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Charlie Heller is an ace cryptographer for the Company. He's a quiet man with a quiet job in a back office. But when terrorists shoot his fiancee in cold blood and Heller learns that the Agency has decided not to pursue those responsible, his life takes an abrupt turn. He was not a blackmailer but he will force the CIA's hand. He was not an assassin but he will penetrate the Iron Curtain with the intent to kill. Heller is an amateur with a one-in-a-million chance of success.
It's a deadly dilemma for Martin Odum: both remembering and forgetting his past are dangerous options. A discharged CIA agent turned private detective, Odum is struggling through a labyrinth of memories from past identities, "legends", in CIA parlance. Is he really Martin Odum? Or is he Dante Pippen, IRA explosives specialist? Or Lincoln Dittmann, Civil War expert? Or another, hidden legend?
Something very strange -- and sinister -- is going on in the Russian woods at Borodino. In a place called Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School, young KGB agents are being taught by American POW's how to be model citizens of the USA. The Soviet goal -- to infiltrate the United States undetected. When an unsuspecting American tourist stumbles upon this secret, he sets in motion a CIA investigation that will reveal horrifying police state savagery and superpower treachery.
Court Gentry is known as The Gray Man - a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible, and then fading away. And he always hits his target. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Now, he is going to prove that for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living-and killing to stay alive.
Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide cop John Corey is convalescing in rural eastern Long Island when an attractive young couple he knows is found shot to death on the family patio. The victims were biologists at Plum Island, a research site rumored to be an incubator for germ warfare. Suddenly, a local double murder takes on shattering global implications - and thrusts Corey and two extraordinary women into a dangerous search for the secret of Plum Island....
This classic of spycraft is based on Allen Dulles's incomparable experience as a diplomat, international lawyer, and America's premier intelligence officer. Dulles was a high-ranking officer of the CIA's predecessor - the Office of Strategic Services - and was present at the inception of the CIA, where he served eight of his 10 years there as director. Here he sums up what he learned about intelligence from nearly a half-century of experience in foreign affairs.
Charlie Heller is an ace cryptographer for the Company. He's a quiet man with a quiet job in a back office. But when terrorists shoot his fiancee in cold blood and Heller learns that the Agency has decided not to pursue those responsible, his life takes an abrupt turn. He was not a blackmailer but he will force the CIA's hand. He was not an assassin but he will penetrate the Iron Curtain with the intent to kill. Heller is an amateur with a one-in-a-million chance of success.
It's a deadly dilemma for Martin Odum: both remembering and forgetting his past are dangerous options. A discharged CIA agent turned private detective, Odum is struggling through a labyrinth of memories from past identities, "legends", in CIA parlance. Is he really Martin Odum? Or is he Dante Pippen, IRA explosives specialist? Or Lincoln Dittmann, Civil War expert? Or another, hidden legend?
Something very strange -- and sinister -- is going on in the Russian woods at Borodino. In a place called Mrs. Ivanova's Charm School, young KGB agents are being taught by American POW's how to be model citizens of the USA. The Soviet goal -- to infiltrate the United States undetected. When an unsuspecting American tourist stumbles upon this secret, he sets in motion a CIA investigation that will reveal horrifying police state savagery and superpower treachery.
Court Gentry is known as The Gray Man - a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible, and then fading away. And he always hits his target. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Now, he is going to prove that for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living-and killing to stay alive.
Wounded in the line of duty, NYPD homicide cop John Corey is convalescing in rural eastern Long Island when an attractive young couple he knows is found shot to death on the family patio. The victims were biologists at Plum Island, a research site rumored to be an incubator for germ warfare. Suddenly, a local double murder takes on shattering global implications - and thrusts Corey and two extraordinary women into a dangerous search for the secret of Plum Island....
This classic of spycraft is based on Allen Dulles's incomparable experience as a diplomat, international lawyer, and America's premier intelligence officer. Dulles was a high-ranking officer of the CIA's predecessor - the Office of Strategic Services - and was present at the inception of the CIA, where he served eight of his 10 years there as director. Here he sums up what he learned about intelligence from nearly a half-century of experience in foreign affairs.
He is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam.There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity -- and together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson.
Robert Littell has created the CIA "legends" Francis and Carroll - dubbed "The Sisters Death and Night" by their cohorts. But few know what these enigmatic and extremely dangerous operatives do. They plot - and they're plotting the perfect crime. They've located the perfect pawn, the Potter, the exiled ex-head of the KGB sleeper school - and, with artful deception, the Sisters coerce him into betraying his last and best sleeper, the man he considers his son. Once awakened, this sleeper, an assassin living secretly in the US, will launch a mission of death.
