The Seventh Floor
by David McCloskey
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A Russian arrives in Singapore with a secret to sell. When the Russian is killed and Sam Joseph, the CIA officer dispatched for the meet, goes missing, operational chief Artemis Procter is made a scapegoat for the disaster and run out of the service. Months later, Sam appears at Procter's doorstep with an explosive secret: there is a Russian mole burrowed deep within the highest ranks of the CIA.
As Procter and Sam investigate, they arrive at a shortlist of suspects made up of both Procter's closest friends and fiercest enemies. The hunt requires Procter to dredge up her checkered past in the service of the CIA, placing the pair in the sights of a savvy Russian spymaster who will protect Moscow's mole in Langley at all costs. What happens when friendships forged by sweat and blood--from the Farm to Afghanistan and the executive "Seventh Floor" of CIA's Langley headquarters--are put to the ultimate test? What can we truly know about the people we love the most?
Taking readers from Langley to Moscow to Paris and beyond, The Seventh Floor explores the nature of friendship in a faithless business, and what it means to love a place that does not love you back.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9781324086680
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- David McCloskey
- Publisher
- W. W. Norton & Company
- Published Date
- October 1, 2024
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 400
- Physical Info
- 1.6 in H x 9.1 in L x 6.1 in W (1.25 lb)
Great writing, terrific characters and engaging storyline. A very clever spy novel. Highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more by this author.
I read a lot of spy fiction and non-fiction. John Le Carre of course is the master of spy fiction, with Graham Greene coming in second place. But, I was really surprised to find that David McCloskey, who worked for the CIA and was stationed overseas with them, is the closest thing to a modern American version of John Le Carre. McCloskey writes tradecraft of the spy world like only someone could from knowing it first hand. But, he also writes his characters with personalities that seemed like I was probably getting an inside view of what agents are really like.In The Seventh Floor, it is a sequel to his first book Damascus Station. The two main characters in both books, Sam Johnson and Artemis Aphrodtite Procter, return to deal with a mole at Langley. Procter is working out of Moscow Station. And she recruits Sam from Langley to meet a very important Russian agent who claims to very important information about a mole at the top of the CIA. However someone leaked this meeting to the Russians, and the informant ends of dead and Sam whisked off to Moscow to be tortured to find out what information was relayed to him. Months later, when Sam is returned to the US in an exchange for a Russian counterpart, he realizes the can’t share this information with anyone back at Langley since, according to the informant it is somebody at the top. So Sam turns to the only person he knows he can trust, Procter. The story unfolds masterfully. This was a book I could hardly put down. It was very suspenseful, with so many aspects of tradecraft laid out. I think Procter’s character was so masterful she almost reminded me a bit of the role Robert Redford played as Muir in the movie Spy Game.
Gets you hooked right away though I thought ending appeared rushed. Waiting for sequel to this book. A good read
The book started like many spy novels, slow to develop characters and the process of setting up story lines. It was an interesting take on the CIA culture post 9/11, in that it painted the Agencies politics in such a brutal light. The lead character is seasoned field operative who needs 2-3 more books for me to completely understand. Suffice it to say she is interesting. The last 200 pages were incredible and the ending was fabulous. I highly recommend this book and will be reading the rest of the series.
A little long and convoluted in the middle. But worth the readShe’s quite a character for sure. More to follow I presume
