The Middleman

June 4, 2018
This smart polemical thriller from bestseller Steinhauer (All the Old Knives) starts off strong, but loses its way. On June 18, 2017, hundreds of people around the U.S. get a call, then discard their phones, credit cards, IDs—and disappear. They are members of the Massive Brigade, a cult organized by social justice revolutionary Martin Bishop. He believes American politics has failed, and repairing it requires radical change, which appears to come about when simultaneous political assassinations are carried out at July 4 celebrations around the country. Steinhauer has captured a very contemporary, very American angst—“people are going to have to pull a trigger, just to be heard”—but the book’s muddled second half will leave many readers frustrated because the polarities aren’t that clear. Rachel Proulx, an earnest FBI agent, is obviously one of the good guys, but the ostensible bad guys are less well-delineated—and the denouement is unsatisfying. Steinhauer fans will hope for a return to form next time. 150,000-copy first printing. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Gernert Co.

June 15, 2018
A thoroughly modern thriller, as real as the news."The Massive Brigade," an organization similar to the Occupy movement, has captured the attention of the media and the people. Rolling Stone runs a profile, and the FBI takes notice. When a phone tip reveals the Brigade has cached a Stinger missile, it crosses the line from protest movement to terrorist threat. The FBI, in the person of Special Agent Rachel Proulx, arrives at a party too late to arrest the Brigade's leaders, Martin Bishop and Ben Mittag, and they disappear into the American landscape, along with about 400 of their followers, who similarly vanish. The FBI has an undercover agent, Kevin Moore, among the vanished, permitting the plot to follow the dual tracks of the FBI's efforts to find the Brigade and the Brigade's internal turmoil, which meet in a shootout. The media declares victory for the FBI, careers are advanced, and the movement seems dismantled. But the FBI's subsequent account of the bloodbath, at first kept secret and then released only because of public pressure, differs from the experiences of Proulx and Moore. The two unite in hopes of uncovering who is being protected and why, and the Massive Brigade survives, in some form, to play a role in the denouement. Steinhauer (All the Old Knives, 2015, etc.) is a veteran, a real pro; the issues raised in this well-paced thriller are serious and timely, and the characters are believable and likable. But the targets of the Brigade, corporate conspiracy and the protection of the rich from public scrutiny, never quite reach a viscerally threatening level, and the individuals who conspire to preserve the status quo seem merely bureaucratically venal.A professional and entertaining thriller a little short on menace.

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Starred review from May 1, 2018
Cold War spy fiction had one big advantage: The pace of change was relatively slow. How can a writer keep up in today's turbulent world? Steinhauer (All the Old Knives, 2015) doesn't chase current events but still somehow captures the zeitgeist. In The Middleman, the mostly young followers of a movement known as the Massive Brigade suddenly begin disappearing?but where have they gone and what are they planning? With their absence itself seeming like a threat, FBI Special Agent Rachel Proulx leads an investigation fraught with unknowns. The two putative leaders of the decentralized movement are enigmas, their intentions hard to decipher, and when the first shots are fired, they lead not to catharsis but more puzzlement. Steinhauer is a master at layering gray upon gray, motive upon motive, and, as the months sweep past and the country is swept by a wave of massive protests, the question becomes whether the real war is on the streets or in the institutions policing them. Yes, this features the trappings of a thriller?shoot-outs, international locales, a looming sense of threat, sudden reversals?but the biggest thrills are the subtlest ones. (Watch for the surprising way Steinhauer connects The Middleman to his Tourism novels featuring Milo Weaver.) Though his earliest fictions were set behind the Iron Curtain, Steinhauer proves himself an equally adept chronicler of a world in which walls have come down and the most potent powers aren't necessarily political. Another must-read from a modern master.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: With an announced 150,000-copy run and a major promotional campaign, the publisher will ensure nobody misses Steinhauer's first book in three years.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2018

Known for his Milo Weaver thrillers, Steinhauer is a Dashiell Hammett Award winner with New York Times best-selling status. He's been short-listed for the Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards and for Ellis Peters Historical and Ian Fleming Steel daggers and has twice been an Edgar finalist. His new work features an FBI agent wrestling with domestic left-wing terrorists.

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