Book: The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer

The CIA (Company) has a secret rogue branch and those who work there are called Tourists. Milo Weaver was once a Tourist until he burned out and became a more conventional citizen, a man with a wife and daughter. But he continued to work for the CIA, just not as a Tourist. Then there is Homeland Security and inevitable tensions between these agencies. Some in the Company think of America as an Empire, and they manipulate emerging countries as in a chess game, still believing in the ultimate invincibility and supremacy of America. The author lives in Budapest and thus moves with ease through the geography of Europe where much of the action occurs. There are the Chinese and their reliance on oil from Sudan; an assassin who targets people all over the world; Milo's persistence in tracking this man. There is a Russian thread running through the book, along with Milo's murky past. This is a book of spies, counterspies, double agents, and tangled threads of terror, intrigue, espionage, power used and abused, trickery and disillusion. It was a lot like Vince Flynn novels. As always, these novels do make one wonder what exactly our government is doing and/or what they are capable of doing, given certain political ideologies at the highest levels.