Topaz

By: Leon Uris

Narrated by: David de Vries

Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

A #1 New York Times bestseller, Topaz follows French intelligence chief André Devereaux and NATO intelligence chief Michael Nordstrom.

On the eve of the Cuban Missile Crisis in Paris, 1962, Devereaux and Nordstrom uncover Soviet plans to ship nuclear arms. But when nobody acts after sharing his findings, Devereaux becomes the target of an assassination attempt and soon realizes the plot extends far beyond Cuba - and himself.

A thrilling and well-paced novel filled with Cold War intrigue, Topaz features two agents on a journey around the world to save NATO and themselves. A subsequent film based on the novel was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1969.

“A master at weaving historical fact and fiction.” (USA Today)

“Good Uris beats the best of John Grisham or Tom Clancy any time.” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

©1967 Leon M. Uris (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Excellent narrator

Davis de Vries brings Leon Uris’ thrilling story to life. The voices he uses for each character are distinctive and the foreign accents accurate. An excellent listen.

Dry, almost like a documentary.

The narration was well done with multiple voices for the different characters and from different countries too. The story was well written. My lack of detailed knowledge of the Cuban Missile Crisis kept me interested to know what happened and how it might have played out in the spy world. Very interesting!

Fantastic

I read this many years ago and so enjoyed listening to this story again. Great narration.

A spy thriller in disguise

Leon Uris wrote great historical based novels. When I first heard of Topaz I thought that the main story was the historic "Cuban missile Crisses". I didnt realize that while that was true the book also combined a history of the Cuban Castro revolution and the little known story of the Communist infiltration of France's intelligence service (The Sapphire Affair). So with this one novel you get 3 great history lessons and some excitement to boot. David de Vries is excellent in his narration and the various voice characterizations. Although at times his French accent does sound a bit "Germanesque."

No wonder Leon Uris had 3 wives

Story about the Cuban missile crisis fascinating and informative. The story about the philandering French man and his wife - ugh. Leon Uris promotes the idea that a man cannot control himself and must cheat on his wife if he is without sexual outlet. Some psycho babble too about mothers. Ugh. Marriage is not rocket science - it is simple - being faithful and loyal to each other yields better results than adultery. Duh. Leon had a character spout that a wife had to take any bad behavior of the husband and support him. My impression is these stupid behavior opinions expressed by different characters are actually Leon's opinions. Nyet!

I still have about 2 hours to go listening to this, but wanted to record my strong negative impression re marital infidelity promoted in the book. I definitely want to complete the book.

The politics and spy craft of the missile crisis new to me. Liars and slanderers have been around since the beginning of the world. If one has love of Truth, how could you be a spy? You have to lie and deceive. Ugh.

Advice to small fish of which I am one...do not think you have power, obey the authorities except when they ask you to do something against God's law. Be respectful to all, especially those in authority. Spoiler Alert: The fiancé would still be alive if he had followed that.

Conclusion: Good book, just don't follow the advice/example re unkind, cheating, dishonest general conduct/behavior, marriage relationships. History terrific if accurate. Have not verified that.