This is a very interesting book about an American spy, Brian Regan, who was known as the Spy Who Couldn’t Spell. Regan wasn’t the typical spy.  Most people thought of him as not being very intelligent, mostly due to his dyslexia.  But he was able to amass an amazingly large bulk of highly sensitive intelligence and turned out to be a brilliant cryptologist.  Steven Carr is the dedicated FBI agent hot on his trail.

The book is written in a journalistic style and is very easy to read and understand. I found the spy hunt to be a fascinating one.  I also enjoyed the author’s reconstruction of Regan’s childhood and upbringing in an effort to create an understanding of how a spy was born.  Not quite as fascinating was the prosecution of Regan but it still kept me interested.  

This is not written as a thriller but is more a methodic, years long hunt for a spy. It’s well written and I found it quite frightening to see how easy it was for Regan to accumulate America’s secrets and how willing he was to sell those secrets to our enemies.  I felt much anger at Regan and his desire to betray his country for money and found nothing in his history to give me any sympathy for him.  Congratulations to all those who brought this ignoble spy down.

This book was given to me by the publisher through First to Read in return for an honest review.

I gave this book a little more than one hundred pages to capture me but it never did. The writing is hopelessly clumsy and the dialogues inane. The author's prose has the unfortunate effect of making the characters lifeless and uninteresting. I have little sense of the milieux that produce Kuni Garu and Mata Zyndu, the novel's protagonists. Though it's obvious Liu's put a great deal of thought into the East Asian-flavored world of Dara, I often felt that I was reading a Wikipedia entry.

This is my opinion, of course. Other people will find something in this book that speaks to them, even if only to make a long bus ride pass more pleasantly. But for my part, I'm not going to devote more time to a story I have no interest in and an author whose style grates on my ear.

Barely 3 stars because I couldn't get into it

This should have been a real hit for me. Books, and a bookstore, and a cute owner, and a writer. The writing was good, the voice was fine, I just never really connected to the MCs. And then it was over. It was sweet, it was okay for me, but not really more than that. Maybe with more background information? But that's not how a short story should work... I'm really not sure. But it got me started on the series and naturally I had to read the other installments then, so 3 stars rounded up.

I just can't handle the long-winded style of writing. It's driving me nuts. It's taking me so long to read a page because I keep editing it.

The idea sounds intriguing, but the writing style just can't keep my interest.

Not a good book for those who are sensitive to long-winded writers or books in need of an edit.

Downside of rereads.  You know when stuff that you really do not want to read are coming.  It makes you not want to read until you are emotionally prepared, except that it is not possible to be emotionally prepared.  What is really bad is that I'm also procrastinating so I don't have to get to Hallows. Because I'm really not prepared for that one.