Set in London, Stockholm, and Berlin in early 1944, The Thousand-Year Spy is an historical suspense novel. To bolster the chances for OVERLORD, the forthcoming Allied invasion of the Continent, the British Secret Service (MI-6) has proposed a daring false-flag gambit in neutral Sweden where, posing as Soviets, they’ll dupe a German admiral who formally spied for the Soviets into resuming his espionage. MI-6 wants to borrow from the American Office of Strategic Services a linguistically brilliant young analyst named Linnea Thorsell. Yet OSS Director William Donovan objects. He believes the scheme will antagonize the Soviets, who bear the brunt of the war against Germany.
Born in Petrograd, Russia, Linnea Thorsell speaks native-level English, Swedish, and Russian. When she was thirteen, Linnea and her mother, fleeing the financial debt her father accumulated, emigrated to America. Linnea longs for the stability that has eluded her since childhood. As the novel opens, she’s working in an interchange with a British analytical unit in London.
Overruled in his objections to the false-flag ploy, Donovan has wrested from the British a single concession: to immerse his own man in the run-up. Like Donovan, Gabriel Verrick is a top New York lawyer who has shifted his energies to the OSS. The mission sounds like more than Linnea can handle. She wants out. Verrick, summoning his lawyerly skills, talks her into staying.
For two weeks under her MI-6 mentor, Scotsman of Russian heritage Avry Khilkov, she revives her languages, endures a physical toughening up, and rehearses her role. Every evening she sits with Verrick to relate her training that has played out in foreign languages he doesn’t understand. At first she’s wary of him, but soon they forge a tenuous father-daughter-type bond. Verrick marvels at MI-6’s proficiency as they shape Linnea into an agent handler, yet something is amiss, and he struggles to fathom what the Brits really are up to. The legendary spymasters remain as opaque as they are well mannered.
But for all Wallace’s rich depictions of the work of intelligence agencies, analysts, spy handlers, and more—including a suspenseful thread about a reluctant Nazi officer trying to make sense of interrogation reports that read like gibberish—the heart of this engaging novel is Linnea Thorsell, the multi-lingual young woman tasked with pulling off the deception. Linnea saw enough devastating conflict and loss. Now, this Dostoyevsky-quoting analyst fluent in Swedish and Russian but untrained in spycraft would prefer a quiet life. But, as she puts it, “I wasn’t asked, merely informed.”
Much of the novel’s first half concerns her rushed training, over 12 days, from boxing to role-playing, and Wallace (author of The Man Who Walked out of the Jungle) deftly charts her development, fears, incisive insights, and relationships with the men in charge. “The last thing you want is to let that fickle imp serendipity out of her box,” one of those handlers snaps at her when, in the field at last, she demonstrates savvy initiative. Worse than serendipity: the fact that the Nazis have wind of something in Stockholm. Wallace stages hair-raising but convincing setpieces and surprises, plus fascinating context about the trade, various nations’ operations, and how life felt, in the everyday and when facing great danger, for people with secrets on all sides of the war.
Takeaway: Superior spy thriller sending an American woman undercover in 1944 to turn a Nazi.
Comparable Titles: Ken Follett, Ben Macintyre.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-
THE THOUSAND-YEAR SPY
Jeff Wallace
KIRKUS BOOK REVIEW, July 15, 2024
Our verdict: Get it.
This historical suspense novel follows the overlapping missions of an American and a German spy near the end of World War II.
The end of January 1944 finds the Allied powers busily planning Operation Overlord, the tactical invasion of continental Europe that will hopefully result in Germany’s ultimate defeat. Meanwhile, a covert intelligence mission is in the works to aid the operation: An uncommonly multilingual American is to be sent to Sweden to intercept a German admiral (codenamed Galileo) who used be a double-agent for the Soviets, but who currently refuses to cooperate with either the Americans or the British. The goal is to make him think he’s working for the Soviets again; in reality, he’d be carrying out British and American orders. The American chosen for the mission is Linnea Thorsell, the daughter of a Russian and a Swede who’s only worked as an analyst for the Office of Strategic Services for a year, but who possesses the language skills necessary to maintain the deception; she’s paired in the field with Gabriel Verrick, an OSS operative. Meanwhile, German naval officer Willie Mauer receives a seemingly impossible task. German interrogators recently tortured and killed a captured British naval officer—a direct violation of the Geneva Convention—and now Mauer is in charge of deciphering the man’s final words, which appear to be in code and which could reveal where the Allies plan to attack next. Linnea’s and Mauer’s journeys weave together as the stakes grow more dangerous for all involved.
Wallace delivers a top-notch wartime thriller that features a masterful blend of real-life figures and fictional political players. The author never loses sight of the humanity of his characters, imbuing them with all the messiness of ordinary people—something that many authors overlook in historical fiction of this kind. For example, as Linnea role-plays as a member of the Soviet Union’s interior ministry in preparation for her mission, a fellow operative, Avry Khilkov of MI-6, stresses how she must do more than simply learn her part—she must embody it: “Listen, you’re not a chambermaid here to change out the dirty ashtray, you’re a bloody Chekist professional,” Avry explains, as he role-plays the German admiral. “To you, I’m not a German admiral, I’m an agent, and you’re the one who controls me. From the instant you step in, you dominate the scene.” Her development from a spirited young OSS junior analyst to a full-fledged spy is a highlight of the novel. Wallace also drops hints about the true nature of both Linnea’s mission and Mauer’s attempts at codebreaking, and tuned-in readers will figure it out before the conclusion. If not, a rather long-winded monologue explains the plot in the final act, which satisfies every question that the book poses—perhaps a bit too neatly for some readers. Intricacies of WWII politics combine with detailed descriptions of tactical maneuvers to make for a slow-burn read that remains compelling to the very end.
A sweeping and intricate tale of war, loyalty, and hidden motives that’s sure to satisfy history buffs and mystery fans alike.
