All the Old Knives

"All the Old Knives" is a 2015 spy novel by Olen Steinhauer that centers on two former CIA colleagues, Henry and Celia, who meet for dinner at a restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Their seemingly romantic reunion is actually an interrogation, as they try to uncover which of them was the mole responsible for a disastrous hijacking operation years earlier in Vienna.

The novel was written by American author Olen Steinhauer, who is well-known for his critically acclaimed tourist and Milo Weaver espionage series. Steinhauer is highly regarded in the spy fiction genre for his cerebral, character-driven approach to modern intelligence narratives.

The book alternates between the present-day dinner conversation and flashbacks to the 2006 Vienna station hostage crisis. Both characters provide their perspectives on the events, requiring the reader to piece together the conflicting accounts to determine who is lying about the tragedy aboard Flight 127.

Yes, an Amazon Studios film adaptation was released in 2022, directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton. The movie closely follows the novel's central premise, focusing heavily on the tense, dialogue-driven dinner between the two former lovers and operatives.