The Faithful Spy, Alex Berenson
The Faithful Spy, Alex Berenson
6 Rating(s)
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The Faithful Spy

Author: Alex Berenson

Narrator: John Heffernan

Abridged: 5 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/25/2006


Synopsis

“A well-crafted page-turner that addresses the most important issue of our time. It will keep you reading well into the night.”–Vince Flynn

A New York Times reporter has drawn upon his experience covering the occupation in Iraq to write the most gripping and chillingly plausible thriller of the post-9/11 era. Alex Berenson’s debut novel of suspense, The Faithful Spy, is a sharp, explosive story that takes readers inside the war on terror as fiction has never done before.

John Wells is the only American CIA agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda. Since before the attacks in 2001, Wells has been hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, biding his time, building his cover.
Now, on the orders of Omar Khadri–the malicious mastermind plotting more al Qaeda strikes on America–Wells is coming home. Neither Khadri nor Jennifer Exley, Wells’s superior at Langley, knows quite what to expect.

For Wells has changed during his years in the mountains. He has become a Muslim. He finds the United States decadent and shallow. Yet he hates al Qaeda and the way it uses Islam to justify its murderous assaults on innocents. He is a man alone, and the CIA–still reeling from its failure to predict 9/11 or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq–does not know whether to trust him. Among his handlers at Langley, only Exley believes in him, and even she sometimes wonders. And so the agency freezes Wells out, preferring to rely on high-tech means for gathering intelligence.

But as that strategy fails and Khadri moves closer to unleashing the most devastating terrorist attack in history, Wells and Exley must somehow find a way to stop him, with or without the government’s consent.

From secret American military bases where suspects are held and “interrogated” to basement laboratories where al Qaeda’s scientists grow the deadliest of biological weapons, The Faithful Spy is a riveting and cautionary tale, as affecting in its personal stories as it is sophisticated in its political details. The first spy thriller to grapple squarely with the complexities and terrors of today’s world, this is a uniquely exciting and unnerving novel by an author who truly knows his territory.

About The Author

Alex Berenson is a reporter for The New York Times who has covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq to the flooding of New Orleans. He graduated from Yale University in 1994 with degrees in history and economics. This is his first novel. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Well...I think for you bottom line types I'd say this one is, "not bad". I'm not thrilled about it but neither am I really disappointed. I'll give some details below but I know some like an answer of sorts "up front". Now what's good and what's not. Well the story is treading some well trodden ground......more

Goodreads review by Tim

I gave up on excellent spy novels years ago when my taste for LeCarre could not be satisfied with anyone else. So I decided to take a risk with Alex Berenson's "The Faithful Spy." If nothing else, this novel has restored my faith in the genre as relevant, as vital, and as a vehicle for truly good wr......more


Quotes

“A well-crafted page-turner that addresses the most important issue of our time. It will keep you reading well into the night.”—Vince Flynn

“Berenson offers a very American story—a sort of terrorist High Noon…exciting.”—The New York Times 

“A hold-your-breath thriller…a grabber.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

“An intriguing thriller studded with alarming possibilities.”—New York Daily News

“A thriller worthy of Le Carré.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)