‘The Coldest Warrior’ by Paul Vidich

Published by No Exit Press,
27 February 2020.
ISBN 978-0-85730-333-2(PB)

In the early 1950’s, an Army scientist, Dr Charles Wilson, plunges to his death from the 9^th floor of a Washington hotel - did he fall or was he pushed?  The publication in 1975 of the Rockefeller Commission report on illegal CIA activities raises the possibility of that his death might not have been an accident.  After so many years the family want to know what really happened.

CIA agent Jack Gabriel, a friend of the Wilson family, is about to leave the Agency, but is given one final task by the CIA director – to find out what actually happened.  As Jack’s investigation proceeds, he makes discoveries that implicates agents now occupying powerful positions and the more he discovers the more he is in danger.  How is he to find and reveal the truth and protect himself and his family?

The Cold War and years following are of interest to many readers.  The author’s use of real incidents from his family history and the development of the plot within that framework, gives an authentic atmosphere to this story, which is not a fast-paced thriller, but a tense and gripping telling of a cover-up intended to hide the truth of one man’s death and of the concerted attempts to conceal that truth. 

------

Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood

Other books by this author:  An Honorable Man, The Good Assassin

Paul Vidich has had a distinguished career in music and media. Most recently, he served as Special Advisor to AOL, Inc. 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.

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.