'The Tourist' by Olen Steinhauer

The Tourist, Olen Steinhauer (4.0)

After reading this very enjoyable spy thriller, I realized it was not the basis for the Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie movie.  It definitely had some similarities, though more in location (Venice) and not in plot.  The book was far better.  It follows a ‘Tourist’, the name for a black ops CIA agent stationed abroad, while he is an active Tourist and afterward as he gets enmeshed in a game of espionage involving all his co-workers, bosses and even family members.  Throughout the book, you know that he has his own secrets, but you don’t know enough to rule out the worst.  I’m glad that the author didn’t go with the easy outs.  He kept the main character likeable, yet troubled and not entirely a prefect CIA agent.  I also liked that some chapters were told from the other characters’ point of view, a complication that made twists in the story harder to discern. Sometimes the energy of the book made me read too fast and I had to go back to catch the details – the sure sign of a good plot.  Since the book jacket said the movie rights had been bought with George Clooney in mind, I am going to assume the title will be changed so as not to be confused with the Depp/Jolie movie.