Currently reading
Hieroglyph: Stories and Blueprints for a Better Future
Ukraine: Zbig's Grand Chessboard & How the West Was Checkmated
The Girl on the Train: A Novel
Our Souls at Night: A novel
Above the Waterfall
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction
The Homicide Report: Understanding Murder in America
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
The Gods of Mars
Baer may have a story to tell that is non-fiction, but the CIA will not clear the things he has to say. So he decided to sidestep the secrecy requirement and present his tale as fiction. It is all done with a nod and a wink. So take what he proffers as fiction as gospel. This is a very slickly written spy novel (some are convinced that he had it ghosted) in which the protagonist (Baer’s stand-in) comes afoul of some dark forces when trying to pursue a lead in the years-ago disappearance of a compatriot. It is fast moving, engaging, written with wit and energy. Baer has a particular view of the larger picture in the Middle East and South Asia that varies from common wisdom. But he has the decades of personal experience that lends credibility to his suspicions.
He claims in an afterward that the 911 commission dropped the ball in figuring out just what happened to allow 911 to happen. Thus, he says, it is up to fiction to offer possibilities. His is particularly well informed and compelling. This is educational as well as entertaining, and a far better read than Richard Clarke’s fiction entry. It is only a matter of time before someone grabs this one and gives it a cinematic go.