The news-breaking inside account of Israel's state-sponsored assassination programs, from the man hailed by David Remnick as "arguably [Israel's] best investigative reporter."
Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets - i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.
Lord Alexander Hawke is a direct descendant of the legendary English pirate Blackhawke and highly skilled in the cutthroat's deadly ways himself. While still a boy, on a voyage to the Caribbean, Alex Hawke witnesses an act of unspeakable horror. Hidden in a secret compartment on his father's yacht, Alex sees his parents brutally murdered by three modern-day pirates. It is an event that will haunt him for the remainder of his life. Now, fully grown and one of England's most decorated naval heroes, Hawke is back in the same Caribbean waters on a secret mission for the American government.
Captain Ann Campbell is a West Point graduate, the daughter of legendary General "Fighting Joe" Campbell. She is the pride of Fort Hadley until, one morning, her body is found, naked and bound, on the firing range.
All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop. He is the "King of Manhattan North", a highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of "Da Force". Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest, and the baddest - an elite special unit given carte blanche to fight gangs, drugs, and guns. Every day and every night for the 18 years he's spent on the job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps.
Everything he learned to protect the president, he must use to take out theirs. With an American president distracted by growing tensions in North Korea and Iran, an ominous new threat is emerging in Moscow. A czar is rising in the Kremlin, a Russian president feverishly consolidating power, silencing his opposition, and plotting a brazen and lightning-fast military strike that could rupture the NATO alliance and bring Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war. But in his blind spot is the former U.S. Secret Service agent, Marcus Ryker.
Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief and draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world.
Now, in the first book ever written about this ultrasecretive department, the former director of OTS teams up with an internationally renowned intelligence historian to give listeners an unprecedented look at the devices and operations deemed "inappropriate for public disclosure" by the CIA just two years ago.
On his last combat deployment, Lt. Cmdr. James Reece's entire team was killed in an ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government. Now, with no family and free from the military's command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he's learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward revenge.
This book reveals the most complete picture ever of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe. It is based on an extremely top secret archive which details the full extent of its worldwide network. Christopher Andrew is professor of modern and contemporary history and chair of the history department at Cambridge University, a former visiting professor of national security at Harvard, a frequent guest lecturer at other United States universities, and a regular host of BBC radio and TV programs.
Crisis constantly lurks around the corner, monitored by spies who are always with us. In his career-capping thirteenth novel, master of the espionage thriller Robert Littell has crafted a breathtaking story of the legendary CIA - "The Company" to insiders.
At its heart lies a spectacular mole hunt involving the CIA, MI6, KGB and Mossad - a stunningly conceived trip down the rabbit hole to the labyrinthine Alice-in-Wonderland world of espionage, "a wood where things have no names."
Racing across a landscape spanning the legendary Berlin Base of the 1950s - the front line of the simmering Cold War - the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Bay of Pigs, Afghanistan, and the Gorbachev putsch, The Company tells the thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an enemy that is amoral, elusive, and formidable. It also lays bare the internecine warfare within the company itself, adding another dimension to the spy vs. spy game.
"If Robert Littell didn't invent the American spy novel, he should have." (Tom Clancy, author of Patriot Games) "If le Carre is the Joyce of spy novelists, Littell is the Dickens." (Booklist, starred review). "An epic tale...peopled by heroes and villains who seem almost mythological in retrospect...Keeps you riveted." (Nelson DeMille, author of Up Country)
"Destined to become the definitive novel about the CIA." (Amazon.com)
Littel has spun a tale so true-to-life that I found myself thinking it might be thinly veiled non-fiction. More than once I found myself sitting in my car, listening until the very last moment I could walk in to work. The characters are fully three dimensional, the plot develops naturally, and the history lessons contained within the story are so well woven I couldn't tell where the fiction ended and the history began.
Don't miss this revealing look at the rise and near-fall of one of this country's governmental institutions.
162 of 162 people found this review helpful
This is one of the most complicated and deeply written plot, based on real people and historical events. While a novel, you soon forget that fact as the characters develop and the story unfolds. You have to pay attention, because the plot turns on itself, and you can loose the storyline. I don't know how many times I had to replay a section, because I missed a switch in the plot.
