Product Description

By the author of the best-selling Body of Lies, a novel that takes the reader inside the most volatile secret of the twenty-first century: the Iranian nuclear program. From a hidden enclave in the maze of Tehran, an Iranian scientist who calls himself “Dr. Ali” sends an encrypted message to the CIA. It falls to Harry Pappas to decide if it’s for real. Dr. Ali sends more secrets of the Iranian bomb program to the agency, then panics. He’s being followed, but he doesn’t know who’s onto him, and neither does Pappas. The White House is no help—they’re looking for a pretext to attack Tehran.

To get his agent out, Pappas turns to a secret British spy team known as “The Increment,” whose operatives carry the modern version of the double-O “license to kill.” But the real story here is infinitely more complicated than he understands, and to get to the bottom of it he must betray his own country.

The Increment is The Spy Who Came In from the Cold set in Iran, with a dose of Graham Greene’s The Human Factor to highlight the subtleties of betrayal. .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20783 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393065046
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Ignatius (Body of Lies) explores America's escalating cold war with Iran in a thriller sure to draw comparisons to le Carré's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. When Harry Pappas, the new CIA chief of the Iran Operations Division, receives an unsolicited e-mail from an alleged Tehran scientist who calls himself Dr. Ali that implies Iran has in fact continued with its nuclear weapons program and is an imminent threat to global peace, he shares the information with his superiors only to find an administration bent on warmongering. Having vowed never again to play a role in a senseless conflict that could potentially kill thousands of innocents, Pappas, whose only son was killed while serving in the second Iraq War, must somehow identify Dr. Ali, get him out of Iran and mine his knowledge before the U.S. blunders into another unnecessary war. While the realistic story lines build to a somewhat predictable ending, this remains a page-turner of the highest order. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Art Taylor Like undercover agents suddenly discovering rival operatives on the same mission, two new spy thrillers seem to have stumbled into each other's path in recent weeks. Both "Banquo's Ghosts" and "The Increment" propose that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program and focus attention on a scientist at the heart of the research. Both novels involve a rogue CIA operation that departs from agency protocol. And both books boast a noted journalist at the helm: Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review (his co-author here is a literary agent), and David Ignatius is a columnist for The Washington Post. Yet despite all these similarities, the two novels couldn't be more different in their attitudes and approaches. The title character of "Banquo's Ghosts" is an old-school spook, operating just off the CIA's radar -- a sort of desk-jockey Jack Bauer tasked to "execute unspoken decisions and deniable intentions." He and his team protect the United States not just from its enemies but from its own weakened bureaucracy and its sorry dependence on frail U.N. resolutions. As far back as a stint in 1980s Beirut, Banquo saw how politics compromised security, and he doesn't intend to let it happen again with this new threat from the Middle East. His latest recruit is Peter Johnson, a bourbon-sotted, left-leaning journalist who's been relentlessly hard on American policies. Johnson is trusted by the Iranians, making him the only one who might get close enough to prove the WMDs are real and then to assassinate the chief architect of the atomic program. All Banquo needs to do is set Johnson on the right path. In "The Increment," on the other hand, it's not the United States that takes the initiative but the Iranian scientist himself. Dr. Ali contacts the CIA through encrypted channels and posts secret information about weapons-grade uranium enrichment. Harry Pappas, chief of the Agency's Iran Operations Division, assembles a team to determine the validity of the information and perhaps recruit Dr. Ali as an agent for the home cause. But as Pappas considers how best to capitalize on this unexpected resource, a trigger-happy U.S. government rushes toward military action. "Bomb, bomb, bomb. Let's bomb Iran," mimics Pappas, who lost his son in Iraq, a student who quit college after Sept. 11 to join the war effort. Pappas can't forgive himself for failing to tell his son that any connection between Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein was bogus. Even in synopses, the novels' opposing political leanings are apparent, and "Banquo's Ghosts" in particular wears its party affiliation on its sleeve. Lowry and Korman make an example of the journalist sent to Iran, using his disenchantment with misguided liberalism as a life lesson about morality and patriotism and being a real man. As the plot ratchets to a frenzy, "Banquo's Ghost" lampoons the left-wing media and decries a society more interested in hosting "sexual harassment and racial sensitivity seminars" than in eradicating the real evils of the world. Who is that real enemy? The phrase "Muslim Diabolical Genius: Islamo-Nazi-Girl" is used at one point. And what should we do about her? By the time waterboarding rears its ugly, gasping-for-breath head, the book has long since assured us that the ends justify "any means necessary," openly challenging readers to consider the consequences of hesitation, inaction and even diplomacy. Banquo orders torture without flinching, but he's left shaken by the suggestion that the United States might simply talk to Iran: " 'Dialogue . . . ' Banquo whispered, aghast but totally controlled. He wanted to yell now. He'd heard that word before. Always before something terrible happened." In "The Increment," by contrast, we're given lots of conversation, much of it potentially plodding for readers who signed up for cloak-and-dagger and instead got pulled into closed-door policy meetings. E-mails between the CIA and Dr. Ali seek to build relationships and cement understanding. Pappas's internal dialogue reflects on the similarities between his personal loss and Iran's own historic sense of suffering. Dr. Ali ruminates on his father's bitterness toward the shah and his own disillusionment with the Revolution. We're halfway through the novel before the covert ops group known as the Increment is even called to duty. So which is more successful? Hard-hitting action or discreet diplomacy? Readers looking for sheer suspense will be better served by picking up "Banquo's Ghosts." But for others, myself included, a novel's merit might well be judged less by the swiftness of its plot than by the breadth and generosity of its perspective. While "Banquo's Ghosts" subordinates character to thesis and frequently demonizes those Iranian baddies, "The Increment" seeks to paint a full portrait of its young scientist -- charting his hopes and fears, plumbing the motivations behind his shifting allegiances and dangerous betrayals. Where "Banquo's Ghosts" races toward panic in the streets, a more richly emotional climax takes place in "The Increment." It may lack fireworks, but it bears the hard weight of both political and personal history and recognizes the seriousness of what might come next.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
Washington Post columnist Ignatius follows up his best-selling Body of Lies (2007) with another timely espionage novel. This time the subject is Iran’s nuclear program. The CIA has zero assets in Iran until a message is sent to the agency’s Web site that indicates that the Iranians are making real progress toward a bomb. It falls to veteran spy Harry Pappas to identify the sender and weigh the validity of the information, while the bellicose White House gears up for war. Pappas is disheartened and disaffected; he knew the Iraq War would be a disaster, and he lost his marine son there. To carry out his assignment, he must go rogue and seek the aid of British intelligence. Ignatius has been writing about the CIA and the Middle East for several decades, and his descriptions of espionage tradecraft, CIA shortcomings and turf battles, and Tehran’s schizoid teeter between modernity and nearly medieval repression are vivid, believable, and engrossing. Thriller devotees will devour The Increment, and its ripped-from-the-headlines subject matter may well attract both talk shows and off-the-book-page features. --Thomas Gaughan