• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • All Articles
  • Arts & Culture
  • Health
  • News
    • News
    • Announcements
    • Obituaries
    • The Official Dish
  • Opinions
  • Horoscopes
  • PODCAST
  • Subscribe

Ambush Magazine

The Official Gay Magazine of the Gulf South™

  • Read All Articles
  • Print Archive
  • Old Archived Site
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise

The Fourth Courier

October 22, 2019 By Tony Leggio

Current affairs aside, I love a good political thriller.  And my book of the month for October delivers some perfect escapism from our present reality.  The Fourth Courier written by Timothy Jay Smith is a fabulous read.  The action takes place in post-Cold War Warsaw circa 1992 after the Communist era has ended.  Smith does a wonderful job in setting the scene; his description of the Polish city is mesmerizing.  His intricate and detailed storytelling places the reader in the midst of all the action.  

There has been a series of grisly murders that has brought international attention because the victims may have been couriers smuggling nuclear material out of the defunct Soviet Union. The FBI sends agent Jay Porter to help with the investigation.  With the death of the fourth courier, Jay learns that a portable atomic bomb has disappeared and the action intensifies.  After teaming up with Kurt Crawford, a CIA official,  the race is on to find the bomb before it ends up in the wrong hands.

The unique twist in this spy thriller is that Porter is straight and white and Crawford is gay and black. Like a good Bond novel, the agents sexual dealings play an integral part of the storyline.  And there is one very enjoyably homoerotic chapter in the weight room that has me hoping for them to turn this book into a movie.  

Advertisement

All kidding aside, The Fourth Courier is an exciting thriller that will have readers voraciously devouring the pages from start to finish.  I love discovering writers whose works I have never had the chance to enjoy.  After reading this novel, I will definitely be looking into Smith’s other books.   

Smith has won top honors for his novels, screenplays and stage plays in numerous prestigious competitions. Fire on the Island won the Gold Medal in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel. Previously, he won the Paris Prize for Fiction (now the Paris Literary Prize) for his novel, A Vision of Angels. His stage play, How High the Moon, won the prestigious Stanley Drama Award, and his screenplays have won competitions sponsored by the American Screenwriters Association, WriteMovies, Houston WorldFest, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Fresh Voices, StoryPros, and the Hollywood Screenwriting Institute. He is the founder of the Smith Prize for Political Theater.

For more information on Timothy Jay Smith and his work, go to www.timothyjaysmith.com.

Advertisement

Filed Under: Book Review

Related Posts

Writers Who Love Too Much: New Narrative 1977— 1997
Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans.
Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans

Primary Sidebar

Connect & Join the Conversation

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Recent Print Editions

  • Volume 38 Issue 17
  • Volume 38 Issue 16
  • Volume 38 Issue 15
  • Volume 38 Issue 14
  • Volume 38 Issue 13
  • Volume 38 Issue 12
  • Volume 38 Issue 11
  • Volume 38 Issue 10
  • Volume 38 Issue 05
  • Volume 38 Issue 04

Recent Articles

  • The LGBTLOL Queer Comedy Fest Returns to New Orleans
  • The Rockford Files: Waiting for Life to Begin
  • Trodding the Boards May 9, 2025
  • Queer Arts as Resistance
  • Ambush on the Road – A Gay in the Garden State

Experience Gay New Orleans

  • Gay New Orleans
  • Gay Mardi Gras
  • Gay Easter Parade
  • New Orleans Pride
  • Gay Appreciation Awards
  • Southern Decadence
  • Gay Halloween

Categories

  • A Community within Communities
  • Announcements
  • Arts & Culture
  • Bartender of the Month
  • Book Review
  • Business
  • Chop Chop
  • Commentary
  • Drag Queen Profile
  • Featured
  • Film Review
  • Financial
  • Geo Doing Geo Things
  • Health
  • Horoscopes
  • Interviews
  • Interviews from Key West
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Moments in Queer New Orleans History
  • Museum Spotlights
  • Music
  • Musings by Catherine
  • New to New Orleans
  • News
  • Obituaries
  • Opinions
  • Pride Spotlight
  • Profiles & Spotlights
  • Sports
  • The Here and the Now
  • The Official Dish
  • The Real Cheese
  • The Rockford Files
  • Trodding the Boards
  • Uncategorized
  • Under The Gaydar

Footer

Ambush Magazine Logo

Ambush Magazine is New Orleans' and the Gulf Coast's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer entertainment, news, and travel guide since 1982.

Publisher TJ Acosta
Editor-In-Chief Reed Wendorf
Founding Publisher/Editor Rip Naquin-Delain
Senior Editor Brian Sands
Distribution George Bevan Jr

Email info@ambushpublishing.com
Phone (504) 522-8049

Recent Posts

  • The LGBTLOL Queer Comedy Fest Returns to New Orleans
  • The Rockford Files: Waiting for Life to Begin
  • Trodding the Boards May 9, 2025
  • Queer Arts as Resistance
  • Ambush on the Road – A Gay in the Garden State

Proud Member

Gulf South LGBT Chamber Logo

Let’s Get Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 · Ambush Publishing LLC All Rights Reserved · Website Built by Reed Wendorf · Log in