The Prisoner

November 28, 2016
Edgar-winner Berenson’s 11th John Wells novel (after 2016’s The Wolves) reinforces his status as one of today’s steadiest practitioners of quality spy fiction. The aging but always-ready Wells comes out of a short-lived retirement in North Conway, N.H., where he lives with his two-year-old daughter, to root out the identity of a top CIA official suspected of handing U.S. secrets to ISIS and other terror networks. On orders from U.S. president Vinny Duto (a former CIA colleague) and his longtime handler of sorts, Ellis Shafer, Wells devises a plan to place himself in a Bulgarian prison that’s largely populated by terrorists. There, Wells begins his undercover campaign to extract information from top jihadists about who the CIA mole may be, as well as any terrorist plots currently in the works. The action culminates smartly with Wells frantically trying to stop a sarin attack in Paris. Wells is an appealing combination of brains and brawn, and Shafer remains an active behind-the-scenes player who knows how to keep an operation on course. Agent: Bob Barnett, Williams & Connolly.

Starred review from November 15, 2016
Another "blood-spatter messy" mission by Muslim CIA freelance operator John Wells (The Wolves, 2016, etc.).Wells' ex-girlfriend Anne pegs him perfectly when she says she's "amazed the sun rises every day without you to cart it around." Certainly the CIA wouldn't be the same without his heroics. He converted to Islam during a mission in Afghanistan years earlier, and the CIA doubted his loyalty, which he's since proven repeatedly. His religion isn't political and relates more to his view of Creation than to the Middle East. Now his old boss Ellis Shafer correctly suspects the CIA has a mole feeding information to the Islamic State group, which could be planning a major attack on the West. Wells' mission, approved by President Vinny Duto, is to go undercover to learn the jihadi plot from an IS terrorist in a Bulgarian prison. He becomes Samir Khalili, a man who "quoted the Quran and hated heroin." The CIA cooks up a back story that he's an al-Qaida fighter who has been captured in Afghanistan and is now being dumped in the same Bulgarian hellhole. Once he's there, the guards don't know his real identity, so they treat him like any other "jihadi scum." It's a good thing he's tough, because the guards dish out serious abuse. But danger is his comfort zone, and he's never better than when he's in trouble. Meanwhile, the mole the CIA is looking for, a man who calls himself Wayne (after John Wayne), tries to get info on Wells' mission to betray him. Wayne thinks the U.S. simply spreads pain around the world and expects "love in return." The jihadis want weapons of mass destruction and consider weaponizing anthrax, but they decide instead on sarin gas, conducting grisly but successful tests on prisoners. Eventually they obtain enough sarin to kill hundreds of people, and they know just how they'll do it--by creating "a house of the dead." As always, Wells proves himself to be tough and smart--he still needs both qualities once he's sprung from prison. Deeply researched, fast-paced, and believable. Peace be upon John Wells, but only after he's helped defeat jihad once and for all. That's sure to extend this fine series.

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January 1, 2017
John Wells, former CIA assassin, has discovered he likes being a father to infant Emmie. Does he have a chance for a new life, even a reconciliation with Anne, Emmie's mother? Not quite yet. First there's the matter of a mole high up in the agency who is feeding ISIS information and endangering lives across the globe. The only option, says Wells' longtime running buddy, CIA analyst Ellis Shafer, is for Wells to reclaim his undercover identity as an al-Qaeda soldier, get himself jailed in a U.S.-run prison in Bulgaria, and extract the mole's identity from an ISIS honcho also behind bars there. No easy task, but Wells is a hard man, capable of enduring and dispensing pain in equally prodigious measures. That sets the table for another head-crunching Wells adventure, but Berenson delivers some surprises along the way, focusing in large part on two shockingly complex charactersthe mole and an ISIS scientist creating a stash of sarin gas to be deployed in an attack designed to wipe out the CIA's brain trust. Another strong mix of finely tuned suspense and subtle character development.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

Bad news: a CIA high-up appears to be passing crucial information to ISIS. To dig out the mole, series protagonist John Wells must again go undercover as an al Qaeda jihadi, which he last did in the No. 1 New York Times best seller The Faithful Spy ten years ago.

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