Character development is great and you soon know and care about the characters. It is sometimes hard to tell who the good guys are and who are the evil ones. No matter, you will find yourself engrossed by the story. If you lived through some of these actual events, the book makes you wonder if it has let you in on what really happened and why things happened the way they did.
I will definitely be reading more of Mr Litell's books.
57 of 57 people found this review helpful
I don't really like spy novels, but I love long books. So I read most of the reviews and decided to give the book a try. So here are my responses to the reviews:
1 Some said it had too much cursing. I don't get easily offended by too much cursing. I kept an ear out for it, but felt there was very little cursing. Unless you are overly sensitive to cursing, don't worry about this one. And now, I'm going to find another book by this author...
2 Some said too long. I do like long books and felt that every hour was great. There was 1 slight lull in the 80's after a major plot climax, but overall, it was captivating.
3 Some got mixed up with names because of it being a spy novel. This was my biggest concern. I have the same problem. But I was able to be reasonably sure of what was going on at all times.
4 ...It was a condemnation against democracy. This is the most ridiculous claim. I didn't see any "preaching" for or against. It is a spy novel. The author showed that the Russian actually believe in their cause. Characters on both sides of the "game" were well developed and real.
Spy novels aren't my genre, but I would recommend this book highly.
217 of 220 people found this review helpful
I've never written a book review before because I would hate someone to buy something on my account and then not enjoy it. However, I can confidently state that "The Company" is a top notch listen in every respect. History has never been so entertaining or personal. I hesitate to imagine the hours of research that went into its writing, for, although it is a work of fiction, the factual events are covered in amazing detail that shows uncanny clarity and insight on behalf of the author. It is easy to get lost in the names, places, titles and relationships, but it is worth the effort. The narrator was perfect. His readings were well prepared (it is probably difficult to switch from German to Russian accents back to English), and he put real emotion in the reading when required (without overdoing it). I can't really overstate how much I enjoyed this audiobook, and I am sure that you well also.
45 of 45 people found this review helpful
The Company will become a part of your life. Over the course of a month I came to know the men and women depicted in The Company, and to care about them. This book is about more than just the cold war, it is about the shaping of modern America and the people who (could have?) made it happen. I didn't want it to end.
39 of 39 people found this review helpful
This is the first review I have written and I just had to do it. I am about half way through the book and it's great! I really believe it is more true that fiction! I had reservations about downloading such a huge book, but I am enthralled. I was afraid that it would be too confusing listening to this type of book, due to both the subject and the length, but it is so interesting I can't wait to get time to listen to it. It is written in such a way that it is easy to follow and the narration is exceptional. What a great book!
32 of 32 people found this review helpful
At 40 hours, this juggernaut of an epic pulls you deep into the story of the second half of the twentieth century from the perspective of the true soldiers of the Cold War. At 23, even relatively recent events like the fall of the Berlin Wall are shadowy memories at best for me. Littel brought the meaning and feelings of over forty years of tension straight to the surface with action, secret agents, double agents, love affairs, suspense, history, spectacular characters, and humor to slide you through smoothly. This audio book is a rite of passage to being a true Audible listener.
52 of 54 people found this review helpful
Littell strikes a great balance between detail and drama. The story sweeps over decades and continents, but still keeps you connected to the three men whose lives are traced the most closely. When a major plot twist involved one of them, my heart actually started pounding and I became concerned for him.
I highly recommend this entertaining book, especially if you take advantage of a subscription to pick it up for a song!
16 of 16 people found this review helpful
What a fantastic listen, at no time did I think that 40 hours was too long: I found this novel interesting from start to finish and a great way to get a birds eye view of modern history. Littell's style has enough detail and originality of expression to engage the 'reader' without slowing it down too much for the listener who likes action. Definitely qualifies for a repeat listen before too long. The narrator was easy to listen to and characterised the voices very well without causing one to cringe.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful
When I bought this book, I shelved it for a while because I couldn't commit myself to the sheer length of it. Everyday I didn't start listening to <U>The Company</U>, I was robbing myself of one of the greatest audio book experiences I will probably ever have. The depth of character development and the complexity of the interweaveing stories is handled masterfully by Littell. Scott Brick's narration is fantastic.
Do not be intimidated by the length of this book! Once you get in, it will stay with you during your days and nights when not listening to it.
