Colin MacKinnon, praised by the New Yorker for capturing "the le Carr├® manner," breathes life into historical fact with this gripping, fast-paced novel about the search for bin Laden in the months leading to 9/11.
An Afghan resistance fighter of the 1980s, once on the CIA payroll, has come back to haunt the agency. Kareem has become an enemy working with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He has arranged the murder of an American CIA agent in Pakistan, which may compromise an intricate, long-planned CIA operation to capture Osama bin Laden. CIA officer Paul Patterson, who had run Kareem as an agent during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, sets out to track him down. Patterson navigates a shadow land of intrigue in England, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States, where truth and lies seem to merge.
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“Mixing fact and fiction effectively, MacKinnon…shows great insight into the inner workings of U.S. intelligence. His clipped prose style, descriptive discipline and tone-perfect dialogue elevate this thriller above the pack.”
— Publishers Weekly
“A haunting, disturbingly realistic portrait of the failings, organizational and personal, that opened up the skies for 9/11…[A] rising sense of sorrowful frustration…pays off in a gut punch of an ending."
— Booklist" Tries to incorporate actual events related to 9/11 into an uncreative work of fiction. "
— Tina, 5/24/2013" Carefully constructed and unsensationally rendered, the book nonetheless lacks any apparent point. "
— Eli, 11/3/2012" I couldn't get into this one. I didn't even finish it! "
— Bobi, 1/2/2011" This was an odd book - not my usualy enjoyment level for a spy novel. Written like a log or diary type entries. I found my mind wandering, and uninterested. "
— Andria, 2/17/2010" To be written later on. "
— Emily, 4/25/2009Colin MacKinnon has worked as chief editor of Middle East Executive Reports, Iran country coordinator for Amnesty International, and as director of the American Institute of Iranian Studies in Tehran. He holds a PhD in Near Eastern languages and an MS in journalism from Columbia University, and has taught at universities in Iran as well as at Columbia University and Georgetown. He lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Dick Hill, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, is one of the most awarded narrators in the business, having earned several Audie Awards and thirty-four AudioFile Earphones Awards. In addition to narrating, he has both acted in and written for the theater.