I’ve been winning quite a few books on Goodreads lately. The most recent one I’ve read is an ARC of Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage, by David Ignatius.
About the book, (from the back cover):
Someone in Pakistan is killing the members of a new CIA intelligence unit that is trying to buy peace with America’s enemies. It falls to Sophie Marx, a young CIA officer with a big chip on her shoulder, to figure out who’d doing the killing and why. Her starting point is Alphabet Capital, the London hedge fund that has been providing cover for this secret operation, but the investigation soon widens to include the capitals of the Middle East and the cruel hills of South Waziristan. Sophie thinks she has the backing of her hard-nosed boss, Jeffrey Gertz, and his genial mentor at headquarters, Cyril Hoffman. She gets help, as well, from the well-mannered lieutenant-general heading Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. but the closer Sophie gets to her quarry, the more she realizes that nothing in this gallery of mirrors is quite what it seems. This is a theater of violence and retribution, in which the last act is one that Sophie could not have imagined.
This is not the type of book I generally read, but I did enjoy it. The cast of characters was very interesting, with the majority being on both sides of the conflict. It took quite a few pages before I decided who was trustworthy. The book also provided insight to tribal cultures of Pakistan, which was fascinating. I’ve never read anything by this author before, but after reading this work, I do believe he is a very talented, and informed, writer. However, I think the next book I read will be, in comparison, a light read.
For the Love of Words 