If you're looking for a book full of mystery, thrills and deceit then The Fourth Courier by Timothy Jay Smith might be for you!

This book was action packed, fast paced and full of intriguing characters (all of which seem to meet at the final climax of the book). Not only that, but Timothy Jay Smith had such a way with words that it was hard to put down! To just quote the opening lines of the book, "their steel girders booed thunderously" had me hooked, and his way with his prose continued to be spotless and marvelous!

In this book, we follow Jay Porter the FBI agent while he is in Poland. Dead men are popping up everywhere and they all have very specific pieces of evidence about them suggesting there's a murderer on the loose. Throw in the 90s setting with Russia, Poland and nuclear weapons, and you've got yourself a great start to a thrilling mystery novel. Along the way we meet characters who seem to belong to the mafia, a lovely lady named Basia who feels like a Bond girl, and lots and lots of deceit.

This book gave me Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and James Bond vibes. It's really intriguing and dark yet still made me feel totally hooked on the book. I read it all in one sitting because I NEEDED to know how it ended. To top it off, having the incredible writing style of Timothy was just amazing! It was enchanting to read the story and see it happening in front of my eyes so well! He's so descriptive!

If I had to give this book a rating, it would be R. There's blood, guns and sex (lots of sex, among different genders too!).

If I had to list some of the "cons" of this book, it would be as followed:
1. There's a lot of small side plot/comments that may throw some readers off. For example, Jay's trouble with his ex-wife and son pop up briefly a few times. It's not totally necessary to know all of that information to know about Jay, but it's there. I could see that being a distraction for some readers.
2. Jay and Lilka had more chemistry than Jay had murder-solving capabilities, in my humble opinion. I would have liked to see him work a little harder on his crime solving abilities or flesh out the romance full out. But that's just me - I like romance novels and I like mystery novels and I find them hard to mix together.

Overall, this is one great addition to your mystery and thriller shelf! I would 100% recommend this book if you like a good mystery novel or want something to spice of your reading! And, it's relatively short! The copy I received was under 300 pages which made it nice and quick for me!

Four out of five stars!

I received a free copy of this book from the author, Timothy Jay Smith, in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: For International Espionage Fans of Alan Furst and Daniel Silva, a new thriller set in post-Soviet era Poland.

It is 1992 in Warsaw, Poland, and the communist era has just ended. A series of grisly murders suddenly becomes an international case when it's feared that the victims may have been couriers smuggling nuclear material out of the defunct Soviet Union. The FBI sends an agent to help with the investigation. When he learns that a Russian physicist who designed a portable atomic bomb has disappeared, the race is on to find him—and the bomb—before it ends up in the wrong hands.

Smith’s depiction of post-cold war Poland is gloomily atmospheric and murky in a world where nothing is quite as it seems. Suspenseful, thrilling, and smart, The Fourth Courier brings together a straight white FBI agent and gay black CIA officer as they team up to uncover a gruesome plot involving murder, radioactive contraband, narcissistic government leaders, and unconscionable greed.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Atmospheric, dark thriller about the immediate aftermath of the USSR's fall, its consequences for the former Warsaw Pact countries (especially Poland), and a morally ambiguous story of how the balance of power stays balanced.

I was unsurprised to see the homophobia of the Eastern Bloc countries brought into focus...remember Swimming in the Dark? Nationalist Love?...but was quite surprised to see it used to make a US spy into a honey trap for a General known to be, um, susceptible. It's such a realpolitik maneuver that I've always assumed it was simply unknown. Silly me. If something can provide leverage, of course it's been used by both sides.

Kurt, our gay character, is both Black and a CIA honey trap for the self-loathing General. He's...fine with it. He uses his body, its beauty and power, to further the interests of his chosen side. This means he's not a good gay, or a good guy. This being Reality I'm all down with this in theory. In practice, as it's handled in this story, it's a bit more like prostitution than it is noble self-sacrifice. I'm not criticizing here but analyzing what it is that the two things have in common: Exchange of value. The sheer mercenary chill of Kurt giving the General what he craves is perfectly appropriate, if distasteful.

