In the months leading up to 9/11, an agent is killed in a targeted shooting. The story is about tracking down his killer. The main character, Paul Patterson, is a middle-aged agent in the CIA. He is tracking down the killer in a methodical, research-oriented process. There is very little action in the story, it is more about the CIA and how it operates. As you meet each character, you get a dossier on him. There were too many for me to remember.

The book wasn't able to make me care much for the murder victim, nor the main character. It wasn't bad, but I wanted more. ( )

This is a good book--but not for reasons some people might be drawn to it. The way this book is marketed on its cover is that it is a "thriller" involving the CIA. A blurb quoted over the title describes it that way, and the cover art is of a man who looks like a young William Hurt running from a sinister-lighted White House.

That does not accurately portray this novel at all, and anyone lured into reading it carrying the "thriller" impression is bound to be sorely disappointed. This is not a CIA thriller, but a CIA procedural. The "hero" is a middle-aged operative who, though he was once a field agent, is now basically a desk jockey. The challenge he faces is sifting through clues and seeking to solve a mystery behind the assassination of a renegade former agent they had been carrying on contract, all in the months leading up the September 11 al-Queda attacks. In the meantime, as al-Queda is covertly moving ahead with its conspiracy, and our hero's got a mystery to solve, he must also deal with politicians, intra-agency rivalries, and personal issues involving a divorce and a girlfriend.

In short, this book is less Jason Bourne and more Zero Dark Thirty.

And I liked it for that reason. No fanciful derring-do here--just a good imaginative reading as to how the CIA in all likelihood really works. The mystery is satisfying, with an ending that carries a wallop. ( )