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    Safe Houses: A Novel
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    Safe Houses: A Novel
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    Safe Houses: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    Safe Houses: A Novel

    Published by Dreamscape Media Audio

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIA's network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helen's world is upended when, during her routine inspection of an agency property, she overhears a meeting between two unfamiliar people speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities far beyond her comprehension.

    Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sight lines of the most ruthless and powerful man at the agency. Her attempts to expose the dark truths about what she has witnessed will bring about repercussions that reach across decades and continents into the present day, when, in a farm town in Maryland, a young man is arrested for the double murder of his parents, and his sister takes it upon herself to find out why he did it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateJul 3, 2018
    ISBN9781974904310
    Unavailable
    Safe Houses: A Novel

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    Reviews for Safe Houses

    4.5/5

    8 ratings8 reviews

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    • 5/5
      New author recommended by friend. Loved it. Looking forward to my 2nd book by him.
    • 4/5
      Dan Fesperman is not a new-to-me author. I have read three of his previous novels (Lie in the Dark, The Prisoner of Guantanamo, and The Amateur Spy), each of which I enjoyed because of their complicated plots and Fesperman’s writing style. But because I decided to go with the audiobook version of Safe Houses this time around, I learned something about Fesperman I probably would never have otherwise picked up on: if this man couldn’t write a lick, he could make one heck of a living narrating the audiobooks of other writers. He is so good a narrator that I had to double-check to make sure that it was really him doing the reading. The way that Fesperman changes voices, accents, gender-inflections, and the like, makes Safe Houses one of my all-time favorite audiobooks. Fesperman proves here that not only can he write a good story, he can tell a good story.It all starts in 1979 West Berlin when Helen Abell, a 22-year-old CIA secretary/clerk who has been assigned the task of overseeing the Agency’s Berlin safe house network, in a single day overhears two conversations that greatly trouble her. Helen is only in the safehouse to make sure that things are still in order since her last visit. While upstairs checking the integrity of the recording equipment in the house, she hears two unidentifiable agents enter downstairs for a meeting that is not on the schedule she maintains for the Agency. She is mystified by what she hears – and inadvertently records – but she senses that something is very, very wrong about their conversation. A few hours later, when she returns to the safe house to erase the damning tape, Helen overhears – and witnesses – something even more personally disturbing.Now, Helen is on the radar of a rogue CIA agent who will do anything to protect his reputation and status inside the Agency. This is a man who has a long memory, friends within the Agency who are just as ruthless as him, and all the tools he needs to eliminate anyone who threatens him. He has just about everything but a conscious. His memory is, in fact, so long that Helen will never feel safe for the rest of her life.Flash forward to a chicken farm in present day Maryland where a young man has just been arrested for the brutal double-murder of his parents. The young man in question has been under psychiatric care most of his life, but he has never indicated a capacity for violent behavior. His sister knows that something has gone terribly, unexpectedly, wrong in her family home, and she wants to know why it happened. But when she and the investigator she hires suddenly find themselves running for their own lives, it begins to look as if she won’t live long enough to get any answers.Bottom Line: Considering everything we’ve learned recently about the CIA and the FBI, Safe Houses is a thriller that would have seemed more farfetched in 2018 when it was published than it does today. That said, this is a solid thriller centered around three young women who decide they can no longer ignore the sordid behavior of a handful of their male colleagues. The women are willing to risk their careers and their lives to set things right – and some of them will indeed lose both.
    • 4/5
      This is a combination spy thriller and mystery story that alternates between two different "time zones" - Berlin in the the late 1970's, and rural Maryland in 2014. In the Berlin part of the story a young female CIA operative learns of a couple of things she shouldn't know -- a mysterious entity called "the Pond", and a senior CIA person who is very bad indeed. What happens next, and how our heroine gets into a whole lot of trouble, comprises the spy section. In the Maryland part, many years later, the CIA operative's daughter is trying to find out what happened to her mother, and why. The novel alternates between one time zone and the other, which gives it a lot of momentum and a lot of interest. The central characters are well drawn, the sense of place is evocative, and probability is not strained too dreadfully far. A good read.
    • 4/5
      Safe Houses is an enjoyable dual timeline story that delves into the CIA’s operations in Berlin during the later years of the Cold War. In 1979, Helen Abell oversees the safe houses that the CIA maintains in Berlin. One night she accidentally overhears a strange conversation in one of the houses and then subsequently stumbles into another dangerous encounter. Abell decides to expose those responsible which leads to a decades long vendetta that has severe consequences in 2014 when a son is arrested for the double murder of his parents. As the story progresses, the two tales slowly intersect and weave into a powerful conclusion.My favorite part of the story was the description of Berlin in 1979. The wall is still in place, but much of the United States’ focus has shifted to the Middle East and the tensions in Iran. Fesperman effectively conveys the tension still present in bifurcated Berlin, but also the sense that the worst has passed there.Safe Houses was an engaging and entertaining read.
    • 4/5
      When I imagine "spy" thrillers, I think of books like this one. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The dual storylines were great. They intertwined nicely to lead into one another without overpowering one another. Although, I have to admit that for a while in the beginning, it was the past with Helen that had captured more of my love and attention. Helen was one tough but good agent. It is because of her honesty and stubbornness that lead to her death. In the present there is Anna and her brother, Willard. Willard has been accused of murdering their parents. Anna wants the truth. She hire Henry. Together they go down a path that is full of twists. There was a bit of a spark between Henry and Anna but nothing that became a main focal point of the story. As the story progressed the two storylines got more involved with one another. This is such an easy book to read as the story lines and characters are written nicely. This is my first time reading a book from Mr. Fesperman and it won't be my last. You will be "hiding" but that is only because you will want to hide from the rest of the world to read this book.
    • 4/5
      “Safe Houses” by Dan Fesperman is a captivating, intense and intriguing novel. The Genres for this novel are Mystery, Suspense, Thriller and Fiction. The timelines for the story starts is West Berlin in 1974, and through different narration, continues to the present. The story takes place in many countries.The author describes the characters as complicated and conflicted. Some are courageous, and some are calculating. There is a trace of a theme of good and evil. There is corruption, betrayals, twists and turns and adventure.Helen Abell’s job in 1979 in West Berlin, is to oversee the CIA Safe Houses that field agents go to. One evening, when Helen is in one of the safe houses, two unexpected people arrive and have a conversation in code. Helen is hiding, but is secretly taping this. Another night Helen is witness to something else she shouldn’t see, or hear. Helen also has a tape of this, and now finds that she is in danger, and learns to escape and seek the information she needs and wants that has put her in this position.Little does Helen know that those tapes she has with her will be extremely significant for years to come.Thirty years later, Helen and her husband are murdered by their disabled son. Her daughter comes back to finalize arrangements, and wants to seek the truth. There are deep secrets and Helen’s past causes great danger to her daughter.I recommend this novel to those readers that enjoy a face-paced novel packed full of suspense. Happy Reading !!!
    • 5/5
      Dan Fesperman's 'Safe Houses' is easily one of the best spy novels of the year, beautifully written with a compelling story, great characters, and a satisfying ending with a nice twist. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll love this book!
    • 4/5
      A novel about CIA agents (but not exactly about espionage) set in Berlin in 1979 and the US in 2014. The main character, Helen, in the 1979 sections wasn't a particularly likeable character, and I found myself looking forward to the bits set in 2014, where her daughter Anna and the PI Henry were the protagonists.A fairly easy read and quite fast moving, although there were a lot of characters to keep on top of.