Again, the consummation of the act isn't explicit. It's more detailed than it was in Fire on the Island. It's staged in a shower, and that made me chuckle...let's keep it clean, boys!...and the ending, which is indeed Happy, is somewhat heavy-handedly made into a political commentary. But I wasn't anywhere near as creeped out as I routinely am in these sorts of situations when it's a woman using her body to get a man to do something for her side. My primary issue is: That's it. That's what Kurt's there to do, he does it, and buh bye now!

As with all the gay characters in the book, they serve a role and vacate the scene when it's fulfilled. I found Jay, straight and narrow Jay, uninteresting really. He was an investigator who didn't investigate but ran across answers. It's not like that is unknown in thrillerdom. It just doesn't endear him to me. And honestly I just do not care about his ex-wife or about his borning relationship with Lilka the Polish lady, which yet again (see review above) is clearly stated as Not Going Anywhere.

Nowhere near as much fun to read as Fire on the Island, but I wanted to finish the read. I was involved, I was entertained, and yet still I was unsatisfied because Kurt was underutilized. Why tell me about him at all if all he was there to do was fuck one guy and then melt down the shower drain with his jizz?

I don't doubt that straight people will like it more than I did. ( )

This well-written thriller places the reader in post-Cold War Poland. Smith excels at re-creating the atmosphere of that era. I was in early high school back in '92, so while I vaguely remember when Yugoslavia was a country, the crumbling of the Soviet Union, and the hesitant, troubled change from socialism to capitalism in eastern Europe, it still feels unfamiliar. (Face it: teens usually know more about the politics in their high schools than the politics in other countries. Ask me who the supreme dictator of the "cool" girls was in '92 and I'll know; ask me who the leaders of Yugoslavia and Poland were that year, and my mind is blank.)

Anyway, all that to say, Smith does a great job describing this changing country. And he does it in subtle ways, never through long lectures or info-dumps. The image he weaves haunts me, just as Warsaw is haunted by its long and troubled past.

A few things I had mixed feelings about:

1. General Dravko Mladic, head of the State Security Service of Yugoslavia, tends to daydream and reminiscence a lot, often in the form of flashbacks. I have nothing against flashbacks, but at certain parts, his flashbacks occur during "non-scene" scenes. Standing in the kitchen staring out the window, riding in a car, etc.: nothing significant happens, so why include the outward trappings of a scene? Just make it narrative.

But then I realized that Mladic's daydreams of (fill in the blank: military glory, forbidden sexual escapades with men, etc.) are appropriate for his character: he is a man who lives in fantasy. Who he believes himself to be (important, destined for glory) exists in his mind. The only way he can make that man exist in real life is to act out his fantasies. (Thankfully, Smith spares us the details of his sadomasochistic, sexual torture of male prisoners.)

While I still found Mladic's mental screen reels a bit annoying and somewhat repetitive, I understand why they are necessary for this particular character.

2. The second thing I had qualms about was the use of sexuality. It's not the explicit sex scenes. It's the characters' (both female and male) willingness to exploit their own attractive bodies and others' sexual weaknesses to manipulate for personal gain. For example, one woman uses her physical attractiveness to get power over a sexually-deprived man. (No spoilers. Let's just say that it doesn't end well.) In another, better developed example, a male uses his sexuality for a similar purpose. (Ditto that ending.)

I don't know how I feel about that.

On the one hand, this is true to life. It is also, in its heterosexual form, fairly standard material in fiction. (Think the femme fatale of noir.)

On the other, the exploitation of others' sexuality makes me uneasy. Does presenting oneself as a sexual object make the objectification acceptable? I don't know. I am possibly overthinking things. (That pesky degree in literature again!)

Smith does balance out all the sexualized power plays with a sweet, consensual love affair.

Overall, the book is strong.
Great character development.
In particular, Jay had my sympathy. Newly divorced, his ex has taken his two sons and refuses to allow Jay visitation because his job is "too dangerous"; he wants to be back in America with his kids, particularly as one has a birthday soon. Yet he wants to find the killer, too.

A subtle theme of troubled father/son relationships.
Almost every man in the book has some issue with his son (and vice versa). I mentioned Jay's custody issues, but there's more.

