The Nearest Exit

Milo Weaver has nowhere to turn but back to the CIA in Olen Steinhauer's brilliant follow-up to the New York Times best-selling espionage novel The Tourist.

The Tourist, Steinhauer’s first contemporary novel after his award-winning historical series, was a runaway hit, spending three weeks on the New York Times best seller list and garnering rave reviews from critics. Now faced with the end of his quiet, settled life, reluctant spy Milo Weaver has no choice but to turn back to his old job as a “tourist”.

Before he can get back to the CIA’s dirty work, he has to prove his loyalty to his new bosses, who know little of Milo’s background and less about who is really pulling the strings in the government above the Department of Tourism - or in the outside world, which is beginning to believe the legend of its existence. Milo is suddenly in a dangerous position, between right and wrong, between powerful self-interested men, between patriots and traitors - especially as a man who has nothing left to lose.

“Milo Weaver, Steinhauer’s hero, is the opposite of Swagger and Reacher - he is conflicted and neurotic and hopelessly sentimental - but no less entertaining.” (Malcolm Gladwell, TheNewYorker.com)

“Milo’s company is at least as valuable to the series’s appeal as is his flair for international trickery.” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)