The Star of Istanbul

August 5, 2013
Set in 1915, Butler’s busy second adventure featuring Christopher Marlowe Cobb (after 2012’s The Hot Country) takes the intrepid reporter, who doubles as an American spy, to war-torn Europe. Cobb travels on the Lusitania, where he’s watching Walter Brauer, a suspected German agent. Cobb also keeps an eye on hot-blooded film star Selene Bourgani, who attracts his amorous attentions, despite rumors that she, too, works for the Kaiser. When the Lusitania is torpedoed off the Irish coast, Cobb leaps into the ocean with Bourgani in his arms, but his job is far from over. He accompanies Bourgani to Turkey, where she has a score to settle involving two great empires. Butler impresses with his exceptional attention to historical detail, particularly aboard the Lusitania, but the heavy doses of melodrama may put off some thriller readers. Others may find Cobb’s ego and fearless approach to danger tiresome. Agent: Warren Frazier, John Hawkins & Associates.

August 1, 2013

Butler's sequel to The Hot Country begins with war correspondent and part-time government agent Christopher Marlowe "Kit" Cobb preparing for a journey to cover the Great War in Europe. With America still neutral, he doesn't anticipate any problems as he boards the Lusitania. His mission is to follow a German agent and discover who the agent is meeting and what their plans are. Also aboard is exotic leading silent-film actress Selene Bourgani. After their ship is torpedoed, the survivors move on to London where the intrigue deepens, and Cobb witnesses one of the first air raids in history. He follows his suspects east toward Turkey and an exciting climax in the capital city. VERDICT Butler uses period details, especially regarding the motives of the various characters, and cameos of actual historic personalities to good effect without weighing down the tale. He has written an exciting thriller with plenty of action, romance, and danger set against a compelling setting. Fans of historical spy fiction will enjoy this fast-paced journey through a world at war. [See Prepub Alert, 4/22/13.]--Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 15, 2013
When we last saw Christopher Marlowe ( Kit ) Cobb, war correspondent, secret agent, and all-around soldier of fortune, he was in civil-war-torn Mexico, cavorting with Pancho Villa (The Hot Country, 2012). Now, in 1915, with WWI raging, and the neutral U.S. edging toward involvement, he's aboard the doomed Lusitania, tracking a German American who may be a secret-service agent and falling under the spell of a famous actress, Selene Bourgani, who has secrets of her own. After the Lusitania meets its watery grave, Kit lands in London, where he continues to shadow the actress (well, not exactly: he's fallen in love with her and does most of his shadowing in her bed). Meanwhile, there's a German assassin out there somewhere called Der Wolf, whose eyes may be on both Selene and Kit. The Wolf's trail leads to Istanbul, where Selene's motives gradually become clear and where Kit lands in a blood-soaked finale. Butler juggles a lot of elements here, in terms of both plotting, as double and triple crosses merge like lanes in a traffic roundabout, and tone, as the novel commingles character-driven historical fiction with melodrama and swashbuckling action. Somehow, though, it all works; on one level, Butler is playing with genre conventions in an almost mad-scientist manner, but at the same time, he holds the reader transfixed, like a kid at a Saturday matinee.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2013
The second foray into crime fiction by Pulitzer-winning novelist Butler features a big shipwreck, a little seduction and a lot of chatter. Following Mexico-set The Hot Country (2012), Butler puts journalist/secret agent Christopher "Kit" Marlowe Cobb on the ill-fated ocean liner the Lusitania, whose sinking by a German U-boat in 1915 helped thrust the United States into World War I. Cobb is ostensibly tailing a German agent while traveling in style across the Atlantic, but his attention is equally drawn to Selene, a silent-film star with whom he starts a fling. If that's behavior not necessarily befitting a secret agent, it does draw Cobb further into a tangled plot involving codebreaking, rare books and alliances with Turkish leaders. Butler is an excellent observer of interior psychological detail--he enjoys having Cobb test conversational patter for hidden meanings--and his fine description of the Lusitania's demise shows he can write action-packed scenes as well. Even so, this is a wordy book for one that aspires to the crisp efficiency of a thriller. Cobb can deliver noirish tough-guy patter, particularly when he's tangling with a goon or bedding Selene, but his scene descriptions can often feel like overstuffed sofas of detail and conversational analysis. That's unfortunate, since underneath that ornamentation is a thoughtful study of the moral obligation to violence: In the same way the Lusitania incident forced the U.S. off the sidelines, Cobb is routinely put in positions where doing nothing is the wrong choice, a point that hits home toward the novel's end as he witnesses evidence of the Turkish mass slaughter of Armenians. Though the story drags somewhat, it's a pleasure to watch Cobb clear away layer upon layer of scheming and disguises to expose some ugly truths about humanity. A respectable work of historical crime fiction, a form Butler is still mastering.

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May 15, 2013

In 2012, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Butler successfully changed pace by launching a thriller series featuring Christopher Marlowe Cobb, war correspondent and American spy. In the second in the series, Cobb is charged with following German intellectual and putative spy Brauer onto the decks of the Lusitania, also encountering a gorgeous actress with a mission.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.