Through a series of improbable coincidences, in the early 1970s Harry Mathews, then living in Paris, was commonly reputed to be a CIA agent. Even his closest friends had their suspicions, which were only reinforced each time he tried to deny such a connection. With growing frustration at his inability to make anyone believe him, Mathews decided to act the part.
"A radical Muslim group has dedicated itself to the restoration of the Caliphate, a global Muslim empire, and will stop at nothing, including assassination and terrorism, to reach its goal. Steve Church is just a US businessman in Paris. He never expected to be recruited by the CIA as an undercover operative. But now, with his life on the line and with a beautiful woman as part of the cover, Steve is on his way to North Africa---and the terrorists' Saharan headquarters--in a whirlwind adventure that will change the politics of the Middle East"--Page 4 of cover.
"The Central Intelligence Agency is under attack, and so is its top field operative, Kyle Swanson. The highly decorated former Marine Corps gunnery sergeant is attending the funeral of a friend when a terrorist blows up the grave. A week later, he narrowly survives a grenade attack in Berlin. In Washington, Congress is being told that Swanson has been turned, his private employer is corrupt, and the Agency itself cannot be trusted. Swanson is assigned to find the root of the problem and is partnered up with Luke Gibson, a skilled operative rated as being almost as good as Swanson. They are looking for assassin Nicky Marks, who also was a CIA shooter but now works for a shadowy power broker known as The Prince. But before Kyle and Luke can eliminate the threat, they must identify and find the man who wants them dead. That takes them from the pink poppy fields of Afghanistan to the jungles of Southeast Asia and the streets of America as they learn that the Prince is the ruthless kingpin of a global drug empire that uses CIA planes to transport opium and heroin. Swanson also lines up a secret partner, the beautiful widow of his friend whose grave was desecrated in Mexico, the sharpshooting former commando Beth Ledford, who has her own agenda of pure retribution. Kyle Swanson, at the worst possible moment in a combat showdown, must decide: Do you trust your partner, and if so, which one?"--
The last man standing...At the height of the cold war, a few elite secret agents earned the title of "4 Phase Man." From Berlin to the Middle East, only two of them survived....The first man in...Once he was a man with a family and a home. Then Gerald Goldman rose through the ranks of the CIA with his ability to survive in any situation, and to kill. Now he is called Xenos, the outsider, the exile. But Xenos has just come in from the cold, searching for a missing young man and finding an astounding conspiracy to co-opt the United States government. Between a tough and beautiful U.S. congresswoman who is being forced to betray her country and a deep-cover spy who is aiming at the second-highest office in the land, Xenos finds himself at war. And standing against him is the one man as deadly as Xenos himself: the only other 4 Phase Man in the world....From the Paperback edition.
From the #1 New York Times– bestselling author comes another remarkable novel of espionage today— and right around the corner.Alex Berenson's The Faithful Spy was declared "one of the best spy stories ever told" (The Wall Street Journal), and The Ghost War "mesmerizing . . . an extraordinary achievement. Wells is a complex blend of smarts, scars, cynicism and wile. And the book's imaginings seem not so much ‘ripped from the headlines' as eerily destined to be set in type for tomorrow's" (The News & Observer). Berenson's third novel, however, is his most masterful yet.It isn't easy to steal warheads from the heart of Russia's nuclear complex in Mayak. It requires a great deal of money, coordination, ingenuity, and sleight-of-hand, and just a touch of luck. But if you're determined enough, anything is possible.It's been a rough few years for CIA agent John Wells. The undercover work in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the attack on the United States, the Chinese plot that could have led to war. Wells is exhausted, and his nights filled with disturbing dreams. But he knows he has no time for that. He has made many enemies, and the world won't stay quiet for long.Nevertheless, Wells is not prepared for what is about to happen. He and his colleague—and fiancee—Jennifer Exley are driving into work when traffic comes to a standstill, due to accidents on both bridges into Washington. A pretty big coincidence, he thinks, beginning to get a bad feeling—a feeling that only gets worse when he spots the red motorcycle zooming up between cars toward him. Before the day is over, several people will be dead or severely injured, Exley among them, and Wells will be a man possessed.The attackers are Russian, and it is to Russia that Wells must follow the trail. He finds what he's looking for—but also a great deal more. A plan of almost unimaginable consequences is in motion, and Wells has no idea if he has discovered it in time. The last few years have been rough indeed, but the next few weeks will be much, much worse.Real-world threats, authentic details, a scenario as dramatic as it is chillingly plausible, Alex Berenson's new novel is another "timely reminder of the extremely precarious way we live now" (The Washington Post).
My life in CIA by Harry Mathews | Literally Just Books
