The Reluctant Spy

Surely we've all wondered at one time or another what it would be like to be a spy--to be in the field with a CIA cover and to meet up with a contact who will pass us a top-secret dossier. In this book, John Kiriakou, ex-CIA spy, assisted by narrator Arthur Morey, tells us all about it. The listener is guided through Kiriakou's background before hearing the nitty-gritty of his actual spying. Morey delivers the goods in an arbitrary fashion, sometimes without any emotion whatsoever but never driving the listener away. Some spy work is mundane; some is exciting. Those who want to know what the CIA is like on the inside will learn a lot from this audiobook. B.D.J. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

December 14, 2009
Retired CIA agent Kiriakou tells an engrossing story and delivers some strong opinions. Kiriakou earned a degree in Middle Eastern studies, but jobs in this field were scarce in 1988, so he listened when a favorite professor suggested applying to the CIA. As an analyst at the Iraqi-Kuwaiti desk, he oversaw intelligence during Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. By the late ’90s, yearning for action, Kiriakou transferred from analysis to operations. There followed a stormy tour in terrorist-ridden Greece and the peak of his career after 9/11 as chief of counterterrorism in Pakistan, where he led a raid that captured an al-Qaeda chief. Except for a hair-raising account of the Bush administration’s enthusiasm for torture, the account winds down in its final third when the author returns to the U.S., resigning in 2004. While readers may skim details of his unhappy first marriage, they will enjoy a mostly admiring portrait of the CIA but with telling critiques of its bureaucracy and of Congress’s meddling in CIA affairs. 8 pages of b&w photos.