Shortly after the assassination of her diplomat husband Emmett Kohl in Budapest, Sophie Kohl makes it her mission to discover who killed him and why. Instead of returning to the U.S., Sophie heads to Cairo to start her search for answers. But who can she trust in the varied diplomatic offices in Egypt?

Everyone Sophie meets has their own agenda and no viable answers to why her husband was murdered. However, her queries have far-reaching consequences that involve an early CIA scheme, dubbed Stumbler, that's been set in motion, even though it's not been sanctioned by the CIA. Not knowing who's running the operation, or why it's being done at this time, proves fatal for several people involved in helping Sophie. Will she live long enough to find out the truth about her husband?

Olen Steinhauer's THE CAIRO AFFAIR is an intense international espionage thriller. With a plethora of spies, mercenaries, double-agents and shady diplomats, this well- written tome delivers an intelligent and thoughtful view of how the U.S. is tangled up in the political upheaval in the Northern Africa nations -- and how that major involvement affects the U.S.