What if whatever haunts you is not because of what you think but because of some obscure reason lost in the past - what if you are in danger because of what someone else thinks you know.

This is the corner-stone of this novel.
All the characters have done something bad (some something outright terrible) in the past and they are now chased down [and quite the few killed] because somebody has a feeling that they know too much (or maybe everything). Because of this it is decided to eliminate them just to be on the safe side.

Sophie, main character is wannabe Mata Hari - she enjoys living on the edge but very soon this takes its toll. She might seem to be an over-dramatic at times but what exactly one is to expect from situated person that wants more but settles on the role of the happy wife.

From all the characters she is most probably the most "damaged" one. But her guilt and loss pushes her forward while trying to solve the mystery and without her, total amateur in the spy-games, professionals would stop stirring the hornet's nest way earlier and leave the things lie down.

John, US agent, maybe best epitomizes the survivalist approach to intelligence activities - know nothing, hear nothing and play outright dumb in order to live through yet another day. Because if you become curious very soon the shadows will strike (like it happened to majority of characters in this novel) so better leave it to people who are at least payed to be nosy and are not expendable.

If above sounds like total opposite to what intelligence gathering is supposed to be you are right but in the world where you know secrets about others and you think other's actions are because of your secrets or actions in the past who can you actually believe to be "on the side of the Angels"?

Excellent, very paranoid novel, written in beautiful style that will make you devour 500 pages in couple of hours. Could it be done in fewer number of pages - definitely could, but this page surplus does not diminish the story in any way.

Highly recommended. ( )

This is an extraordinary novel, not a literary novel but very well written, with fleshed-out characters, a believable and complex story and a great deal of insight into two cultures. Olen Steinhauer, an American who lives in Budapest, is a remarkably fine author. ( )

If a book has not brought me in by the time I get to page which is 125 minus my age, I put it aside. Too many other books to read. The first clue that I would invoke the 'started never finished' option on LibraryThing was on about page 16, where they are at a restaurant in Vienna and he paying in Austrian Marks. I yelled out loud, "Editor." Austria before the Euro had Shlllings. They did use German marks during the Nazi days, but I don't think that those notes would be accepted anytime after 1945.

I did enjoy this book, mainly because of the suspense. About half the characters though, I don't think I would have liked much in real life, with the exceptions being Jibril Aziz, Omar Halawi, Emmett Kohl, and Andras Kiraly-- they seemed to be basically decent people. Sophie Kohl I did not particularly care for-- she seemed never to be able to make up her mind about anything, or make a solid decision for herself-- always needing someone to lead her in how she should think. Even though I was left guessing until the end, and the outcome was kind of a surprise, I still have a couple of questions....
Did Sophie go on to be a heavily medicated person to deal with the trauma and her past, or did she reinvent herself, and start over in a new life? And the last scene with John Calhoun thinking to himself "It doesn't matter what I know, what matters is what they think I know" and Rasheed walking in-- was that implying that he was going to die to remove another possible witness? ( )

As a reader of more non-fiction than fiction, I found this book enjoyable by virtue of it's links to current events in the Middle East. Steinhauer uses the Arab Spring in North Africa and the overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya as entry points for the novel. Some Mid-East spy novels push the limits of what is believable, with super-hero CIA agents and never ending dangerous situations. But I found "The Cairo Affair" to be less a tension filled action story and more about several of the individuals, one or more who happen to be in the spy business.
Emmett Kohl, a State Department employee, is killed in Budapest, and his wife, Sophie, then returns to Cairo where they had been stationed previously to try to find why her husband was murdered. Steinhauer seamlessly weaves current and previous timeframes into the story, so you learn a little more about the individuals in the past as well as the present, and ultimately join Sophie in trying to determine who was behind the murder of her husband, and why.

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