The award-winning author of A Small Death in Lisbon brings an exciting richness to the long shadow of evil in this crackling novel of spycraft and international intrigue. Lisbon, 1944: Andrea Aspinall, plucked out of academia by British intelligence so that her mathematical knowledge might help in the hunt for atomic secrets, disappears under a new identity in Lisbon, where such secrets are easily bought and sold. Karl Voss, already experienced in the illusions of intrigue when he arrives in Lisbon, is an attache at the German Legation, though he is secretly working against the Nazis to rescue Germany from annihilation. After a night of terrible violence, Andrea creates a family for herself from Voss's memory and the clandestine world they knew. In Portugal, in England, and in the chilly world of Cold War Berlin, she discovers that the deepest secrets aren't held by governments-and that death is a relative term. In The Company of Strangers , Robert Wilson takes the chilling irony of "secret intelligence" to a new and more poignant human level, as he shows that the heart is both more knowing and more secretive than the mind.   Wilson here sticks with what worked so well in his stylish debut, A Small Death in Lisbon, crafting a thriller that moves from the outer edges of the Third Reich to postwar Berlin. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Wilson here sticks with what worked so well in his stylish debut, A Small Death in Lisbon, crafting a thriller that moves from the outer edges of the Third Reich to postwar Berlin. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Wilson writes a gripping espionage thriller that will keep readers guessing from beginning to end. Mathematics whiz Andrea Aspinall is recruited by the British SIS at the beginning of World War II and sent to Portugal for her first posting. Within a week, she's blown her cover, uncovered a murder, and met German double agent Karl Voss, the love of her life. Their affair is short lived, as Karl is soon captured, sent to prison, and reported dead. Andrea later marries a Portuguese general and raises a family but never forgets either Voss or her days as a spy. Reactivated by the SIS decades later, Andrea takes on a far less visible but much more dangerous role in the espionage game. The results are both unpredictable and deadly. Wilson's latest has all the right ingredients--danger, death, violence, sex, patriotism, and war--plus intriguingly complex characters and a keep-'em-guessing plot that starts slowly but quickly picks up speed. Fans of Wilson's highly regarded Small Death in Lisbon [BKL O 15 00] will find much to admire here. Emily Melton Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved PRAISE FOR THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS "[The Company of Strangers] is streets ahead of most other thrillers."-The Times (London) "A plotter's delight . . . [Wilson] creates an intriguing moral maze for his heroine to negotiate."-The Guardian (London) PRAISE FOR A SMALL DEATH IN LISBON Winner of the Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel "Robert Wilson's A Small Death in Lisbon turns a local murder case into a taut international thriller . . . with considerable, nailbaiting skill."-Time "A tour de force."-Los Angeles Times "Historically sprawling, richly distilled thriller . . . The whole is a suspenseful, intricately plotted, violent and steamy tale. You will turn the last page of this compelling novel out of breath."-The New York Times ROBERT WILSON is the author of numerous novels, including The Company of Strangers and A Small Death in Lisbon , which won the Gold Dagger Award as Best Crime Novel of the Year from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising, and trading in Africa, and has lived in Greece, Portugal, and West Africa.