Damascus Station: Unmissable New Spy Thriller From Former CIA Officer (Damascus Station, 1)

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For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. The thrills and actions are there, but certain parts are bogged down with too much detail resulted in unusual pacing. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. One particularly memorable figure in the story is five-foot-tall Artemis Aphrodite Procter, the Chief of Damascus Station, whose pugnacity and liberal use of the F-word sometime shock even the men around her.

And he introduces us to gadgets developed by the CIA’s Technical Services Division that would make James Bond’s Q salivate with envy. There's a good novel lurking within in here somewhere but I found it over-concerned with CIA jargon, perhaps unsurprisingly given the author's ex-company background and some of the characters felt a little bit like they had been taken from a catalog. I had only devoured a dozen or so chapters, before I realized that this book is worthy of every ounce of praise.A spy story – of securing an asset for vital intelligence capture; a love story – of star-crossed lovers; two-sides that never should mix, a Romeo and Juliet for modern times; a survival story – of the Ikhwan rebels existing against all odds against the brutal onslaught of the Assad war machine and a human story – of familial links, mixed motives, past histories and ultimately, their intrinsic ties to a regime that would ultimately destroy them.

Eight or nine years ago, when Barack Obama served in the White House, the fighting in Syria was at its peak. DS" is well written, and filled to the brim with credible tradecraft and lots of gritty detail about the challenges for intelligence operatives of working in a hostile city such as Damascus. That's true of many thrillers, but the fact the book makes a big point of being very realistic meant that those bits jarred a bit. David McCloskey takes readers on a thrilling journey through the world of international intrigue in "Damascus Station," featuring the relentless CIA Case Officer Sam Joseph. Few world leaders in recent decades have proven themselves to be more savage than Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. In a field groaning with ludicrous plots, absurd characters, and laughable "espionage," McCloskey--a former CIA analyst--has crafted a book that goes back to the roots of what makes a spy thriller great, the spying. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The denouement of Damascus Station is satisfying, especially after the phenomenal intensity of the scenes leading up to it, and one that I was so delighted to see. Equally, I would have been thrilled with a rich historical fiction that made you feel and think deeply.

The backdrop of crumbling Syria – a country steeped in rich heritage, history and culture – literally disintegrating under the weight of constant fighting is jarringly juxtaposed with the vibrancy and opulence of Paris and Villefranche-sur-mer and the stunning, peaceful beauty of Tuscany, and these locations provide the freedom for Sam and Mariam to explore their emotions more fully. From this point if you do a shot every time someone in the book says "habiti" you will be quite smashed in 25-30 pages. McCloskey deftly weaves their alliance, highlighting the challenges of navigating alliances in a world where trust is a rare commodity.One cannot review Damascus Station without a word on the sheer authenticity and realism of every part of the book. From an exfiltration gone awry to a stunning endgame, Damascus Station takes the reader on a breathtaking journey in war-torn Syria. From the offset, McCloskey incorrectly characterizes the relations between various religious communities in Syria as religious divisions rather than religious coexistence – which completely disregards the decades of secularism codified by the Ba’ath Party. Damascus Station is an incredible spy thriller and worth reading for anyone who loves spy novels or historical fiction. This may reflect real life, but I found "Damascus Station" a little too easy to put down, for a really cracking thriller.

He captures the places and people--and most of all, the sickening feeling in the gut--of this war that shattered poor Syria while America mostly watched. Of course, Mariam is a stunning knockout and, against all protocol, a passionate love affair blossoms between these unlikely allies. His character is portrayed as one of a soldier, doing his duty, despite however ruthless that requires him to be, but there is not a sense of perverse enjoyment, as there is with the others. The details of the city of Damascus, the characters on all sides of the conflict, and the mission itself ring absolutely true.The plot is a bit of a slow burner initially, with suspense gradually building, and the author skillfully creates tension out of seemingly mundane moments, like a character inserting a USB stick loaded with CIA spyware onto her boss's computer. A volatile mix of traditional espionage plotlines intertwined with a modern level of violence that had me flipping pages until the early morning hours. This sobering and electrifying novel is a nail-biter that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the last page is read.