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  • The Faithful Spy

  • John Wells, Book 1
  • By: Alex Berenson
  • Narrated by: Robertson Dean
  • Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (104 ratings)
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The Faithful Spy cover art

The Faithful Spy

By: Alex Berenson
Narrated by: Robertson Dean
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Editor reviews

Why We Think It's Essential: Thanks to Robertson Dean's menacing narration, this gripping, thinking-person's thriller about a CIA operative deep undercover in al Qaeda is frighteningly real. Once you start listening, you'll find yourself sitting in the driveway with the engine still running. --Steve Feldberg

Summary

“A well-crafted page-turner that addresses the most important issue of our time. It will keep you reading well into the night.” (Vince Flynn)

A New York Times reporter has drawn upon his experience covering the occupation in Iraq to write the most gripping and chillingly plausible thriller of the post-9/11 era. Alex Berenson’s debut novel of suspense, The Faithful Spy, is a sharp, explosive story that takes listeners inside the war on terror as fiction has never done before. 

John Wells is the only American CIA agent ever to penetrate al Qaeda. Since before the attacks in 2001, Wells has been hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, biding his time, building his cover. Now, on the orders of Omar Khadri - the malicious mastermind plotting more al Qaeda strikes on America - Wells is coming home. Neither Khadri nor Jennifer Exley, Wells’s superior at Langley, knows quite what to expect. For Wells has changed during his years in the mountains. He has become a Muslim. He finds the United States decadent and shallow. 

Yet he hates al Qaeda and the way it uses Islam to justify its murderous assaults on innocents. He is a man alone, and the CIA - still reeling from its failure to predict 9/11 or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - does not know whether to trust him. Among his handlers at Langley, only Exley believes in him, and even she sometimes wonders. And so the agency freezes Wells out, preferring to rely on high-tech means for gathering intelligence. But as that strategy fails and Khadri moves closer to unleashing the most devastating terrorist attack in history, Wells and Exley must somehow find a way to stop him, with or without the government’s consent. 

From secret American military bases where suspects are held and “interrogated” to basement laboratories where al Qaeda’s scientists grow the deadliest of biological weapons, The Faithful Spy is a riveting and cautionary tale, as affecting in its personal stories as it is sophisticated in its political details. The first spy thriller to grapple squarely with the complexities and terrors of today’s world, this is a uniquely exciting and unnerving novel by an author who truly knows his territory.

©2006 Alex Berenson (P)2006 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"Graphic and chillingly real." ( Publishers Weekly)
"One could hardly ask for a more skillful, timely, and well-rounded translation of our worst fears into satisfying thrills." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about The Faithful Spy

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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

GRIPPING.........

Well written, well researched and well told.
The author was (or still is??) a jounalist and I think it is clearly evident in this well researched book. The characters and plot are completely beliveable and it doesn't take long to get completely immersed in both.
Definitely the most exciting book I've read (listened to!!) for a long time. This should be further up the list of top sellers - read it - you won't be dissapointed.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Stunning. Best spy/thriller have heard

An absolutely brilliant audiobook. Totally believable. Characterisation rich - author gives a balanced view of both sides of this conflict through his characters - even the lesser characters are very believable, plot completely gripping, and yet I didn't want it to end.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Faithful Spy

Best audio book I have herd so far out of 20 similar books.
Couldn't stop listening !!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A step beyond an average thriller.

This novel grips from page one and is an intelligent and skillfully written account of the inherent conlicts within modern day espionage. The author takes a huge step beyond a good yarn and tackles the complex and lonely existence of a government agent who goes deep undercover for a protracted period of time. His hero stradles two worlds belonging and yet not belonging to either.
This is a challenging and fascinating listen enhanced by a splendid reading by Robertson Dean.
Highly recommended for the thriller fan.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A good read

I really enjoyed this book, very plausible and well read, the best audiobook I have listened to yet.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

US Agent inside El Queda grips to the end

What did you like most about The Faithful Spy?

Believability and excitement. Extremely interesting in its exploration of the psychology of deep cover agents and thought provoking in its depiction of the gulf dividing austere Islamic thinking from America's profligate consumer society and with an intelligence community riven by politics, but still trying to do the right thing.

What did you like best about this story?

The plot, the setting, the characters and a great climax.

Which character – as performed by Robertson Dean – was your favourite?

Hero, heroine, villain and Tariq, the little student chemist.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Many.

Any additional comments?

An intelligent spy story that builds and builds momentum. Highly, recommended.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A good, intelligent, modern spy thriller

Undercover agents have to learn their biographies so well that it becomes their number on operating story. Well does this so well that over the years he becomes his new self with understandable doubts as to the morality of his own country, America. It is, however, the same moral perspective that convinces him to accomplish his mission. Well written with some fine tense moments, neat twists and the menace of real danger. Not to be missed as this is the first spy story from a major writer of modern thrillers.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I loved this

Brilliant story, totally gripping, great main characters and super narration. I couldn't stop listening and I hope there is another one.
I will definitely listen to this again.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Very Enjoyable

I really enjoyed this book and it was very different from the usual genre I listen too. I would highly recommend a listen. It's a shame that not all of the John Wells series is available on audible.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good plot

Good compulsive plot with good ending good author with realistic story that is very credible

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1 person found this helpful