A Very Private Plot

By: William F. Buckley Jr.

Narrated by: Brian Emerson

The year is 1995, and an energetic senator wants to disarm, perhaps even eliminate, the CIA. To accumulate the evidence necessary to persuade the Senate, he needs the cooperation of Blackford Oakes, now retired. He wants from Oakes an account of his covert activity 10 years earlier, when Oakes served as chief of covert activities for the CIA. But, what will the frustrated senator do to compel cooperation from Blackford Oakes?

A Very Private Plot takes the listener inside the Kremlin and the Reagan White House, exhibiting a detailed knowledge and savoir-faire characteristic of the author. The forces unleashed in 1985 threaten any resolution between the United States and the Soviet Union and threaten the lives of a very small unit of young Russians who remain in the memory as the tale reaches a climax.

©1994 William F. Buckley, Jr. (P)1995 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"The best Blackford Oakes novel yet." (Kirkus Reviews)

A bit too cold

First fiction I've read of Buckley. It's well written, intelligent and clever, but it lacks a pathos which ties you to the story. So, it's interesting more than engaging.

Political Suspense

When suspense and politics are rolled into one then it's Buckley, Jr. Good stuff.

The Words

These are the words of an educated author and as such are
a pleasure to read!

Bad Reading Voice

The book , story was good like the rest of the series with the exception of the reader. It was as if he was a high school sports announce,
Very harsh voice.

Slow start, boring, hard to follow

weak initial story... doesn't engage the reader. weak character development. just BORING so i. not gonna try to pauh through. Story tries to sell you on powerful men but it comes off as boastful egotistical blowhards sitting around talking about a clandestine vs transparency in secret missions.

honestly, I don't care for the narrator either, everybody started to sound alike.

Soap Opera Resurrection Syndrome

People who sometimes enjoyed daytime dramas, or soap operas, used the term SORS or Soap Opera Resurection Syndrome, for characters who died but somehow reappeared healthy and hardy years later. Suspending all sense of reality and logic was part of the soap opera mystic. Favorite actors came back. Favorite couples were reunited. But who would have thought William Buckley was such a soap opera fan that he would use SORS to get one more turn from his master spy? I have enjoyed the Blackford Oakes series clear up to books 10 and 11. Buckley should have quit while he was ahead.