For debut authors, it’s always a good idea to write what you know. William Maz follows this advice to the letter. His first novel, THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER, is a dynamite thriller that will make readers fondly recall the work of such espionage writers as Len Deighton, John le Carré and Robert Ludlum.

Maz was born in Bucharest, Romania, prior to immigrating with his family to the US and attending Harvard University --- much like his protagonist, CIA analyst Bill Hefflin, does. He deftly infuses his book with all he knows about his birthplace and his time at Harvard, as well as his years studying fiction writing, to produce a can’t-miss story set during the violent Romanian uprising that took place in the late 1980s.

"William Maz has written what could be one of the top debuts of 2022. THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER is an espionage thriller not to be missed by fans of this dynamic genre."

The action opens in 1989 at Harvard, where Professor Andrei Pincus is preparing to head off to his campus home where he has lived for 34 years. Waiting for him there is a stranger who accuses him of betraying his home country and says he is determined to tie up loose ends. Calling out Pincus for his new allegiance to the US, he takes his life with a hypodermic needle to the nose.

It turns out that Pincus was Hefflin’s mentor, so we look back at Hefflin’s time as a student at Harvard. Pincus, working his secondary job as a recruiter for the CIA, reels in the impressionable Hefflin and points him in the direction of the Agency. Prior to this, we see Hefflin in New York City learning about his mentor’s brutal demise while going to his secret location to pick up a message from his longtime KGB contact, Boris, who indicates that he needs to get to Bucharest at once.

While attending Pincus’ funeral, Dan Avery, the Director of Operations for the CIA, calls Hefflin into his vehicle to talk about the trip. Hefflin is heading to Romania as a U.S. Embassy employee, but he is to continue his work as an analyst and must meet up with Boris and take it from there. Meanwhile, we continue to step back in time and see Hefflin’s initiation into the clandestine Fly Club at Harvard, which entered him into the spy game and is where he met the intriguing Catherine, the second love of his life.

Upon his arrival in Bucharest, Hefflin sees his superior, Jack Stanton, who is confounded that someone would be sent over blindly into such a volatile situation to meet with a person they have never seen before. While waiting for Boris to contact him, Hefflin decides to seek out his first love from his childhood in Romania, a girl he only knew by the name Pusha Pantelimon. Of course, his initial search turns up nothing. That is not a real first name, just a term of endearment.

One evening, at the cheap hotel where he is staying, Hefflin is visited by a strange American man calling himself Harold Mayfield. He eventually starts asking about the dossier that Hefflin claims he has. Hefflin says that there is no dossier --- he had just mentioned it to a few nosy reporters to get rid of them --- but this answer does not satisfy Mayfield. Hefflin finally gets the call to meet with Boris, and they have a chance to get together face to face for the first time. Boris seems to know everything about Hefflin’s life to the point that it becomes uncomfortable.

Readers will be simply riveted to the page as Hefflin finds himself getting deeper and deeper into the dangerous events within Romania that seem to be almost orchestrated by both the US and Boris. Beyond that, Boris turns out to have an eerie hold over Hefflin and his entire life, which may still include some sort of reunion with Pusha, even if it’s not quite the one Hefflin had expected.

William Maz has written what could be one of the top debuts of 2022. THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER is an espionage thriller not to be missed by fans of this dynamic genre.