David Ignatius - Body of Lies (2007)
Reviewed by David J. Montgomery
David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post, returns to fiction for the first time in over a decade with one of the season's best thrillers. Body of Lies is a wonderfully detailed and nuanced spy novel in the tradition of Frederic Forsythe and Graham Greene.
Roger Ferris is a rising star in the CIA, a promising young agent with an intimate knowledge of the Arab world. He's heading up the agency's operations in Jordan when he and his supervisor hatch an intricate plot to bring down an al Qaeda ringleader named Suleiman.
Ignatius clearly has intimate knowledge of the Middle East, which enables him to tell a rich and convincing story. His portrayal of the Arab people is uncommonly sympathetic, at times perhaps too much so. Every good thriller needs a good villain, and Ignatius seems almost reluctant to show the terrorists in a negative light. Fortunately, Body of Lies is strong enough to overcome that limitation.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
