The Counterfeit Agent Author: Alex Berenson | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DGZL18Q | Format: PDF
The Counterfeit Agent Description
“Berenson’s strength is his deep understanding of geopolitics and of the shoddy compromises it demands. He clearly has excellent contacts in the world of shadows. Wells is a complex and satisfying protagonist, tackling bad guys across the world’s conflict zones.”--The New York Times Book Review
John Wells goes undercover as the threat of nuclear war skyrockets between the United States and Iran, in the cutting-edge new novel from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author. In an Istanbul hotel, a deep source warns a CIA agent that Iran intends to kill a CIA station chief. Quickly, John Wells is called in to investigate, but before he can get far, the tip comes true. Which means that the
next warning the source gives will be taken very seriously indeed. And it’s a big one.
We’ve put a package on a ship from Dubai to the United States.A radioactive one. A bomb?
Not yet. It’s a test run. As the threat level jumps and the government mobilizes, something still doesn’t smell right to Wells’s old CIA boss Ellis Shafer, and so he sends Wells on a private mission to find out what’s going on. But the two of them are swimming against the tide. From Guatemala to Thailand to Hong Kong to Istanbul, Wells uses every skill he has, including his ability to go undercover in the Arab world, to chase down leads. But it might not be enough. Soon there might be nothing anyone can do to pull the United States back from the brink of war.
- File Size: 1237 KB
- Print Length: 385 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0399159738
- Publisher: Putnam Adult (February 11, 2014)
- Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DGZL18Q
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Espionage - #3
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue - #43
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Suspense
- #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Espionage - #3
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue - #43
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Suspense
I started this series with the first entry, "The Faithful Spy", and have read each new entry as soon as released (in fact, some even earlier, with advance reviewer copies through the Vine program, such as this book).
I welcomed Berenson as a talented new voice in the genre, and thoroughly enjoyed each of his books, right up until last year's release, "The Night Ranger", which I considered a major misstep (you can read my entire review of that book there).
With this new entry, Berenson returns protagonist John Wells back to what he does best - international espionage dealing with events of major cataclysmic potential - but somehow, some of the mojo seems to be gone.
The plot centers on a shadowy operative who goes by the nom du guerre of Salome. At the behest of her mysterious masters she's acquired a chunk of weapons-grade enriched uranium, and recruited a cadre of minions to put her plan into action, that plan being to sow international discord and panicked response to the threat of nuclear blackmail supposedly being enacted by Iran.
Wells, now in retirement and living with his girlfriend, is recruited into action by his old boss and friend Ellis Schaeffer to delve into the threat, try to verify or debunk it, and then deal with the people behind it. Wells follows the clues to where they lead him around the world as the body count ratchets up.
All well and good as far as it goes, but the tension just never seems to ratchet up to match the scale of the threat. A matter of pacing, and lack of focus, in my opinion.
There's the leisurely "now you see it, now you don't" issue of Wells's disintegrating relationship with his girlfriend. It pops up at the oddest moments for a paragraph or two, then vanishes again.
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