The Sisters

Francis and Carroll are CIA legends, known to their colleagues as the Sisters Death and Night. Now close to retirement, they hear whispers inside the Company that their best days are behind them. At the height of the Cold War, with the balance of power between Washington and Moscow at stake, the two decide to prove otherwise with a scheme worthy of their old triumphs.

Their plan is to wake a notorious KGB assassin believed to be living quietly in New York, then trick him into carrying out their master plot, the assassination of the president of the United States. The man would be doing the Sisters' work without knowing it, a weapon aimed by his own enemies.

The first move is a deception aimed at the Potter, the former head of the KGB. The Sisters manipulate him into naming his most infamous student. Once he understands that he has given up his best sleeper agent, the Potter has to race to stop his own protégé before the operation can be carried out.

Robert Littell, author of The Company, builds the novel around layered puzzles, sudden double-crosses and a running argument about what ideology is worth. The New York Times called its plot "the plot of plots."