PAUL VIDICH Cold War spy thriller writer, TIM SHIPMAN Chief Political Commentator for The Sunday Times and Paul Burke discuss Vidich's new novel THE MATCHMAKER and all things spy fiction related. Including an exclusive announcement of the highest placed living author on Tim Shipman's 120 top spy writers (Spybrary)
THE MATCHMAKER: Berlin, 1989. Anne Simpson, an American who works as a translator at the Joint Operations Refugee Committee, thinks she is in a normal marriage with a charming East German. But then her husband disappears and the CIA and Western German intelligence arrive at her door. Nothing about her marriage is as it seems.
Anne had been targeted by the Matchmaker - a high level East German counterintelligence officer - who runs a network of Stasi agents. These agents are his 'Romeos' who marry vulnerable women in West Berlin to provide them with cover as they report back to the Matchmaker. Anne has been married to a spy, and now he has disappeared, and is presumably dead.
The CIA are desperate to find the Matchmaker because of his close ties to the KGB. They believe he can establish the truth about a high-ranking Soviet defector. They need Anne because she's the only person who has seen his face - from a photograph that her husband mistakenly left out in his office - and she is the CIA's best chance to identify him before the Matchmaker escapes to Moscow.
Time is running out as the Berlin Wall falls and chaos engulfs East Germany. But what if Anne's husband is not dead? And what if Anne has her own motives for finding the Matchmaker to deliver a different type of justice?
Paul Vidich has had a distinguished career in music and media. Most recently, he served as Special Advisor to AOL and was Executive Vice President at the Warner Music Group, in charge of technology and global strategy. He serves on the Board of Directors of Poets & Writers and The New School for Social Research. A founder and publisher of the Storyville App, Vidich is also an award-winning author of short fiction. His novels, An Honorable Man, The Good Assassin, The Coldest Warrior ,The Mercenary and The Matchmaker all available from No Exit Press.
Tim Shipman is the Chief Political Commentator of The Sunday Times, a contributor to Spybrary and a fan of all things spy related. Tim is the author of ALL OUT WAR: The Full Story of Brexit and FAll OUT: A Year of Political Mayhem. Tim's 120 Top Spy Writers
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Crime Time
Paul Burke writes for Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover, NB Magazine and the European Literature Network and edits/presents Crime Time FM.
Matchmaker No Exit Press direct or other buying services, paperback or eBook.
Recommendations
TV:
Fauda
Le Bureau
The Sandbaggers
Possibly looking forward to The IPCRESS File (ITV) and Slough House (Apple)
Novels:
The Soul of Victor Tronko - David Quammen
The Berlin Exchange - Joseph Kanon
Graham Greene
David Ignatius
A Spy's Fate - Arnaldo Correa
Len Deighton Berlin G
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