The Faithful Spy

By: Alex Berenson

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

“A well-crafted page-turner that addresses the most important issue of our time. It will keep you reading well into the night.” (Vince Flynn)

A New York Times reporter has drawn upon his experience covering the occupation in Iraq to write the most gripping and chillingly plausible thriller of the post-9/11 era. Alex Berenson’s debut novel of suspense, The Faithful Spy, is a sharp, explosive story that takes listeners inside the war on terror as fiction has never done before.

John Wells is the only American CIA agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda. Since before the attacks in 2001, Wells has been hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, biding his time, building his cover. Now, on the orders of Omar Khadri - the malicious mastermind plotting more al Qaeda strikes on America - Wells is coming home. Neither Khadri nor Jennifer Exley, Wells’s superior at Langley, knows quite what to expect. For Wells has changed during his years in the mountains. He has become a Muslim. He finds the United States decadent and shallow.

Yet he hates al Qaeda and the way it uses Islam to justify its murderous assaults on innocents. He is a man alone, and the CIA - still reeling from its failure to predict 9/11 or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - does not know whether to trust him. Among his handlers at Langley, only Exley believes in him, and even she sometimes wonders. And so the agency freezes Wells out, preferring to rely on high-tech means for gathering intelligence. But as that strategy fails and Khadri moves closer to unleashing the most devastating terrorist attack in history, Wells and Exley must somehow find a way to stop him, with or without the government’s consent.

From secret American military bases where suspects are held and “interrogated” to basement laboratories where al Qaeda’s scientists grow the deadliest of biological weapons, The Faithful Spy is a riveting and cautionary tale, as affecting in its personal stories as it is sophisticated in its political details. The first spy thriller to grapple squarely with the complexities and terrors of today’s world, this is a uniquely exciting and unnerving novel by an author who truly knows his territory.

©2006 Alex Berenson (P)2006 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

“A well-crafted page-turner that addresses the most important issue of our time. It will keep you reading well into the night.” (Vince Flynn)

“Berenson offers a very American story - a sort of terrorist High Noon...exciting.” (The New York Times)

“A hold-your-breath thriller...a grabber.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Not bad, not bad at all

This is my first Alex Berenson book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Have to get into the following John Wells stories to see if this is consistent. At this point I'd recommend it. Good narration.

Hard to believe this is a NF. The evil of the terrorists balanced by the sacrificial existence of the agent.

A timely, must read book for the the world we live in now.Mr. Berenson writes as though he has been there and takes the reader inside the minds of the evil percolating within the terrorists , contrasting them to the agents who's clarity of mission :complete selfless sacrifice of man's basics needs in exchange to defend a faceless often indifferent nation run by bumbling bureaucrats. There only reward is knowing or hoping they know they made a difference. It is because of the Agent Wills of this world that society can function , otherwise the knowledge of what really is going on, would paralyze most people and society would crumble. I am completely hooked on this guy. A true gift that warrants our attention.

Wow

I've been a big fan of Vince Flynn for a long time and was looking for something similar when I found this book I was just thrilled. It's a fast moving story with action and great characters. It's been a long time since I cheered out loud while listening to a book. The narrator is OK, but was glad to see George Guidall narrates the rest of the series. Truly awesome.

Great! Couldn't stop listening.

Great! Couldn't stop listening, in car, home, everywhere (:
The flow of the story is just awesome.

Enlighting and Frightening.

Would you listen to The Faithful Spy again? Why?

Yes, to refresh the details that may or could occur at any time in the world.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes, The story seemed to lead you to an end result, but a suprise ending is always the best.

Have you listened to any of Robertson Dean’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Well maybe a little scared, for the possibility of this happening at any time.

Any additional comments?

No.

Love John Wells

I read The Faithful Spy and loved it so I read the entire series in a week. Great characters and a timely story line. Hope the author is going to write another one.

A good beginning

This is the start of a good series. At the beginning you're not sure what to think of John Wells and just where this might be going. However, as the story proceeds, you see that the title is correct and you can see the beginnings of a fairly typical thriller series coming on. Good character development, inner struggle and hardships.

Fast Paced

This book was action packed and fast paced. It was well written and kept me entertained from beginning to end. It went by very quickly. I'm not 100% sure I agree with the narrator's choice of voice for certain of the characters, but it was fairly inconsequential. He did a solid narration job all-in-all.

good story, good characters, very good ending I wi

I really liked the story and characters. I will read the next in the series.

Well Depicted Characters

The narration for this book was excellent. The characters were interesting, and used to help the Western reader try to understand the varying motivations of the disparate characters. Even the smaller characters had something interesting to add. I very much enjoyed "reading" this book. Although obviously fictional, enough of its themes are drawn from headlines, and the facts from technical journals to give it a realistic undertone.