Kenneth Dekleva is a psychiatrist in Dallas, Texas, and a former diplomat, who has spent many years overseas, including service in Moscow, Russia, and Vienna, Austria. The Russian Diplomat’s Wife is his third novel.
The unlikely protagonists of this new novel, set in Vienna, Austria - the city of spies - are a deep-cover American intelligence officer and a Russian woman, who have a chance encounter in a museum in Vienna, while viewing a Klimt painting. This encounter - a perfect spy recruitment - leads to further encounters, mystery, romance, and finally, tragedy and redemption. Along the way, the American’s agents - he is nicknamed Copernicus and they are named after planets - begin dying in Russia, Europe, and North Korea. Copernicus’ engagements with the Russian woman thereby draw further attention, from the CIA, Mossad, and Russia’s GRU, who are hunting down his agents. Eventually, Copernicus and the Russian woman are also tracked by a deep-cover Mossad officer, who offers his own enticements.
The action and scenes in this powerful, psychologically nuanced espionage novel by Kenneth Dekleva - himself a former diplomat and psychiatrist with vast overseas experiences and travels - play out in Austria, America, Russia, Israel, and other European countries, leading to a deeply-moving denouement. |
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