To Buy: The Faithful Spy

I like spy stories, but I'm picky about them. I grew up reading Ian Fleming's stuff and frankly, I don't really care if I never read another spy novel. I can always go back and re-read those. But every once in a while someone comes along with something new to say about the genre other than "the Columbian drug lords are the new Soviets" or "Muslim extremists are the new Columbian drug lords." Alex Berenson seems to have done that.

Berenson's The Faithful Spy doesn't exploit the events of 9/11 and the War on Terror. It uses them to create a situation that couldn't exist at any other time. Well, maybe it could, but not as powerfully. According to Bookgasm, "CIA agent John Wells is pretty deep undercover. He’s immersed himself among the mujahedeen of Afghanistan, gone to fight for Muslims in Chechnya, converted to Islam, and done what no other agent has been able to do: infiltrate al-Qaeda to the point that many of the terrorists believe he’s on their side. He might have done too good a job, because after failing to provide an alert about 9/11, the CIA isn’t exactly sure what side he’s on."

I don't think I'd be interested in reading an entire series about John Wells, but watching him get out of this particular mess sounds like something I definitely want to do. And who knows? If Berenson comes up with another adventure that's just as intriguing, I'll probably be up for that too.