The Glasnost Conspiracy

by B. Jay Reich

Overview

Glasnost—Arnie Rosen's family and children are killed as Charles Van Damme's men grab the file that proves that Van Damme, Chief of the CIA' European Division, is collaborating with the Russians. Van Damme's men catch Arnie, but he escapes, only to be placed in an institution which is a CIA front, controlled by Van Damme. He escapes, again, to Key West, where Marquand, his old CIA mentor, arranges for him to get safe passage to Europe, where he can catch Van Damme engaging in espionage with the Russians. He and Van Damme's dupe, Otto Gruhaber, a computer genius who is unwittingly enlisted in Van Damme's plot, escape back to the US, where Arnie's friend, Mark Hickey appears to give them safe conduct to DC. Their purpose is to thwart Van Damme's appointment as new CIA head. But Hickey's help ends in disaster. They escape, fight their way through a cordon of Capitol Security, Van Damme's men and the FBI, to expose Van Damme in the Senate hearing room, where Rosen's enemy is to be confirmed. Van Damme attempts an escape, but is captured by Arnie, and discredited. But is rosen a hero, or did he destroy the only man capable of stopping the GLASNOST CONSPIRACY?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496901149
Publisher:	AuthorHouse
Publication date:	11/15/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	436
File size:	694 KB

About the Author

After attending Cornell and the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Law, Bob Reich practiced tax law in both New York and California. Subsequently, he became a real estate syndicator and developer and, for the past sixteen years, has advised clients in financial and estate planning in his offices in South Florida. He resides in Fort Lauderdale with his wife, Mary, and cat, Furgie. Bob is an avid skier and aspiring tennis player. Other hobbies include making historical dioramas, learning to play the accordion and, of course, writing.

Editorial Reviews

The Glasnost Conspiracy is a nostalgic thriller—a parable about Cold War paranoia.

B. Jay Reich's The Glasnost Conspiracy is a fun and fast revenge story set during the dying days of the Soviet Union.

As the novel begins, NSA officer Arnie Rosen is set to reveal all the dirt he has on Charles Van Damme, the head of the CIA's European Division. Van Damme is a double agent who is not only spying for the Russians, but is helping diehard communists from the old regime move to central and western Europe.

Then, on an ordinary suburban day outside of DC, two of Van Damme's thugs slaughter Rosen's entire family. This cold-blooded murder sets Rosen on a global chase after Van Damme, moving from sunny Key West to the rainy streets of Europe. When events come to a dramatic head, the two adversaries air their struggle in a hearing room inside of the US Senate.

This is a taut political thriller, its action immediate and continual. Rosen and Van Damme are perfect foils for each other, with Rosen standing as an aggrieved everyman on a righteous crusade to expose duplicity and corruption. Van Damme is a quasi-aristocratic and cynical sleazeball who sees government service as a chance to strike it rich.

Added to this two-man quarrel are excellent supporting characters, including Otto, a computer genius who is Van Damme's unwitting dupe, and Rosen's friend, Mark—a normal guy who commits himself to a massive undertaking out of loyalty. Through them, it becomes clear that state machinations have damaging impacts on individuals.

This is a Cold War throwback thriller whose view of American intelligence agencies is too sunny and which is set at a time when the US faced off with Russia in a clear way. Its historical sensibilities are stronger than its thriller aspects because its perspective is so dated.

Each chapter builds upon the action of those before it, and the story reads in a clean, linear way as a result. Each chapter reads like a self-contained drama, and there is no wasted space. Conversations are direct, and action scenes restrict themselves to the most important details, never losing focus on the central revenge tale. Concluding on a delicious cliffhanger, the end reframes Rosen and Van Damme from the perspective of the KGB and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Foreword Reviews - Benjamin Welton

BLUEINK REVIEW

Recalling the plots of John LeCarré's novels, B. Jay Reich's espionage tale The Glasnost Conspiracy is full of unexpected twists and turns and a constant sense of "what's happening now?"

The story, set in the 1980's, is basically a mano-a-mano struggle between Arnie Rosen, a CIA analyst with a Special Forces background, and Charles Van Damme, the callous head of the CIA European Division, who will stop at nothing to achieve his ends.

When Rosen's wife and children are slaughtered by Van Damme's men, out to seize the file Rosen has built proving Van Damme's collaboration with the Russians, Rosen swears to destroy Van Damme's reputation and then kill him with his own hands. Van Damme wants to kill Rosen, as well, but soon realizes that won't be easy. The chase that follows takes readers from Washington D.C. to Key West, Berlin and New York City, with guns blasting and bodies falling everywhere.

Rosen and Otto Gruhaber—a milquetoast computer genius duped by Van Damme and critical to helping Rosen expose his nemesis—eventually confront Van Damme in the Senate Hearing Room in Washington before the final plot twist is revealed.

Pages filled with graphic violence, dialogue with accents and dialect, and lavish descriptions of cities and buildings like Berlin's Spandau Citadel Arsenal ("red, luminous brick; dozens of detailed statues of warriors and maidens protruding like the quills of a huge, red porcupine”) make for exceptionally realistic reading, a key strength of the story.

Unfortunately, typos and extraneous detail often prove distracting. For example, when Rosen is rescued from assassins in the Citadel, the author stalls the action to describe one attacker's history of brutality in the Berlin police department, fantasy of himself as invincible, racist superman mentality, and his father's Nazism—all of which seem unnecessary for such a minor character.

Still, the book offers rich settings that armchair travelers may enjoy. Espionage fans will also find some rewards in the twisting tale.

From the Publisher