Jack in the Box

April 26, 2004
Weisman, coauthor with Richard Marcinko of the Rogue Warrior series, continues his solo work after SOAR
with this instructive novel of friendship and betrayal in the shadow world of modern espionage. Veteran CIA operative Sam Waterman has been cashiered for allowing his chief agent, Russian general Pavel Baranov, to be killed moments after showing Sam documents pointing to the existence of a mole at the highest levels of American government. The Russian's death wasn't Sam's fault, but tell that to the gutless CIA bosses who have inherited control of that much-reduced agency. After several years of retirement, Sam is taken by former protégé Michael O'Neill to the country house of U.S. senator T. Randall Arthur to confront Edward Lee Howard, a CIA officer who had defected to the KGB. Howard wants to come back home and claims he has evidence that proves the White House knew about al-Qaeda's 9/11 plans seven weeks before these events occurred. When Sam decides to get tough with the defector, Howard flees, returns to Russia and is killed. The venue shifts back and forth between Moscow, Paris and Washington, D.C., as Sam tries to sort out the good guys from the bad, indulge in a romantic relationship and save his own skin. What sets this novel apart from other espionage thrillers is the density of spy lore. The pages are larded with footnotes, Russian words and phrases, references to historical cases, anecdotes, trade craft instruction and even blacked out words for added veracity. In the end, the identity of both the mole and Sam's betrayer will surprise few veteran thriller readers, but seldom has there been a fictional look at the subject that packs in so much fascinating insider information while still maintaining an engrossing story line and interesting characters. Agent, Robert Barnett
. (June)

Forecast:
Plenty of readers were happy to see Weisman go solo. His readership should grow with this high-caliber second outing and future installments: a sequel is all but promised in the last lines of the book.