The Visiting Professor - by Robert Littell (Paperback)

About the Book

"An ex-Soviet professor plays amateur detective in this post Cold War romp by New York Times bestselling spy master Robert Littell. Lemuel Falk, a theoretical "chaoticist," has been denied permission to leave Russia for the last twenty-three years, likely because he knows a few state secrets. Even he is surprised-and wary-when his twenty-fourth request is approved, and he is offered a position as visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Chaos-Related Studies in upstate New York. But as soon as Professor Falk arrives in America, he is plunged into a new kind of chaos-including a high-stakes academic catfight, an affair with a much-younger hairdresser, and cascading offers from domestic spies looking to capitalize on his knowledge-and soon finds himself playing amateur detective at the behest of local police. While he helps hunt for a dangerous serial killer, he grapples with ghosts from his own past in Russia. In this wholly original novel, Littell explores chaos theory, questions of faith, ad the ironies of contemporary America"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

From legendary espionage writer Robert Littell, bestselling author of The Company and The Amateur, a character-driven post-Cold War romp following an ex-Soviet professor turned amateur detective who finds himself in upstate New York investigating the mysterious and sudden death of a colleague.

Lemuel Falk, a theoretical "chaoticist," has been denied permission to leave Russia for the last twenty-three years--likely because he knows a few state secrets. He is shocked when his twenty-fourth request is approved and he is offered a position as visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Chaos-Related Studies in upstate New York.

As soon as Professor Falk arrives in America, a fellow professor dies under mysterious circumstances. When he agrees to assist in the investigation at the behest of local police, he is plunged into a new kind of chaos: a high-stakes academic catfight, an affair with a much younger woman, and cascading offers from domestic spies looking to capitalize on his knowledge--all while the ghosts from his past in Russia return to haunt him.

A wholly original novel from a master of intrigue, The Visiting Professor is a portrait of chaos theory, the limits of rationality, and the ironies of America.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Visiting Professor

"An engrossing suspense-filled thriller."
--Sunday Telegraph

"A hugely impressive novel."
--The Guardian

"Forsaking his customary thriller territory, Littell (The Revolutionist) here finds fertile new ground in the farther reaches of mathematics, which prove a wellspring of rich and consistently surprising comedy . . . Littell's fast-paced satire is by turns bawdy, cerebral and touching."
--Publishers Weekly

"Quirky characters and linguistic byplay insure the book's appeal to sophisticated readers."
--Library Journal

"Beyond the basic chaos of the universe, Lemuel creates a good deal of the garden variety through his ignorance of American idioms and culture and his dealings with students at a nearby university. Along the way, he works to discover the identity of a serial killer, which after all is just a study of randomness--'his life's passion.' Heavy-hitting humor from the author of The Once and Future Spy."
--Booklist

About the Author

Robert Littell is the author of twenty-one other highly acclaimed novels, many about the Cold War and the Soviet Union, including his masterwork, New York Times bestseller The Company, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award winner for best mystery-thriller Legends. An American born in Brooklyn, Robert Littell now lives in France.