The Ghost War

December 10, 2007
Having foiled an al-Qaeda plot targeting Times Square in 2006’s The Faithful Spy
(which won an Edgar Award for best first novel), maverick CIA agent John Wells confronts a very different threat in this pulse-pounding sequel from New York Times
reporter Berenson. When the CIA’s efforts to extract Dr. Sung Kwan, a North Korean scientist and an invaluable source on Kim Jong Il’s nuclear ambitions, result in the deaths of Kwan and the rescue team, Wells’s significant other, Jennifer Exley, searches to identify the person in U.S. intelligence who compromised Kwan’s security. Meanwhile, Wells returns to Afghanistan, the scene of much of the action in The Faithful Spy
, to find out what outside country has been helping the Taliban reassert itself. While the mole hunt will be familiar to genre buffs and the characters and the perils they face aren’t as nuanced as those in John le Carré or even David Ignatius, the author’s plausible scenario distinguishes this from most spy thrillers. Author tour.

AUDIOFILE Golden Voice George Guidall turns in another masterful performance in Edgar Award winner Alex Berenson's second novel focusing on CIA agent John Wells. Guidall strikes not a false note as Wells sets out to defuse a potentially explosive situation. After a CIA extraction goes bad in North Korean waters, the powers that be realize there's a mole in the intelligence network. Wells, who recently foiled an Islamic terrorist plot in Times Square (THE FAITHFUL SPY) and who is at the top of Bin Laden's hit list, must return to Afghanistan to ferret out the mole. Guidall's facility with international accents and his ability to ramp up the action while creating three-dimensional characters with the slightest nuance make Berenson's taut, smart writing frighteningly plausible. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine