Berenson Gives Enjoyable, Suspenseful Stay at The Midnight House
Author: Alex Berenson
Title: The Midnight House
Publisher: Putnam
When former members of a top-secret US interrogation taskforce are mysteriously murdered, renegade CIA operative John Wells is just the man to find out what went wrong at The Midnight House, award-winning author Alex Berenson's newest modern spy thriller published by Putnam.
Berenson intertwines roof-top chases, extraordinary renditions, and ambitious powers at the top of the United States intelligence community into an immensely entertaining fiction yarn about what happens when US intelligence gathering techniques go too far.
We first met John Wells in The Faithful Spy—Berenson's first work. Now, three novels later, agent Wells is as strong, sharp, and delightfully conflicted as ever. Those familiar with the franchise will recall that Wells has served the CIA as a deeply embedded operative in the al-Qaida network. Wells' unique background allowed him to get in so deep for so long that his superior officers began to question his loyalty to the U.S. The fact that he converted to Islam didn't help matters.
Fast-forward to The Midnight House. Now, John Wells' allegiances are no longer in doubt and his intimate knowledge of Islam and the Arab world make him well suited for a risky job.
The job? Get to the bottom of a string of mysterious murders and disappearances. Each victim is a former Army Ranger or CIA agent who was a member of a clandestine task force running a secret interrogation prison in Poland. Dubbed the "Midnight House," this off-the-record facility coaxed secrets out of suspected terrorists—using whatever means necessary. When the prison closed, the taskforce disbanded and several of its members retired to quiet, private lives. Until a killer—or killers—start hunting down these former government muscle men.
Denied access to highly classified documents that could solve the case, John Wells suspects a cover-up. The only way to find out the deadly secrets of the Midnight House is to go undercover, make contact with former detainees and learn for himself what happened there. It's a dangerous game of spy and counterspy in the dusty streets of Cairo and beyond as Wells slowly discovers that he's in the middle something bigger than he could have imagined … something that could go all the way to the top.
As a former reporter for The New York Times who covered the Iraq war as a correspondent, author Alex Berenson knows what he is writing about first hand. His knowledge shows. In The Midnight House, settings are vivid and observant, and Berenson's understanding of Arab culture makes the difficult task of portraying the Middle East in realistic and accessible to American readers look easy.
Berenson writes like a journalist. Every chapter is crisp, efficient, and crafted with an eye for a juicy story. The plot is far-fetched enough to make for engaging fiction, but realistic enough to retain a credible, almost journalistic feel. There are times when the reader has to remind himself that The Midnight House is in fact fiction, written as it is like a tell-all political expose. The book is that credible. Dan Brown is the gold standard for the mystery fiction genre. Alex Berenson deserves similar consideration among the spy thriller genre.
The Midnight House is so vivid and contemporary, that it does more that just entertain. The book raises questions about the legitimacy of the use of extreme interrogation techniques as counter-terror measures, the motives for why these methods are used, and where the line exists between not far enough and too far. Berenson does not pose these questions himself and he injects no overt agenda into The Midnight House, but his writing is thought-provoking nonetheless.
If you have your fake passport, a handgun in your shoulder holster, and you're sure you haven't been followed, then step into The Midnight House. The suspenseful, effortless storytelling awaits.
**This review first published on March 1, 2010.
Originally published March 01, 2010.
