The Last Violinist

By: Kenneth Dekleva

Narrated by: Bob Johnson

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

The protagonist of this new novel, a sequel to Kenneth Dekleva’s The Negotiator’s Cross, is Jong-un, a gifted violinist from North Korea, whose talents, peripatetic wanderings, and life experiences take him from North Korea to the former Yugoslavia, Austria, Russia, America, India, and South Korea. His gifts and passionate love affairs—with a high-ranking North Korean diplomat’s wife, as well as with a Korean American CIA officer, draw him into a web of espionage, diplomacy, tragedy, and lastly, conversion, as he embraces his faith in God and discovers himself and where he truly belongs. He finds himself at the center of a web of betrayals, with North Korean, South Korean, Russian, and American intelligence agencies, involved in double-dealing, murder, art theft, a hostage trade, and finally, his own defection. Several key characters from The Negotiator’s Cross—a Russian GRU General, a legendary CIA station chief, and Father Ishmael (now the Nuncio in Vienna, Austria) make their appearance in this thrilling novel, which introduces other characters, including a talented CIA officer known as the Musician, a North Korean spy, and a legendary, retired South Korean diplomat; even the late Dear Leader, Chairman Kim Jong-Il, makes a cameo appearance, as does the Dragoman, a character based upon the late great Russian diplomat, Andrei Karlov. Jong-un’s tale leads the listener to a gripping denouement and puts his soul and religious faith at hazard. The novel explores the psychological intricacies of human relationships, betrayals, passions, friendships, religious conversion, and love in a world of espionage and betrayal.


Dr. Kenneth Dekleva is a practicing psychiatrist and former senior US physician-diplomat, who served in Moscow, Vienna, London, Mexico City, and New Delhi, and whose regional diplomatic travels have taken him to over seventy countries. This is his second novel, following The Negotiator’s Cross.

©2023 Kenneth Dekleva (P)2023 Kenneth Dekleva

Critic reviews

“Written by the world-renowned expert in leadership psychoanalysis with rich background in diplomacy and intelligence, The Last Violinist is a riveting spy thriller brilliantly flashing out the ruthless spy wars between the North and South Korean, Russian, and American intelligence services and an intense psychodrama perceptively describing one man’s arduous high-risk journey to find personal freedom and discover Jesus and his true home. The Last Violinist is essential reading to understand what captivates the hearts and minds of the North Korean elites and what makes them tick.” (Alexandre Mansourov, former Soviet diplomat and adjunct professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Georgetown University)

"In Kenneth Dekleva's sequel to The Negotiator's Cross, we are invited back into a thrilling and mysterious adventure with some familiar faces and some new, fascinating characters. Reminiscent of the iconoclastic North Korea spy novels of James Church, this is a tale of espionage and spycraft at its finest, told by an intimate insider of those hidden worlds! And after reading this terrific book, you will never listen to the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto the same way again!" (Daniel Levin, author of Proof of Life: Twenty Days on the Hunt for a Missing Person in the Middle East)