In this thriller set in the Cold War’s last days, a crafty East German spy conspires with an unlikely ally to protect his gifted son from the Soviets.

Friedrich Stossel and his wife Anna know there’s something special about their only son, Peter, but they’re not sure what it is. As a senior officer in the Stasi, Friedrich isn’t in a position to question why scientist Henrich Wittenberg has taken such a keen interest in the child. But Wittenberg’s experiments have turned Peter into a wunderkind of unprecedented scale. “His potential worth can’t even be estimated,” muses real-life German spymaster Markus Wolf, one of several historical figures in the mix, about the boy. “What country wouldn’t want a citizen who’s an Einstein, a Galileo, or one of those other geniuses who changed the world?”

Peter’s genius sparks the plot, but much of the book focuses on a death-defying escape. Ordered by Stasi Deputy Director Joseph Schallenmüller to assassinate a rogue agent in Switzerland, Friedrich instead steals a fortune in illicit funds and plans to flee with his family. Their escape nearly ends in disaster when Schallenmüller sends his ally to recover the money and eliminate the defectors—but even this man isn’t what he seems.

The author has clearly done his homework and the book’s historical immersion treads in the same space as Robert Harris or Joseph Kanon, but without the stylistic nuance or emotional depth of either, let alone the understated, spare dialogue of practitioners like John le Carré or Graham Greene. Weighed down by exposition and wooden dialogue, the narrative rushes towards a lifeless climax and a forgettable close.

Hot tempers amid a Cold War should make for some real high-wire tension. But instead, the novel offers mostly long speeches, a disappointing denouement, and a plot as dense as an uncracked cipher. While the story aspires to pair the emotional weight of a Cold War thriller with the pacing of an airport read, it ultimately manages neither.

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