1. The Soviet state has forced a brilliant scientist to donate his sperm to help create more geniuses, and thus he has unknown children in the world.
2. Another fears that because he was physically scarred by his father, he will scar his own son.
3. Still another man is childless yet he wants to "father" a new nation.
4. Then there's Lilka's hopeful, America-obsessed brother-in-law, Tolek. His young son is a gifted pianist, yet Tolek is conflicted about the child's musical gift. How will that help them in America?
The boy's mother tells Lilka,

"He plays only for his father. (...) He continues his conversations with his father on the piano, saying what he can't say because he's still just a boy, only Tolek doesn't hear it." (The Fourth Courier, p. 237)

It seems to me that many of the men have things they can't say and other things that they don't hear.

Terrific dialogue.
When Poles or Russians are speaking, their English "sounds" like the words of non-native speakers who are almost fluent in English: few contractions, a bit too formal, and the occasional struggle for the right word. The Americans, well, they sound like Americans: casual, breezy, and sometimes overconfident.

Lighter notes.
Smith includes running jokes about Polish coffee (hint: this ain't Starbucks coffee!); the sweet old embassy secretary whose "helpful" reminder notes only confuse her; the unqualified and jittery Consul General; Jay's banter with his secretary in America; and plenty of quips and playful competition between Jay and Kurt. All these help balance out the post-Cold War harsh reality.

Fast-paced plot.
I read the book in little over a day because I was so absorbed in the story. Through his beautiful writing, Smith has created a full world of realistic people caught in a rapidly changing world that they cannot control. Tense. Suspenseful. Haunting. Read it.

4 1/2 stars. I'm rounding up to 5.

Note: Thanks to Timothy Jay Smith and Arcade Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book so I could give an honest review. ( )

Take a walk back in time to Warsaw, 1992, with Timothy Jay Smith’s new crime thriller. The Cold War has recently ended, but average citizens struggle to figure out the new economic realities. Nothing quite works yet, and the gray concrete dullness of Soviet brutalist architecture is made even harsher by the dismal April weather. Politically, old relationships are unraveling, and chaos in the former Soviet Union and some of its satellites raises an important question, who’s watching the nukes?
Warsaw police, meanwhile, are dealing with a baffling series of murders. Over just a few weeks, three unidentified young men have been shot to death, their bodies abandoned on the banks of the Vistula River, one cheek slit open, all labels expertly cut from their clothing. Now they’ve found a fourth victim, older this time. By chance, the forensic pathologist noticed the third victim’s hands bore traces of radiation. Whatever he’d been smuggling, Poland’s new Solidarity government wants help to stop it.
American aid comes to them from the FBI in the person of Jay Porter, who in turn calls on the expertise of the local CIA officer—a gay black man named Kurt Crawford—and the genial Ambassador. There are good interactions and good humor among the three Americans. They all want to put an end to what seems to be nuclear material being spirited out of the former Soviet Union—but each has a totally different way of going about it.
Porter meets an attractive Polish woman, Lilka, who, he learns, is divorced from her abusive husband, but the apartments in Poland are so few and so small, so they still live together. The American starts seeing Lilka, which gives author Smith a vehicle for introducing realistic aspects of everyday Polish life—the shortages, the cranky cars, the small indulgences, and the stresses immediately post-communism—one of the most interesting aspects of the book, in fact.
Perhaps there are a couple too many plot coincidences and intersections among the cast of characters. All of them remain distinctive and interesting, though, even the minor ones. Smith’s well described settings put you right in the scene, whether it’s the drably elegant hotel favored by a Yugoslav general, a seedy bar in the bowels of the train station, or the riverside wasteland where the corpses keep washing up. ( )

I did like this book. It has the vein of a really, good thriller. There is intrigue, action, and plenty of movement to keep the story from becoming "stale". So, why did I not "love" this book? Well that is because I struggled to find my footing with the characters. There were many and yet none of them fully grabbed me where I could form a strong connection with them. Therefore, it does not matter how good a storyline a book can have; if I the reader can not form a connection with the characters who are supposed to tell and live the story, than, the rest fall to the wayside.

I will admit that the main lead Jay, was engaging. There were times that I did find myself really getting into this book and other times I could become easily distracted. It was like a roller coaster. If I had become fully engaged in this book, I can tell you that it would have been a five star read for me. Thus, I would read another book from this author. Just because I did not love this book does not mean that other readers should not check it out. ( )