Interesting book about spies fighting to stop their enemies from developing into nuclear power.

Only downside to the book is the conclusion - prime minister steps out and exposes the entire operation to the media, how they manage to thwart the efforts of their rival state by direct sabotage (even names service responsible) and then state that they will prevent any other nation from further interfering because enemy is now tamed (? I mean come on...) and this does not provoke no reaction from anyone in the world (!?! again, please ...)

Imagine somebody from the government steps out and says that they sabotaged by direct attack their rivals, they disclose it to the world (so it is not just knowledge in the close community) and everybody says - Oh, they blew them ... now gimme that pepper.

These are things conflicts are ignited about. I do not know what the author was thinking about but ending seems childish to say the least and seems like unnatural ending for the novel itself (considering other elements described in it).

Good thriller but ending is deeply flawed. ( )

My second book of Ignatius' and I couldn't put it down. Read in one day as it was so fast moving and just kept me so interested. Ignatius seems to really understand the Middle East and it's problems and complexities. Recommend very much to anyone who wants an exciting spy story. ( )

Modern spy thriller with the CIA trying to gain insights into the Iranian nuclear bomb making capability and slow down development of the program. There's a war-mongering element among the U.S. government leadership which sounds like a parallel to our Iraqi policy in the aftermath of 9/11. ( )

You will quickly notice the left leaning bias in this story. Seemed to me like bad alternate history when you see what has actually transpired since the book was written (pallet of cash sent to Iran, full speed ahead on nuclear weapon research). He keeps telling us there is pressure from the top of wanting to go to war with Iran. Don't remember that, but with everyone was talking about ACA at that time, I may have missed all the war talk. Several jabs at Israel throughout the book. A slew of unlikeable immoral characters. Then they actually have the answer to stopping/slowing down the nuclear research and Harry axes it. Then his liberal daughter wants to go to some 3rd world country to help out instead of going to college unlike the stupid son who went to fight in Iraq and got killed.
With that said, it is an acceptable spy book if you have absolutely nothing else to read.

Edit...I didn't know anything about the author and when I looked him up I see why the bias. ( )

Read this novel and weep - is the sentence that I would use to describe this novel. It is about how things can go wrong and will, and then what needs to be done to fix it. Or not.

I have heard much about this book and had owned a copy of it since 2012. Somehow I kept putting it on the back-burner. If you have done the same thing, or like to read spy novel thrillers, my advice is move this book up on your reading list. It is a great spy novel and follows in the tradition of the masters of the genre such as Len Deighton and John Le Carre. The story is fairly standard but the heroes are full of flaws. How each of them handles their own shortcomings is part of the story. In that respect it reminded me of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy." It does take half of the novel to set the story up but from then on it moves rapidly. I have heard rumors that this book is on several U.S. governmental agency reading lists but I doubt the veracity of those reports. However, the author spares no intelligence agency for its shortsighted fawning political proclivities and his admonitions to do better in the future. In that sense this title is almost non-fiction. ( )