The Midnight House
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- ISBN13: 9780399156205
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
CIA agent John Wells returns in a cutting-edge novel of modern suspense from the #1 New York Times-bestselling writer.
Early one morning, a ex- CIA agent is shot to death in the street. That night, an army vet is gunned down in his doorway. The next day, John Wells gets a phone call. Come to Langley. Now.
The two victims were part of an eleven-member interrogation team that operated out of a secret base in Poland called the Midnight House. For two years, they place the screws to the toughest jihadis, men thought to have knowledge of imminent threats. The interrogators used whatever means necessary. When they were disbanded in the wake of public controversy, they were agreed medals for their heroism, Prozac for their nightmares. Now Wells must find out who is killing them. Islamic terrorists are the likeliest explanation, and Wells is uniquely qualified to go undercover after them. But the trail of blood he discovers will lead him and his boss, Ellis Shafer, to a place they wouldn’t have imagined-and place Wells facing the toughest of questions about the men of the Midnight House.
Berenson’s work has been called “superior entertainment” (The Washington Post), “heart-stopping adventure” (USA Today), and “a superb yarn shiny the heap dangers confronting our country today” (The Providence Journal). He is one of the world’s best new thriller writers-and he is just getting ongoing.
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Alex Berenson Talks About His New Novel, The Midnight House
As a reporter for The New York Times, Alex Berenson has covered topics ranging from the occupation of Iraq to the flooding of New Orleans to the financial crimes of Bernie Madoff. His previous novels include The Faithful Spy, winner of the 2007 Edgar Award for best first novel, The Ghost War, and The Silent Man.
John Wells has been through a lot.
Over the course of his first three missions—chronicled in The Faithful Spy, The Ghost War, and The Silent Man —he’s been shot. Twice. He’s been beaten nearly to death in a prison in Beijing. He’s fought hand-to-hand against Russian special forces soldiers in a cave in Afghanistan. He’s repelled an assassination attempt in a traffic jam in Washington.
And, of course, there was that time he was infected with the plague.
Just writing this list makes me wince a small bit, too. You see, John is real to me—and, based on the e-mail I receive, to lots of readers, too. Unlike a predictable action hero, he’s not a human Etch-a-Sketch. He can’t shake himself clean, forget everything he’s seen and done, and wake up ready for his next mission. He has nightmares and fits of depression. Yet he will never give up his roles as protector and—unique to Wells—infiltrator, each of which brings with it point and intense psychological stresses, and so he has no choice but to soldier on.
Place simply, Wells, like many veterans, has posttraumatic stress disorder. The syndrome has gone by different names over the years: “shell shock,” “the thousand-yard stare,” “combat fatigue.” Most soldiers don’t like talking about it, especially to civilians. And with the help of their families and fellow soldiers, the fantastic majority eventually find a way to place their experiences behind them. But some suffer terribly. The number of suicides in the Army has more than doubled since the Iraq war started, rising from 67 in 2003 to at least 150 in 2009.
So in writing my fourth novel, The Midnight House, I wanted to respect the real-world impact that war has on the men and women who fight it. I hear from soldiers and veterans who read these novels, and who see themselves in Wells. I would despise to betray them by turning him into a comic-book character. And I am very conscious of the trauma Wells has accumulated, both physical and psychic. It’s just not realistic to bring him to the edge of death over and over and expect him to survive. I also wanted to give him a break from killing, to the extent I could. Not that he’s become a pacifist; far from it. But, lacking giving too much away, he is a detective as much as a soldier in this book, and he tries to avoid using force whenever he can. (In The Silent Man in contrast, he deliberately seeks out revenge even when Jennifer Exley, his then fiancée, questions him not to.)
