The Debriefing by Robert Littell opens with a heart pounding defection in Athens of a Soviet official, Oleg Kulakov. We know only a little about him: he had been proscribed from leaving Moscow and was under investigation, he had been removed from the approved courier list but was reinstated for an assignment to carry a diplomatic pouch to Athens, he was told not to wear his uniform, and he has experienced the traumatic loss of his children.
After making his way to the U.S. embassy, he, and the pouch he is carrying, are taken into custody by Agent Stone of the Topological Department, an espionage unit working directly under the command of code name, Elbow Room, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Robert Littell is a master in the use of dramatic irony and uses it brilliantly. Kulakov is an unwitting false flag and the pouch he is to deliver is intended to fall into the hands of the Americans. The pouch is turned over to the CIA, but Kulakov is retained by Stone who believes "if there's a fly in the ointment, something tells me we'll find it in the warm body. The papers, if they've been set up, will be perfect."
Thus, the debriefing: while Stone is searching Kulakov, we readers are searching Stone, who has a host of his own secrets, not least of which is his obsessive fear of replacement by his deputy, Mozart, his relationship with his lover, Thro, and his daughter.
Coming upon Kulakov has been serendipitous for the Topological Department which has been budgeted to develop means to infiltrate agents into Soviet Russia. Stone, once he knows "more about (Kulakov) than God," and has vague intuitions about his authenticity, decides to be the first agent to avail of the departments skills and unbeknownst to Elbow Room, whom Stone believes must be kept in the dark for deniability purposes, heads out to Moscow.
Robert Littell is the master story teller of espionage fiction. This is one of his best.

This is a great little Spy vs. Spy caper with several quirky characters thrown in for some comic relief (often with a dark edge). American penetration-agent-in-waiting Stone is chosen to debrief Soviet courier Oleg Kulakov who has defected with a briefcase of diplomatic bag correspondence incl. military secrets and private inter-embassy mail. Kulakov's story is perfect. Perhaps too perfect? After losing almost all of his family to one circumstance or another Kulakov has defected when given the opportunity of a courier delivery to Cairo. Stone goes into Soviet Russia with deep cover to try and get to the source of all of Kulakov's misfortunes. He'll get there, but at what cost?
Colourful characters abound, such as Stone's girlfiriend Thro, who has a knack for predicting different ways the world will end, and Morning Stalin, an ex-Stalin impersonator, now retired, who was the dictator's morning replacement at social functions when the old tyrant himself couldn't be bothered to get up or make an appearance.
I'll confess that I missed out on Littell's books in the first go-around as I was too caught up with Le Carre & Deighton at the time. I 've discovered Littell late after reading his son's The Kindly Ones and then his own latest The Stalin Epigram (about the poet Mandelstam, who also makes a brief appearance in The Debriefing) and I'm having a lot of fun going back to find Littell Sr.'s earlier books. ( )

Is Kulakov genuine? Yes, but . . . excellent defector intrigue in the LeCarre mode, but American ( )