If you, like me, were just about to give up on spy novels due to the endless string of male characters operating to undermine the Soviet Union in favour of defending US imperialism, hang in there.Īmerican Spy is a proper spy novel with all the thrills, gadgets, copy cameras and guns you would expect, and with credible political analysis to boot. She gets tested physically and psychologically, and is called upon to get out of messy situations, as spies often have to. This novel travels from Harlem, to Martinique, to Burkina Faso and Ghana following Marie's assignments and adventures. How refreshing it is to get to know a US-based agent, at the height of the cold war, when american and Soviet forces are battling it out in countries all over the world, who isn't predictable. When she meets Thomas, her personal beliefs and politics will clash with the ideological program of her assignment.Īmerican Spy is brilliantly political and personal, without being cliché or dogmatic. While in New York, she takes Thomas for a walk around her Harlem neighborhood, shows him some local establishments. Marie accepts the assignment, unknowing of how it will alter her course. That president is none other than Thomas Sankara - a real life revolutionary, Marxist and Pan-Africanist who led Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987, and was later assassinated during the coup d'État. She's asked to help obtain intelligence from the leader of Burkina Faso who will soon be making a speech at the United Nation. The storyline steps up when Marie's supervisor invites her to a meeting with colleagues from the CIA. How her family connections play out in her everyday decisions only becomes clear as the novel progresses. Marie has a heavy family history a tense but deep relationship with her sister, a mother who decides to move back to Martinique when the girls are still young, and a father, a police officer, who expects greatness from his daughters.

She is an overall bad-ass spy, and a wonderfully charismatic character.Įarly on, we learn the book is actually a letter to her children: two boys who she loves and adores more than anyone. As a smart, ambitious and talented agent, she also speaks French, has razor-sharp intuition and knows how to pick locks. Through the book, we learn of her parents who were originally from Martinique. She's antsy to do more and to take on new responsibilities. She can't help but feel that being one of the only Black women in the force has something to do with how she's being treated. She's being sideswiped at work, given menial tasks, and prevented from fulfilling her potential. American Spy is the story of Marie, a young FBI agent experiencing professional road blocks.

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson