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Superb breathlessly gripping thrilling & truly terrifying, written in unadorned style by an CIA agent, almost real in its details of CIA espionage in Syria, savage feuds within Assad palace, intrigues of Mideast. Highly recommended' - Simon Sebag Montefiore Assad Or We Burn the Country: How One Family’s Lust for Power Destroyed Syria | Sam Dagher | Little, Brown, & Company | May 2019. Sam pursues the brothers with surveillance assistance and monitoring from CIA headquarters, along with an extensive human network inside Syria. He also identifies a potential insider who can help—Mariam, whose family is tied in with the regime but who also has reason to harbor hatred for the system. Were she to be discovered as an opponent of the regime, Mariam and everyone around her would face certain death. That is completely the figment of my imagination,” McCloskey said in an interview with SpyTalk . “We absolutely do provide pretty basic hand-to-hand combat training to case officers, far less than anyone would probably believe, or certainly what Hollywood would portray. But I think the idea of having a case officer doing this kind of felt reasonable to me from a recruitment standpoint, that you're trying to develop somebody and do something with them. You learn about them. It's kind of intimate.”
Falling in love with your agent—literally, in this case—is a cardinal sin in the espionage trade. But Sam cannot help himself, especially after she pummels him at the dojo. A thrilling portrayal of espionage, love and betrayal… utterly brilliant& guaranteed to keep you pinned to your sunlounger’– Dorset MagazineDavid McCloskey is a former CIA analyst … the book is energised by his own experience’– The Times Best Books of 2023 So Far Damascus Station is simply marvellous storytelling...a stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre' - Financial Times A daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin. But can Langley trust the Russian at its center?
For an authentic representation of what it’s like to work in intelligence, look no further than Damascus Station. McCloskey has captured it all: the breathtaking close calls, the hand in glove of tech and ops, the heartbreaking disappointments, the thrill of a hard-won victory’– Alma Katsu, author of Red Widow and former CIA and NSA analyst Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial?
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An astonishingly accomplished debut that masterfully mixes action, tradecraft lore, a grown-up Romeo and Juliet story and bags of untold intelligence about the conflict’– John Dugdale, The Times Best Thriller Books of 2023 His main character, Samuel Joseph, hews more to the middle of the spectrum between Jason Bourne and George Smiley, and that’s not a bad thing. He is a master of his craft, but possesses a self-awareness and self-reflection that makes him human. His absolutely verboten indiscretion of becoming romantically and physically entangled with his agent Miriam, certainly raises the stakes in the plot. But the cat and mouse chase for the killer soon leads to a trail of high-profile assassinations and the discovery of a dark secret at the heart of the Syrian regime, bringing the pair under the all-seeing eyes of Assad’s spy catcher, Ali Hassan, and his brother Rustum, the head of the feared Republican Guard.
I think even in a place like Syria where, you know, the regime is horrendous and what it's perpetrated over the past 10 years is hellish and despicable ,” McCloskey said, “... I wanted to capture what would it feel like to be in a position where you're sort of born into this system, and you still have choices and you have some agency. They are making decisions we wouldn't agree with, but what's going on there? And so how do you deal with a situation where you're trying to protect yourself and your family?” The tension builds as we meet a cross-section of Syrian society, the impoverished, the falsely accused, the torturers themselves who pull out fingernails, then go home from work to play with their children. For an authentic representation of what it's like to work in intelligence, look no further than Damascus Station. McCloskey has captured it all: the breathtaking close calls, the hand in glove of tech and ops, the heartbreaking disappointments, the thrill of a hard-won victory' - Alma Katsu, author of Red Widow and former CIA and NSA analystBashar was never meant to be president, but was thrust into the position after the death of his elder brother Bassel. While many at the time hoped Bashar, a trained ophthalmologist with a very-Western oriented wife, would open up the country, ushering in a new prosperity, reality turned out very different. Indeed, the Assad’s extended family system of governance was so entrenched, any demand for change was seen as an existential threat. Inspired by the Arab Spring elsewhere in the Middle East, young Syrians took to the street asking “why not us?” and demanded change from the Assads. Their protests were met with repression, violence, imprisonment, and abuse. The author is a former CIA analyst and his knowledge is all over this superb debut spy thriller … full of the paranoia, tedium and terror of spying’ – The Sun Damascus Station is a breathless ride; the best laid plans sometimes come tumbling down and brinkmanship can lead to miscalculations on both sides. It is easy to identify good and evil here, but McCloskey also mines the nuances of people on both sides fighting to survive. Therein, perhaps, lies the high praise delivered by the likes of retired Gen. David Petraeus, who served as CIA director for a time, and who gushes i n a pre-publication blurb that Damascus Station “is the best spy novel I have ever read.” Don’t miss this enthralling standout debut, one of the best to come across my desk in recent years’ – Adam LeBor, Financial Times For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.
What McCloskey gets right—and what is more important to me than how he depicts the mechanics of executing a clandestine meeting—are the feelings. McCloskey’s case officers are passionate, driven, and, in some cases, obsessive about their mission and craft. It’s not a job but rather a life. And you don’t switch it off when you’re home, particularly in a foreign field environment, where everything you do is deliberately planned and calculated to present the persona and pattern of life required to spy effectively. Mr. McCloskey, who grew up in Minnesota and studied international relations, worked as a political analyst in CIA headquarters and from field stations in the Middle East. Superb breathlessly gripping thrilling & truly terrifying, written in unadorned style by an CIA agent, almost real in its details of CIA espionage in Syria, savage feuds within Assad palace, intrigues of Mideast. Highly recommended‘– Simon Sebag Montefiore The story takes place in the early 2010s, while the United States was engaged and supporting Assad’s opponents in the Syrian civil war. The Syrian president does appear in the story as an unattractive walk-on character, the only real political figure in the book. McCloskey goes deeper on the supporting cast around the dictator. There are husbands and wives, family members who must be protected, human foibles even among the most unyielding enemies.For an authentic representation of what it’s like to work in intelligence, look no further than Damascus Station. McCloskey has captured it all: the breathtaking close calls, the hand in glove of tech and ops, the heartbreaking disappointments, the thrill of a hard-won victory." - Alma Katsu, author of Red Widow and former CIA and NSA analyst Damascus Station is simply marvellous storytelling… a stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre’– Financial Times The Biden administration has likewise invested in Tice. Its public posture, however, has been more focused on determining his ultimate fate rather than suggesting he might still be alive or his release is still possible. Stuffed with insider insights … It reveals some top-notch intelligence tradecraft’ – Tim Shipman, Sunday Times
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