A review of the novel “American Spy” by Lauren Wilkinson
Two things attracted me to this novel. First, it was a Barack Obama summer reading pick which is quite a recommendation. Second, it features the real-life West African revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara after whom my second granddaughter Kara is named.
The work is in the form of an extended account by black female FBI agent Marie Mitchell addressed to her two young sons. The story begins explosively with an attempted murder in Connecticut in 1992 and then goes back and forth in time, alternating between Marie’s upbringing in New York in the 1960s, her career as an FBI agent in the 1980s, her assignment in Burkina Faso in 1987, and her retreat to Martinique in 1992.
This is the first novel by African-American writer Lauren Wilkinson and it is a remarkably assured spy thriller that tackles issues of politics, race and gender. It certainly will not be her last book and indeed the inconclusive ending of “American Spy” cries out for a sequel.