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Damascus Station is simply marvelous storytelling.…[A] stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre." — Financial Times The story is gruesome against a violent and merciless regime . Nobody can possibly come out of this well. For an authentic representation of what it’s like to work in intelligence, look no further than Damascus Station. McCloskey has captured it all: the breathtaking close calls, the hand in glove of tech and ops, the heartbreaking disappointment, the thrill of hard-won victory.” A spy thriller I never would have guessed would be something I would get so into..... And I can't wait.for this to hit stores in October. David you have gained a new reader here!
An astonishingly accomplished debut that masterfully mixes action, tradecraft lore, a grown-up Romeo and Juliet story and bags of untold intelligence about the conflict’– John Dugdale, The Times Best Thriller Books of 2023 McCloskey’s character development is rich and thoroughly enjoyable. Nearly every character, and there are many, receive an attention to detail that brings them to life, even if they are secondary to the plot. The analyst Zelda, the Office of Technical Services bombmaker Paulina, the Russian Volkov, the list goes on by McCloskey manages to imbue them with personality and vividness in a few short sentences, making them feel important and life-like. My personal favorite character was Artemis Aphrodite Procter, the no-nonsense Chief of Station Damascus, who suffers no fools and supports her people in the field, even if they require a punch in the mouth. I think even in a place like Syria where, you know, the regime is horrendous and what it's perpetrated over the past 10 years is hellish and despicable ,” McCloskey said, “... I wanted to capture what would it feel like to be in a position where you're sort of born into this system, and you still have choices and you have some agency. They are making decisions we wouldn't agree with, but what's going on there? And so how do you deal with a situation where you're trying to protect yourself and your family?” I'm here to say I'm hooked! His writing style was outta this world. The characters they immediately drew me in and kept me interested and very intrigued throughout the entire book! One of the best spy thrillers for years … McCloskey is a former CIA analyst who worked in the Middle East. As with le Carré, much of the fascination of his writing comes from his insider’s knowledge of spying’s shadow ballet … Treat yourself to a walk along the Street Called Straight: you won’t find a more compelling guide than David McCloskey’ The Times
Sam and his CIA team use that human factor to find weaknesses among their adversaries and to exploit those weaknesses. In Damascus Station, victory is never assured and there is more than one deadly encounter before it’s all over. For an authentic representation of what it’s like to work in intelligence, look no further than Damascus Station. McCloskey has captured it all: the breathtaking close calls, the hand in glove of tech and ops, the heartbreaking disappointments, the thrill of a hard-won victory." Alma Katsu Whereas I remain unable to sit through an episode of Homeland or 24, I was impressed and grateful for McCloskey’s ability to integrate just enough reality. An extremely effective modern espionage novel, filled with action and incident but also a profound knowledge of the people and factions of Syria, the complex maneuvers of spycraft, the gray areas, competing egos and overlapping priorities that make every day a journey through the minefield….[A] dazzling debut." Booktrib - Neil Nyren Sam pursues the brothers with surveillance assistance and monitoring from CIA headquarters, along with an extensive human network inside Syria. He also identifies a potential insider who can help—Mariam, whose family is tied in with the regime but who also has reason to harbor hatred for the system. Were she to be discovered as an opponent of the regime, Mariam and everyone around her would face certain death.
Strong character development is not an inconsequential point—spy stories hinge on the characters, their motivations, their fears, their weaknesses and vulnerabilities. A terrible plot or mundane espionage action (and Damascus Station is the furthest from one) can be saved by vivid characters, but the same cannot be said in reverse. Servicing a dead drop is a relatively banal activity in the broader ecosystem of literary espionage (and almost certainly absolutely terrifying and exciting for a real operations officer), but throw in dynamic characters working against each other, and it becomes something vastly more interesting. Sam identifies a Syrian working for the Palace who has access to sensitive material and tries to recruit her and run her against all odds. A truly sensational read! In fact, Damascus Station is the best spy novel I have ever read. David McCloskey experienced Syria firsthand as a CIA analyst, and he delivers a thrilling, graphic, gripping, and realistic—albeit fictional—portrayal of the CIA and the bloody, tragic Syrian uprising. I lived this extraordinarily frustrating episode in Agency history, and I could not put this book down." General David Petraeus
His main character, Samuel Joseph, hews more to the middle of the spectrum between Jason Bourne and George Smiley, and that’s not a bad thing. He is a master of his craft, but possesses a self-awareness and self-reflection that makes him human. His absolutely verboten indiscretion of becoming romantically and physically entangled with his agent Miriam, certainly raises the stakes in the plot.
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