Condor: The Short Takes

The five previously published short stories and one original novella in Grady’s superb collection will please fans of the spy known as Condor, who first appeared in the 1974 bestseller Six Days of the Condor. An opening essay discusses Condor’s origins and how Grady, in his mid-20s, dealt with early success as a writer. The first story, “Condor.net,” published in 2005, presents a Condor who isn’t the original CIA spy, though the ending is linked to the novella, “Russian Roulette of the Condor,” in which Condor and his girlfriend go on the run from a mysterious man with a cane. “Caged Daze of the Condor” describes the overarching plot point of the recent Condor zeitgeist: he has been incarcerated for years in a secret CIA insane asylum. In the rest of the stories and the novella, Condor is out of the asylum and again working for the CIA, dealing with 21st-century threats from Russians and other adversaries. Grady’s writing has changed dramatically over the years, evolving into a literary, impressionistic style that will unbalance some readers, but is a perfect fit for the aging, unhinged, yet still-lethal Condor. This is an author writing at the top of his, or anyone else’s, game. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management. (Apr.)