58 of 63 people found this review helpful
Don't be daunted by the length of this book as it breaks nicely into sections/time capsules. I'm usually a fan of crime thrillers but I'll try anything that grabs my attention and then manages to hold it. Littell's style and Scott Brick's performance proved to be a perfect match.
I was first attracted to Robert Littell after watching the TV series Legends on Netflix. My husband and I gulped it down in three evenings. I decided to see what was available by this author on Audible. Seeing the length of the book I was put off but thought what the heck if it doesn't measure up I can return it. I found myself riveted. At several points I went online to see how close the book followed recorded history, especially the Bay of Pigs and the Gorbachev/Yeltsin era. Except for the names of the fictional characters, the book closely followed actual events.
Give this book a try even if it's not you're usual genre. The Company has taken me off into a whole new genre. Can't wait to read more from this author!
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up The Company in three words, what would they be?
Engaging
entertaining
enthralling
What did you like best about this story?
The 'Sasha' thread throughout the book
Which scene did you most enjoy?
The bay of pigs schene
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
The 'girlies' scenes throughout the book made me cry.
Any additional comments?
The Company is nothing less than an epic history of the Cold War, the period in which the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics tried to undermine each other without resorting to nuclear weapons.
One reason why Littell’s novel is so effective is the skill with which he blends such historical events as the Cuban Missile Crisis with the lives of his fictional characters. Those invented personalities range from the alcoholic head of America’s Berlin Base, Harvey Torriti, to the pedophile who runs Soviet counterintelligence, the man known only as “Starick.”
What ultimately makes this massive work so enjoyable is the decades-long search by the CIA for the Soviet mole, Sasha
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
Had me hooked straight away. An often uncomfortable journey through generations, reflecting true friendship, loyalty, paranoia and ultimately betrayal. One of my favourite books of all time. That's not an easy list to get on! Very well narrated.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
In this genre no other book compares to it, for its audacity and Complexity and sheer scope. Espionage at its best.. Scott Brick has given a performance nearly equal to the author himself
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Fantastic book and fantastic delivery from SB. 40 hours was not enough. I still wanted more when it was done.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
What made the experience of listening to The Company the most enjoyable?
Very good story, far better than our own Le Carre
What other book might you compare The Company to, and why?
Any Le Carre or similar
What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
Great consistency over such a long narration
Any additional comments?
Good book, well worth the time to listen
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
What would have made The Company better?
A little bit more action , Linking a few more stores together, considering it was 40 hours the ending was fairly quick,
But still doesn't change my opinion of it be an amazing book enjoyed
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Company?
More than one all the twists and turns In every little story in a story On the attention to detail
What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?
The amazing way he Gave the characters their own accents throughout, And made all the people actually sound different ,
Any additional comments?
A very interesting book at the same time in history lesson
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I don't think I've ever listened to such a long story but I didn't want it to end. It's a tour de force tale of the CIA and the Cold War from 1946 to 1995, with fascinating characters and convincing plot lines.
The narrator, Scott Brick, is in a class of his own - simply amazing. He tackles various languages, accents, male/female voices, with astonishing fluency. Truly the best narrator I've ever heard on Audible books . I'm very picky about narrators and have returned several books for refunds because of poor performances. Why do they happen - isn't there an editorial panel to weed out the hopeless voice actors?
Definitely my top pick of 2017. You won't regret buying this gem.
Any additional comments?
As a child of the cold war, a great fan of John Le Carre and a voyager around Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall, this was a great discovery. The author knew Robert Kennedy well and I guess has a lot of insight into the psyche of US thinking on foreign affairs. I certainly learnt some things I was not aware of, such as Andropov's connection with the 1956 Hungarian uprising, the change of location of the 1961 Cuban invasion and the rumours around how Putin got his feet on the first rungs of power.
With the technological changes to counter intelligence, this is almost an historical novel. It is going to take an exceptional writer to create a gripping spy story involving people sitting in front of computer screens bombarding each other with viruses. Highly recommended.
If you could sum up The Company in three words, what would they be?
Fascinating, authentic, above all Epic
What did you like best about this story?
A kind of "War and Peace" for Cold War spying
What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?
40 plus hours with no irritating tics. Genius!
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Gripping
Any additional comments?
Amazing value!
Detailed and at times intense ( and not too sentimental) description of US involvement in recent world events as seen through the eyes of a group of friends employed by the CIA . Given it is 42 hours plus and there a few characters and plot lines, I recommend it as a great holiday read . Good for modern history buffs who like a blend of non-fiction and fiction .