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An Ordinary Spy
by Joseph Weisberg
288 pages
(2008, Bloomsbury USA)
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Reviews
The New Yorker
Books Briefly Noted
"An Ordinary Spy"
January 21, 2008
A C.I.A. operative on his first mission abroad becomes intimately involved with a potential source; quickly returned to the U.S. and summarily fired, he continues to be fascinated by another case gone awry, a few years earlier. A mysterious postcard, listing only a onetime agent’s address in New Hampshire, sends him on a quest to find out the story behind TDTRACER and LXMALIBU, two informers whose files only hint at mysterious disaster. In this muted, cerebral thriller, redacted words—at times, nearly an entire page is blacked out—eliminate identifying details of place and spying technique, and heighten the sense of disorientation. Weisberg, a former C.I.A. agent, skillfully maintains a tension-filled plot and offers a humanistic spin on the typical spy story, sensitively portraying the pain of risking lives for the sake of ambition.
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Praise for An Ordinary Spy:
"Great read, stunningly realistic."
— Ted Price, former Deputy Director for Operations, CIA
"[A] beautiful new novel… surely the best portrait of the working C.I.A. we have had in many years."
— Mark Costello, New York Times Book Review
"A well-wrought, beautifully crafted, incisive book about the huge emotional and psychological tolls the craft of spying can take from those who practice it
—John Weisman, Washington Times
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