Cynthia M. Simmons

I'm fairly new to audiobooks, having listened to 8 or so. I've generally relied on reviews for the selection process and have not been disappointed until this selection. I don't usually participate in the review process that is so prevalent in the connected world but I felt strongly enough about my disappointment with this book to say something.

I have to assume the facts and details covered in the book are true. I'd like to assume that the facts and details were fairly presented but the fact that I say this is a clue to the one suspicion that I have.

The book is amazingly well researched. The detail is overwhelming. The research had to have been exhausting. But the basic issue I have is can it be true that the CIA has been as consistently screwed up as depicted?..that the author couldn't come up with one or two situations where the CIA had a successful outcome? Life tells you that just by chance you succeed at something just because things go your way and you fall into a bed of roses. It's the antithesis to the overachiever that stumbles once in awhile. To hear one shortcoming after another for an agency of the government that has generally been viewed as the leader of the free world over the past 80 years starts to sound a little unbelievable. In my opinion the balance just wasn't there. If no balance, or attempt at balance, it doesn't ring true.

When you drive along listening to an audiobook and you realize that you were daydreaming the last 5 minutes and not listening to the book...

I've read a number of WWII accounts, many focusing on the plight of the Jewish folks. The Nazi Officer's Wife is right up there in terms of story line, detail, and shock and awe. While one knows going in that the subject survived, the story still captures one's attention. Very entertaining.