Helpful Score: 3
The second in the John Wells series and it was excellent. I couldn't put it down and basically wasted two days reading (well, I didn't think it was wasted). John gets a new assignment finally and his girlfriend, Jennifer Exley, is thrilled. John has been restless and a bit depressed. He needs excitement. A random confession in Afghanistan by a Russian leads John around the world. Exley and her bosses are trying to find a mole in the CIA who has sold the names of every agent in the Far East, most notably China. China is making war noises and the U.S. simply can't figure out what is going on. Via the embassy there, the CIA gets a coded message from a very old mole whom they thought was dead or out of the business since no contact had been had for 10 years. They send John to find out. This book was very much like a Tom Clancy book with lots of interesting characters. Berenson does a great job of giving the reader a good sense of the players and I look forward to more books about John Wells.
Helpful Score: 2
As a fan of Daniel Silva's books and hero Gabriel Allon, I was thrilled to find Alex Berenson's books featuring CIA operative John Wells.
I liked the first book, The Faithful Spy, a bit better but The Ghost War is also a page-turner. I think these books are a fun way - if that is politically correct considering such serious subjects - to find out what is going on behind the scenes in the spy worlds of the major powers today.
Currently, I am reading the Silent Man and enjoying it also.
I liked the first book, The Faithful Spy, a bit better but The Ghost War is also a page-turner. I think these books are a fun way - if that is politically correct considering such serious subjects - to find out what is going on behind the scenes in the spy worlds of the major powers today.
Currently, I am reading the Silent Man and enjoying it also.
Helpful Score: 1
The best spy thriller I have read since the heyday of Robert Ludlum. Today's thriller writers all have developed the same plot since 2001 - super hero saves American from nuclear terrorist attack. In fact, that is exactly what The Faithful Spy, Alex Berenson's debut novel, was about. Thankfully Berenson breaks the mold and creates a spy story about, gasp, espionage! As good a Clancy, the book is riveting. Berenson, A NY Times liberal, tosses in the obligatory Bush bashing and moral relativism of the GWOT but does so in small doses. A 5-star spy novel.
