Blowback

by Valerie Plame, Sarah Lovett

Overview

Introducing Blowback, an exhilarating new espionage thriller by former CIA ops officer Valerie Plame and thriller writer Sarah Lovett. 

Covert CIA ops officer Vanessa Pierson is finally close to capturing Bhoot, the world’s most dangerous international nuclear arms dealer. One of her assets delivers explosive intel: Bhoot will be visiting a secret underground weapons facility in Iran in just a few days. But just as Pierson is about to get the facility location, an ambush leaves her informant dead. Now Pierson has two targets: Bhoot and the asset’s sniper.
 
When all the Agency’s resources aren’t enough to protect her assets from Bhoot’s assassin, Pierson risks going rogue and jeopardizing a fellow ops officer who is also her secret lover. With each day, the pressure of the manhunt mounts, forcing Pierson to put her cover and career—and life—at risk. With rapid-cut shifts from European capitals to Washington to the Near East, and with insider detail that only a former spy could provide, Blowback marks the explosive beginning to a thrilling new series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451416810
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/07/2014
Series:	A Vanessa Pierson Novel , #1
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	472,735
Product dimensions:	4.19(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Valerie Plame’s career in the CIA included assignments in counterproliferation operations, ensuring that enemies of the United States could not threaten the country with weapons of mass destruction. She and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, are the parents of twins. Plame and her family live in New Mexico.
 
Sarah Lovett’s five suspense novels featuring forensic psychologist Dr. Sylvia Strange have been published in the United States and around the world. A native Californian, she lives with her family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Excerpted from "Blowback"
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Copyright © 2014 Valerie Plame.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Plame, aided by crime writer Sarah Lovett, hits the target in her fiction debut, setting up a planned series with a high-octane tale of deception.” –Entertainment Weekly

“A tense spy thriller, with a smart, sexy heroine, international danger and yes, a love interest…. [Blowback] reads like Clancy, Cussler, or Ludlum…Destined to become another great part of American literary fiction.” –The Huffington Post

“A classic spy tale.” –The Daily Beast

“A fine, fast-moving spy saga….Plame and Lovett tell their story in short, fast-paced action scenes that steadily build momentum…. Pierson emerges as a smart, sexy action hero, a kind of James Bond with high heels, short skirts and a Glock in her purse….Check out this seductive spy; she’s likely to be around for a while.”  –The Washington Post

“Plame, the now ex-CIA agent notably exposed by the Bush II White House, mines her experience as an operative in this debut novel. She shines a bright light on illegal international arms trading to show how its tentacles reach deeply into the intelligence activities of the West’s spymasters.… A tightly wound, vigorously deployed thriller echoing the real-life stories of CIA agents and their enemies.” –Library Journal (starred)

“Satisfying.” –Vogue.com

“Propulsive and accurate.” –Salon

“Want to read a thriller about the real CIA and how it actually works? Then dive into this corker from former agent Valerie Plame and Sarah Lovett.” —James Patterson

"Great storytelling, real insider authenticity, and above all a fascinating main character in Vanessa Pierson. And maybe those initials are not a coincidence—sometimes fiction can reveal things that nonfiction can't." —Lee Child

"Plame and Lovett have hit a home run in their fiction debut. The opening scenes of Blowback are filled with a shattering realism that only someone like Plame, who has walked the walk and talked the talk, could inspire. Vanessa Pierson is a flesh-and-blood field operative whose life literally depends on not really trusting anyone, not even those on her side. Action aplenty, what sets this story apart from many of its kind are the insights into Pierson's (and Plame's) mind and the nuanced details that really matter in the world of intelligence operations. Blowback is an outstanding addition to the thriller genre and ushers in a writing team that I hope will enthrall us for years to come." —David Baldacci

“Blowback is one wild ride, a riveting cat-and-mouse game set within the world of international terrorism, covert operations, blackmarket WMDs, and brutal assassinations. Plame and Lovett know their stuff cold and have written a realistic, vivid, fast moving story full of shocking twists and unexpected turns. This is truly an epic thriller—the first in what promises to be a fantastic series. I highly recommend it.” —Douglas Preston,#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Monster of Florence and co-creator of the legendary Pendergast novels
  “Blowback is a stunning debut novel by former CIA agent Valerie Plame and suspense writer Sarah Lovett—a thriller rich with international intrigue and details of spycraft and secret ops that only an insider could bring to the genre. It’s a well-told tale of high stakes and lives on the line, starring a brilliant, edgy protagonist I can’t wait to see more of. A powerful read.” —Linda Fairstein

"With an alpha female heroine and a plot as familiar as her own backyard, Blowback is a stunning debut. Here's to many more." –Steve Berry

“I couldn’t put it down! Blowback is beautifully written, incredibly well-informed and an amazing treatment of profound female courage. This is not even a genre I follow—but this book transcends genre.” –Naomi Wolf

Editorial Reviews

Great storytelling, real insider authenticity, and above all a fascinating main character.”—Lee Child

“Want to read a thriller about the real CIA and how it actually works? Then dive into this corker from former agent Valerie Plame and Sarah Lovett.”—James Patterson

Blowback is...

“A high-octane tale of deception.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Beautifully written [and] incredibly well-informed.”—Naomi Wolf

“Destined to become another great part of American literary fiction.”—The Huffington Post

“An outstanding addition to the thriller genre.”—David Baldacci
 

From the Publisher

Aided by Lovett (Dark Alchemy), former CIA agent Plame (Fair Game with Laura Rozen) makes her fiction debut with an able contemporary thriller centered on Iranian nukes. Plame’s fictional alter ego, Vanessa Pierson, is waiting in a Vienna amusement park for a vital Iranian asset, Arash Farah, when she receives and ignores a text from headquarters to abort the rendezvous. Farah, who arrives late, reveals that he knows the location of an Iranian weapons facility, but before he can give exact details, a sniper shoots him dead. Finding herself in professional trouble after the murder, Vanessa gambles that Farah’s widow can both escape to safety and help her identify the facility’s geographical coordinates. Her willingness to take a creative approach to regulations extends to her personal life as well, making her a multifaceted maverick. Readers looking for a strong female lead will be rewarded. Author tour. Agents: Elyse Cheney, Elyse Cheney Literary (Plame); Theresa Park, Park Literary (Lovett). (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2013-09-15
Having told her real-life story in the memoir Fair Game (2007), former CIA agent Plame teams with Lovett, author of the Dr. Sylvia Strange series, to relate the adventures of undercover CIA operative Vanessa Pierson. Pierson is obsessed with tracking down the world's most dangerous terrorist, Bhoot, who is said to be stockpiling weapons of mass destruction in Iran. His location is secret, but his closest associate, a grim sniper assassin named Pauk, is roaming around, knocking off people who threaten to expose closely held secrets. Those targets include Vanessa's informers, the first of whom gets shot in the head in Prague in a meeting she was told to abort. Readers who have watched TV's Covert Affairs, featuring slightly perkier undercover agent Annie Walker, will pretty much know what to expect here. In her intense pursuit of justice, which takes her to numerous scenic locations, Vanessa goes against her superiors' orders and violates basic rules--including the one that you don't get romantically involved with a connection in the field. That leads her to a predictable dilemma in which she has to decide whether or not to trust her lover. However unoriginal it is, the book moves along briskly and intelligently, informed by the disillusionment Plame suffered in having her cover blown by the Bush administration. There are plenty of action scenes for Vanessa to fling herself into and, in this first installment in the series, a decently drawn, if not yet scare-inducing, villain. Making her spy fiction debut, Plame, with the seasoned Lovett's help, delivers a solid, entertaining thriller.

Kirkus Reviews