The Shadow Patrol

December 12, 2011
Edgar-winner Berenson’s compelling sixth spy thriller starring ex-CIA operative John Wells (after 2011’s The Secret Soldier) highlights an unsavory aspect of the Afghanistan war: U.S. soldiers who engage in drug smuggling while fighting the Taliban. The chief bad guy, Delta sniper Daniel Francesca, kills Taliban fighters and does away with any Americans who may be onto his drug-smuggling activities. The sniper, who’s on his third tour in Afghanistan, has clearly gone over the line when it comes to morality or sanity. Francesca not only knows that Wells, who’s come to Kabul to ferret out a mole in the capital’s CIA station, is on his trail but relishes the battle. It’s this riveting duel between good and evil that will keep readers blazing through the pages, while several other more mundane plot lines get lost in the background. This consistently interesting series shows no signs of running out of steam. Agent: Heather Schroder, ICM.

December 15, 2011
Former CIA tough guy John Wells is back, and this time he's busting a heroin-smuggling ring operating out of an isolated Army base in Afghanistan. After a disastrous meeting with his estranged son, Wells accepts a freelance mission offered by his old agency boss Ellis Shafer. In the aftermath of a suicide bombing that killed the station chief and several of the best agents in the CIA's Kabul station, Wells is supposed to go to Afghanistan, see how things are going, then report back to CIA chief Vince Duto. More importantly, there have been reports that a mole in the Kabul station is working with a local Taliban leader, possibly to smuggle heroin. An analyst in the Kabul station thinks a group called the Thuwanis may be the source of the heroin, and that soldiers in the U.S. Army may be involved. Posing as a wealthy Saudi anxious to help fund jihad, Wells visits the Thuwani compound and uncovers some key information. But as he and Shafer unravel the threads of the conspiracy, they just can't seem to figure out a motive, which may have more to do with revenge than money. Fans of Berenson's previous Wells novels (The Faithful Spy, 2006, etc.) will find more to like here, including plenty of superbly paced action sequences, and the kind of background that suggests a better-than-average understanding of what soldiers on the ground actually see in Afghanistan. Skeptics will continue to roll their eyes at Wells' superhuman ability to, almost at the drop of a hat, pass for a national from whichever Middle Eastern country best suits his needs. There are also a few too-convenient plot twists, including a head-scratching scene wherein a conspirator in the smuggling ring is discovered thanks to the fact that he has "friended" a co-conspirator on Facebook. However, the prose is airtight, the pacing is excellent and the phenomenal action sequences more than make up for minor weaknesses in the plot. Berenson's highly enjoyable series continues with more of the rock-solid same.

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September 1, 2011

Not so long ago, a source that had promised to deliver Osama bin Laden to agents at the CIA's Kabul station instead blew up the place. With the station still in disarray and agents still dying, high-ups suspect Taliban infiltration and send John Wells to investigate. It's not a pretty sight--Wells gets wind of a drug-trafficking operation that could involve agents, the military, and the Taliban working together--but Edgar Award winner Berenson should deliver a good read.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
The real-world 2009 suicide bombing that killed most of the senior staff of the CIA's Kabul, Afghanistan, station shattered that operation's effectiveness. It's now 2011, and Director of Central Intelligence Vinnie Duto calls on John Wells to investigate the possibilities of a leak and of drug trafficking at the still-reeling station. Wells, who left the agency because of Duto, accepts and returns to the war-torn country. He's soon menaced by Afghans involved in the drug trade, a CIA survivor of the suicide bombing, and an unhinged Special Forces sniper, whose three tours of duty have been too much. Berenson paints a vivid, verisimilar portrait of Afghanistan, the enormous U.S. military installations there, and the country outside the wire. He adroitly sketches characters with a single pithy sentence, such as, about the manipulative Duto, His smile was all lips and no eyes. He also communicates a searing and all-too-plausible pessimism about U.S. prospects there. Although The Shadow Patrol lacks some of the emotional force of Berenson's previous novels (e.g., The Secret Soldier, 2011), it's still a fine thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)