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

Product Information

That’s because, for me, the pace of the book too often got bogged down by the author providing so much descriptive detail about so many aspects within the plot and its characters that I found myself putting the book aside for long stretches of time.

It’s not revealing any spoilers to say the exfil goes sideways, Ghazali never shows, Owens is captured and Sam just makes it out alive.

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.

The strength of "Damascus Station" lies in McCloskey's meticulous attention to detail and his ability to create a palpable atmosphere of tension and suspense.In spite of this, she agrees to spy for the Americans, despite the incredible dangers posed by the Assad regime. This reinstatement of hope is embedded within the complex and captivating characters Mr McCloskey has created.

As a former CIA officer, McCloskey gets the details right--not just the little ones about mistimed clocks on the wall at Headquarters but the big ones about trying to keep faith with people in a faithless business.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. One of the things I like best about the writing style is that McCloskey treats the reader with respect, not pausing to explain every acronym or idiom. Sam, as a well-worn field officer, knows that the route he’s travelling down when he first kissed Mariam. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

David McCloskey does a fantastic job painting a fictional yet realistic picture of the people and places involved in the brutal, heartbreaking civil war taking place early in the 21st century. Towards the end of the book, the brutal nature of the violence and uprising seems to take the book away from some of the more subtle storytelling that McCloskey lays out earlier in the story, and it also runs on a little bit too long as it edges over 400 pages. 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. If anyone in the Palace finds out, she would face torture and would almost certainly be shot as a traitor. As the duo traverses the cultural and political landscapes of Paris and Damascus, the novel delves into the intricate dance between intelligence agencies and the delicate balance of power in the Middle East.The CIA find a potential target in a mid-level official working in the Palace – Mariam Haddad, and Sam is sent back in to recruit her. Standout debut from a veteran former CIA officer … packed with insider knowledge and the story itself feels completely authentic. The thrills and actions are there, but certain parts are bogged down with too much detail resulted in unusual pacing. Throughout, with a diverse cast of believable and developed characters, McCloskey treats readers to a glimpse of life inside a CIA station abroad and to the inner workings of the neurotic and sociopathic Assad regime.