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Don’t miss this enthralling standout debut, one of the best to come across my desk in recent years’ – Adam LeBor, Financial Times McCloskey’s remarkably accomplished debut mixes action, a Romeo and Juliet story and previously undisclosed intelligence about Assad’s regime’– The Times Best Summer Books for 2023 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 Samuel Joseph a C.I.A. operative working out of Damascus looses his work partner Val to the Syrian regime who dies under torture. The C.I.A. sets out to identify the person who kills Val and Sam gets the go ahead to do just that. That is completely the figment of my imagination,” McCloskey said in an interview with SpyTalk . “We absolutely do provide pretty basic hand-to-hand combat training to case officers, far less than anyone would probably believe, or certainly what Hollywood would portray. But I think the idea of having a case officer doing this kind of felt reasonable to me from a recruitment standpoint, that you're trying to develop somebody and do something with them. You learn about them. It's kind of intimate.”
Bashar was never meant to be president, but was thrust into the position after the death of his elder brother Bassel. While many at the time hoped Bashar, a trained ophthalmologist with a very-Western oriented wife, would open up the country, ushering in a new prosperity, reality turned out very different. Indeed, the Assad’s extended family system of governance was so entrenched, any demand for change was seen as an existential threat. Inspired by the Arab Spring elsewhere in the Middle East, young Syrians took to the street asking “why not us?” and demanded change from the Assads. Their protests were met with repression, violence, imprisonment, and abuse. That said, there are several spots in the book where I did ultimately sacrifice authenticity either to protect sensitive Agency tradecraft or where I thought it might weaken the storytelling,” he continued. “For example, there is a sequence in which CIA bomb techs test their work on cadavers. I had help creating my fictional bombs from a couple EOD techs, and when they read this part they said, ‘this is totally insane, the U.S. government would never do this.’ I said, I get it, but this is too fun, too cinematic to cut. I left it in.” Falling in love with your agent—literally, in this case—is a cardinal sin in the espionage trade. But Sam cannot help himself, especially after she pummels him at the dojo. I could not put down McCloskey’s gripping spy novel Damascus Station.…A must-read for anyone interested in Syria or espionage." Clarissa Ward A huge recommendation to anyone like me who loves spy novels but struggles to find the right books.
This was a superbly plotted and written spy thriller. One of the best that I have read in recent years.
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. 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.” You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. T]his propulsive thriller is at once a master class in spy craft and a poignant story of forbidden love set during the brutal Syrian civil war." People
Damascus Station is a breathless ride; the best laid plans sometimes come tumbling down and brinkmanship can lead to miscalculations on both sides. It is easy to identify good and evil here, but McCloskey also mines the nuances of people on both sides fighting to survive. Therein, perhaps, lies the high praise delivered by the likes of retired Gen. David Petraeus, who served as CIA director for a time, and who gushes i n a pre-publication blurb that Damascus Station “is the best spy novel I have ever read.”
I wrote most of the novel in 2019, and since then the day-to-day fighting in Syria has declined as lines of control have hardened and the large number of foreign actors involved have pressed their local allies for ceasefires and the like. But the events of the novel take place in the early years of the conflict, roughly 2011-2013, and the war only got worse in the years that followed.”David McCloskey is a former CIA analyst … the book is energised by his own experience’– The Times Best Books of 2023 So Far There is a minaret in the Great Mosque of Damascus that, according to prophecy, will one day witness the descent of the Messiah. With John le Carré gone from the field, literary espionage could use a new saviour. It may be too soon to hail David McCloskey as the chosen one. Yet he’s certainly not “a very naughty boy” — his debut novel Damascus Station is one of the best spy thrillers for years.
The tradecraft on display is riveting, far more so than any shoot-out. Running a multi-hour, cross-city surveillance detection route (SDR) is likely thrilling in practice, but does not on first glance make for riveting reading. Yet, McCloskey brings the reader along through every twist and turn, offering a glimpse, albeit incredibly limited, of what it must be like to be an Operations Officer in a hostile environment. 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?” McCloskey says that the specifics of the story—time, place,and major characters—are purely fictional, including an instance of Sam engaging in a martial arts training session with his undercover operative and love interest, both being trained by an Israeli instructor. I am always on the look-out for spy novels however there appear to be very few authors out there who have been able to capture the genre perfectly (other than Le Carre and Forsyth, for me).Damascus Station is simply marvelous storytelling.…[A] stand-out thriller and essential reading for fans of the genre." — Financial Times Stuffed with insider insights … It reveals some top-notch intelligence tradecraft’ – Tim Shipman, Sunday Times For those hoping for a more realistic look at how the CIA spies, you won’t be disappointed. Yes, as an operational tradecraft diva who spent 34 years on the street for the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, I found a number of artificial, inaccurate, or unrealistic accounts. But whereas I remain unable to sit through an episode of Homeland or 24 and simply suspend reality for 007 films, which are just pure fun, I was impressed and grateful for McCloskey’s ability to integrate just enough reality. In fairness, the author explains his interest in protecting sources and methods as well as the CIA review process, which likewise assures as much while not revealing too much. However, what is clear from this novel is that McCloskey has been there, done it and a whole lot more. The intricacies of the story are there for all to see and in the hands of a lesser author they would not play out as well as they do here.
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