Paul Vidich – The Matchmaker:A Spy in Berlin|@RandomTTours |@paulvidich| @noexitpress| #TheMatchmaker #BookTour

Today it is the turn of The Matchmaker by Paul Vidich to be on my blog. Thank you to Anne Cater and No Exit Press for my copy of the book to join the tour.

Berlin, 1989. Anne Simpson, an American who works as a translator
at the Joint Operations Refugee Committee, thinks she is in a
normal marriage with a charming East German. But then her
husband disappears and the CIA and Western German intelligence
arrive at her door. Nothing about her marriage is as it seems.
Anne had been targeted by the Matchmaker – a high level East German
counterintelligence officer – who runs a network of Stasi agents. These
agents are his ‘Romeos’ who marry vulnerable women in West Berlin to
provide them with cover as they report back to the Matchmaker. Anne has
been married to a spy, and now he has disappeared, and is presumably
dead.
The CIA are desperate to find the Matchmaker because of his close ties
to the KGB. They believe he can establish the truth about a high-ranking
Soviet defector. They need Anne because she’s the only person who has
seen his face – from a photograph that her husband mistakenly left out in
his office – and she is the CIA’s best chance to identify him before the
Matchmaker escapes to Moscow.
Time is running out as the Berlin Wall falls and chaos engulfs East Germany. But what if Anne’s
husband is not dead? And what if Anne has her own motives for finding the Matchmaker to deliver
a different type of justice?

Paul Vidich is one of the best spy thriller writers I have come across lately. I have taken part in two of his previous book tours, and his writing has kept the quality that I expect when I pick up his books.

Set in Berlin during 1989, in the months before the Wall would fall. We meet Anne and Stefan, who is a piano tuner, or so Anne believes. Then the day comes, Anne receives a message saying Stefan has been found in a river and presumed drowned.

Paul Vidich has a gift for transporting the reader to the settings of his novels. His words painting a nuanced picture of a Berlin during the months before the wall came down. Tense with the unrest, distrust, and insecurities that became their normal daily life.

His characters are front and centre of this book. It is well portrayed and believable. So believable that this story is one that I felt I could have been living. Every single character from Anne, the main character right to the very smallest ones, all make you really make this story such a realistic read. The fact that it is based on a real person from that time makes it even more so. Again, the author has cleverly woven truth with fiction and done it very well. I didn’t know where the fiction ended, and the truth began.

Every single story thread is woven together to create a thriller that doesn’t just keep you reading but grabs you and keeps a tight hold from page one till the last. The twists and turns of the plot are cleverly used to hold the reader fast.

I enjoy a spy thriller, but Paul Vidich has taught me how to love them. Every book I have read always draws me into the danger, tension, and unpredictability of his work. I am intrigued to see his next release.

Author Bio

Paul Vidich has had a distinguished career in music and media. Most recently, he
served as Special Advisor to AOL and was Executive Vice President at the Warner
Music Group, in charge of technology and global strategy. He serves on the Board
of Directors of Poets & Writers and The New School for Social Research. A founder
and publisher of the Storyville App, Vidich is also an award-winning author of short
fiction. His novels, An Honorable Man, The Good Assassin and The Coldest
Warrior, are available from No Exit Press.