Deep cover CIA operative John Wells barely survived his homecoming when it was thought he'd become too close to the terrorists. Though his wounds have healed, his mind is far from clear. He needs to get back in the fight. And there is a fight waiting for him.
A power play in China is causing chaos around the globe. And even as Wells does what he does best, a mole within the CIA is preparing to light the final fuse that will propel an unsuspecting world toward open war and annihilation. And this time, there may be nothing John Wells can do to stop it...
Seasoned narrator Guidall takes listeners on a global journey of espionage and intrigue, breathing life into CIA agent John Wells, whose voice teems with emotion. Wells’ assignment involves ferreting out a CIA mole, and the tenseness of the task is evident in Guidall’s terse tones. When it becomes clear that the mole is selling secrets to the Chinese, and Wells tries to recover a CIA undercover agent in North Korea, Guidall instills Wells’ voice with carefully placed pauses. These pauses highlight Wells’ confusion and despair at the realization that a conflict between world powers may be imminent, and there seems to be nothing he can do to stop it. Berenson’s follow-up to The Faithful Spy (2007) is a winner. --Sheri Melnick
Deep cover CIA operative John Wells barely survived his homecoming when it was thought he'd become too close to the terrorists. Though his wounds have healed, his mind is far from clear. He needs to get back in the fight. And there is a fight waiting for him.
A power play in China is causing chaos around the globe. And even as Wells does what he does best, a mole within the CIA is preparing to light the final fuse that will propel an unsuspecting world toward open war and annihilation. And this time, there may be nothing John Wells can do to stop it...
From Publishers Weekly
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. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
Seasoned narrator Guidall takes listeners on a global journey of espionage and intrigue, breathing life into CIA agent John Wells, whose voice teems with emotion. Wells’ assignment involves ferreting out a CIA mole, and the tenseness of the task is evident in Guidall’s terse tones. When it becomes clear that the mole is selling secrets to the Chinese, and Wells tries to recover a CIA undercover agent in North Korea, Guidall instills Wells’ voice with carefully placed pauses. These pauses highlight Wells’ confusion and despair at the realization that a conflict between world powers may be imminent, and there seems to be nothing he can do to stop it. Berenson’s follow-up to The Faithful Spy (2007) is a winner. --Sheri Melnick