2019, and readers learn about the players, the preparations, and the mission. Then, the narrative goes back four months in a detailed backstory that shows why the mission was necessary, and how the players got to the January situation. Finally, readers follow everyone to the “conclusion” of this mission. Steinhauer created a thriller where the geography is as detailed as the characters. Pages are filled with local flavor, and the specifics make this exotic setting real for readers. “Milo Weaver is there because it’s an excellent place to hide.” This exact story could not have taken place anywhere else. 
The Last Tourist” starts as the story of an interview and a desert rescue, but things are not that simple.  The plot is complex and filled with political intrigue, counter intelligence, undercover spies, and abundant dirty tricks. I received a review copy of   “The Last Tourist” from Olen Steinhauer, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books.  It is book four in the Milo Weaver series, but I did not realize this until after I finished the book. It certainly stands alone, and is a unique and interesting way to advance a series.

This wasn't my favorite, but I haven't read any of the other ones, so that might make a difference. It was a bit too political, too many characters, just too much going on that didn't actually add to the story.

This is an excellent story involving international black operations by a commercial company that picked up a shuttered government program. It has many interesting and imaginative ideas, and a broad range of very unique characters. Human nature, both good and bad drives the narrative. The writing was great on descriptions, but caused me a little confusion as the narrative shifted between third person, voice of God, and first person. First person would start in a chapter and it took several pages to figure out who was telling the story.. Other than that, a great book..

The Last Tourist is likely to be a homerun for fans of the series already familiar with this world. Coming in without prior context doesn't mean one can't enjoy it, but I found myself getting lost with the myriad characters. This is no fault of the author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I received a free copy of this book from the author. I had the opportunity to review or not.

I had a difficult time following this book. I also got tired of the Trump bashing. I did enjoy “The Tourist” so I tried to plow through this book. But I couldn’t get through it.  Sorry Olen, but enough is enough. If I want to read a political book - I will buy one.

Not for me.  I should not have taken a spy novel to review.  I thought I would try spy novels again.  My mistake

I thought after reading the first book that it couldn’t get any better but I’m here to tell you that it has! This is a thrilling page turner that I had a tough time putting down! I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves secret service, spy, thrillers. Thanks for a great book!

I'll start this review by noting that I haven't read any of the other books in the Milo Weaver series (although I may now). That didn't really cause me a problem with this book, I didn't feel lost because of un-read past events at all. But I would now like to read more about them.

The book starts with a CIA analyst who travels to Africa to interview someone named Milo Weaver. The analyst knows very little about Milo, or about operations, and he is not sure why he was sent. Things quickly get out of control, and together we learn what was happening to Milo Weaver, as well as a plot affection multiple governments.

This was very politically current, and I loved how modern politics fit so well into the story. There are lots of characters, and there is a LOT going on. I loved it, and it kept me interested from beginning to end.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Olen Steinhauer, and St. Martin's Press, Monitaur. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

I have tackled this novel on three different occasions, even worked up a cheat sheet with the many characters defined, and still found it too. Too busy, too peopled, too convoluted. I think that in order to keep up with our protagonist Milo Weaver in The Last Tourist one must have read the previous three novels. The mystery itself was well hidden, and I enjoyed several of the characters involved with solving it, just wish there had been fewer of them...
pub date Mar 24, 2020
St. Martin's Press - Monitaur Press

I really enjoyed the three previous Milo Weaver books.  I loved the start of this one as well.  I was able to keep up with the first two-thirds, without any difficulties. The last third became a bit confusing honestly, and somewhat tried my patience.

Having said that, I spent much of the time trying to decipher which company, and which billionaire in the book represented which person in real life.  Many news stories are represented truthfully here, so this novel reads like a non-fiction account of spies, governments, and atrocities. 

In some ways it lends itself to a 5th book in the series, but I do hope the convoluted nature of the most of the last third, dwindles in any future endeavors.

I have read the whole Tourist series and was very excited to receive a copy through netgalley. While found this volume to be a little more confusing than than the previous books it contained the theme of a spy trying to balance a job that he is committed to with a home life that he feels is important but not as comfortable. Secondary characters as usual are fascinating. It feels like the series is drawing to an end but I hope for at least one more before the next series.

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The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer is the fourth novel following ex-CIA assassin Milo Weaver. Mr. Steinhauer is a writer, TV show creator who has been nominated for several awards.

Milo Weaver, the reluctant spy, finds himself facing a CIA analyst about 10 years after the Department of Tourism, CIA’s silent assassins, was disbanded. The two find themselves on the run when a new breed of Tourists tries to kill them both.

Trying to figure out what’s going on Milo recruits several of his friends, and enemies, from the past. Milo, however, has an advantage, he is in charge of The Library, a UN entity his departed father built which acts as a secret intelligence gathering organization, and shares its findings with only 12 countries.

I don’t know how Mr. Steinhauer is able to write such quality books so fast, it’s a good thing because he uses current events as backgrounds which makes the story better (a difficult task because it could easily age a story, or make it ridiculous). In The Last Tourist, author Olen Steinhauer manages to pull off another fascinating chapter in the saga of Milo Weaver, a reluctant ex-CIA assassin who found happiness in the life of a family man.
Only that his past comes to haunt him and doesn’t let him enjoy his peace.

One of the things I really enjoy about the Milo Weaver series, is that it’s like following an exciting chess match between governments and their operatives. Each one trying to outmaneuver the other, sacrificing pawns if necessary, and even generals when the objective must be met.

Much like the previous book in the series, Milo Weaver is almost a supporting cast member in this world of intrigue and manipulation. He does pull the strings that he controls, but let’s others do the work. Weaver is a complex character, he has his faults and somehow seems likeable nonetheless.

The storyline itself is exciting, full of betrayals, double crosses and plot twists galore. Like the previous books in the series, the author doesn’t bother to summarize everything in the beginning, laying it all out for the reader in a nice, neat package.

The author doesn’t not feed the reader clues, but asks for full attention while the story is told .The reader is trying to figure out the chessboard much like Weaver and his friends are, even though they are all playing together, but also against one another. Eventually you get fed the relevant information, but you probably already figured it by yourself.

This book is another solid entry in the series, any fan of espionage thrillers would enjoy the story and the entire series for that matter.  I did miss the Milo Weaver playlist though.