The WalkIn, Gary Berntsen
The WalkIn, Gary Berntsen
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
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The Walk-In

Author: Gary Berntsen, Ralph Pezzullo

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Unabridged: 8 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/12/2008


Synopsis

Gary Berntsen, longtime CIA operative and the field commander who cornered Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, writing with award-winning novelist Ralph Pezzullo, offers in this edge-of-the-seat thriller a terrifying vision of where the next threat to America may come from.

When a highly placed Iranian intelligence operative walks into a U.S. embassy claiming to possess explosive information, counterterrorism officer Matt Freed is dispatched to interview him and is warned of an impending attack on the United States that could kill millions. But is the man’s story precious truth or calculated fiction? Matt isn’t sure, but with a possible catastrophe looming in less than two weeks, his superiors reluctantly prepare for the assault.

Matt can’t leave it alone, though. With questions still lingering about what is really going on, he defies his superiors’ orders and launches his own investigation. As the clock ticks down, he searches frantically for the truth at an Afghan prison under siege, an abandoned Uzbekistan bio weapons facility, and a Moscow hospital where an arms dealer is dying of a mysterious disease.

Ultimately, Matt’s efforts brand him an out-of-control renegade, and he finds himself left out in the cold. Yet he may be the only one with the knowledge needed to avert unimaginable chaos.

From a counterterrorism warrior who has spent a lifetime thwarting those who would do us harm, The Walk-In is an exhilarating plunge into tradecraft and terror.

About The Author

Gary Berntsen served for more than two decades in the Central Intelligence Agency. He operated at the highest levels in the Middle East and Latin America, and led the CIA's major counterterrorist deployments in East Africa following the attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. In hunting down Osama bin Laden, he also commanded the most successful CIA paramilitary team ever assembled, a tale spellbindingly told in the New York Times bestseller Jawbreaker. Berntsen is a recipient of the CIA's Distinguished Intelligence Medal and Intelligence Star.Ralph Pezzullo is a former journalist, an award-winning playwright, a screenwriter, and a poet, and the author of At the Fall of Somoza, Plunging into Haiti, and the mystery novel Eve Missing. His novel The Resurrection of Thomas Lear was a semifinalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.Robertson Dean has acted on- and off-Broadway and in many leading roles at regional theaters throughout the United States. His film work includes Star Trek: Nemesis and Vanilla Sky.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Keith on April 09, 2011

Whether a whistle blowing minion of a giant corporation or a minor CIA agent in the bureaucratic world of big government, having important knowledge that can change the world and then facing an impenetrable barrier of those who refuse to listen has to be one of the most frustrating emotions in the h......more

Goodreads review by Chris on July 12, 2012

Wow! Where to start? I love this genre. And Gary Bernsten is the real deal. He knows counter-terrorism and that shows as you read through the book. It feels right. Yes, some of the action feels like it was added to heighten the tension of the story, but you come to expect that with this type of nove......more

Goodreads review by Glen on September 09, 2014

A highly placed Iranian intelligence agent walks into an embassy and tells a story of a terrorist plot. Matt Freed attempts to find out the truth. His toughest battles are with idiot bureaucrats more interested in preserving their power than actually fighting terror. More realistic in that sense than......more

Goodreads review by Dale on September 23, 2017

This is a book that would have been much better if it had been expanded. Published in 2008 by Crown Publishing Matt Freed is summoned on very short notice to Bucharest to interview a member of Iran's intelligence community. He was unrecruited, meaning that he is a "walk-in" - literally someone who wal......more

Goodreads review by TD on January 09, 2024

Solid, globe-hopping spy thriller. A good mystery at the center, excellent spycraft. Well done!......more


Quotes

"This novel is what thrillers aspire to be. Authors Berntsen and Pezzullo deliver a story that steams and dances like water on a red-hot skillet. The Walk-In is Tom Clancy for our era."
—Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Collector, The Sleeping Doll and The Broken Window

"The Walk-In is packed with what so many books lack: authenticity.  This is a thriller full of thrills, and while you're page-turning and nail-biting, be comforted by the fact that what's in it is fiction.  At least, so far..."
—SJ Rozan, Edgar-award winning author of In This Rain

“Gary Berntsen knows scary stuff the rest of us can only guess at, and he shares some of his dangerous expertise in The Walk-In . . . The Walk-In roars across the hotspots of the globe and right to our front door . . . I couldn’t put it down.”
— Peter Spiegelman, award-winning author of Red Cat


Praise for the nonfiction thriller JAWBREAKER

“Gripping . . . this honest account doesn’t do the president any favors.”
— Frank Rich, New York Times

“A true and amazing story of how the war [in Afghanistan] was fought.”
— Oliver Stone

“A thrilling read . . . Berntsen did his best to try to get bin Laden; many in Washington have yet to do theirs.”
Washington Post

“A real page turner . . . Berntsen is brave and bold and a true American hero.”
—Cofer Black, former Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Counterterrorism Center

“A compelling first-person, fly-on-the-wall account [and] a story that Berntsen had to fight to tell.”
Washington Monthly