Don’t worry, though. From start to end, The Midnight House has plenty of excitement, and the early reviews have been fantastic. Kirkus Reviews called the novel “a superbly crafted spy thriller that doubles as a gripping mystery,” and Publishers Weekly said it is “exceptional” and “compelling.” I hope you’ll agree. And I hope that when you’re done reading, you’ll remember that although John Wells is only as real as the pages (or screens) of these novels, the gallantry and sacrifice that he represents is alive every day in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in the homes of soldiers and veterans across America.
–Alex Berenson
(Photo of Alex Berenson © Sigrid Estrada)
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Looks like a excellent book but I am not interested at a pricepoint above $9.99 for the Kindle Edition.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
John Wells is leader Berenson’s spy who came in from the cold, a CIA operative who spent years undercover in the Middle East penetrating the jihadi organizations. After repatriation he went through a period of cognitive dissonance while trying to reacclimatize to American society, while still pursuing his mission of fighting jihadi terrorists, ultimately apt a national hero. The first three books covered this tale arc.
This book is a change-up of major proportions.
The ex- members of a secret Army/CIA interrogation unit known as the Midnight House are being murdered back here in the States. Wells and his boss, Ellis Shafer, are tasked with investigating the murders to verify whether or not they’re tied into the operations of the Midnight House, and if so to find out who’s reliable and place a stop to it.
The tale jumps back and into the world in time, following the operations of the Midnight House a year or so ago, as well as Wells’s and Shafer’s investigation in the present. In some ways this is reminiscent of “Courage Under Fire”. Sorry to say, Wells seems out of his element doing tasks more readily linked with the denizens of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct.
This is pretty much an investigative procedural, with none of the excitement or fireworks of the earlier books. No particularly unique or memorable characters; no plain action sequences; no dramatic tension built up anywhere; and a pretty mundane ending. The largest issue seeming to preoccupy Wells is whether to try to win back his ancient girlfriend or renovate a lasting relationship with the new one.
I’m not sure what Berenson wanted to accomplish here. An attempt to examine “rendition” and its consequences? Some political statement? A stab at being a political thriller?
Beats me.
All in all, not what we’ve come to expect from Berenson, though not terrible. I’ll be generous and give it three stars, in hopes for better next time.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
After learning this leader via the Hugh Hewitt show, I bought the John Wells books and loved them. When “The Midnight House” came out I bought and quickly read it.
I agree with some of the additional reviewers that this is not the predictable John Wells novel. It’s more of a mystery then a military/terrorist thriller.
Unlike additional thriller writers that Hugh Hewitt interviewed, Berenson declined to give his political inclinations, but being a writer for the New York Times I wasn’t surprised to see that his back take in blurb includes covering the “occupation” of Iraq.
Despite the leader’s apparent liberal inclinations, this book is mostly honest about the issue of enhanced interrogation methods. Coincidentally, I finished “Courting Disaster” by Marc Thiessen before reading this book (brilliant book and a must-read to know the facts).
And this is where the book’s premise and “facts” start to conflict with reality. I know the need for blending facts with fiction in a novel, but Berenson appears frankly sloppy with his research. In the context of Courting Disaster, the enhanced interrogation techniques used in “The Midnight House” are brutal and not effective… yes, they ultimately work in this novel, but not as well and as quickly as what really occurred (no tazers were used, very controlled sensory deprivation, etc). Since the interrogation unit is set up to get actionable intelligence ASAP, they wouldn’t spend weeks and weeks waiting for solitary confinement and sensory deprivation to work. The brutalized “innocent young terrorist” caught in the middle of things would quickly have been identified as having a mental problem and removed/separated by the team’s child psychiatrist.
Lacking giving too much away, the actual killer in this murder mystery turns out to be an amateur which is not realistic agreed who he is matched against. There’s even small things incorrect here; Berenson talks about the immediate acceleration in a WRX; what he probably means is a WRX STI, and the acceleration is not immediate (there’s a time gap while the turbocharger kicks in… not sure Berenson has ever driven a WRX or WRX STI). Predators are not used for long-term monitoring (weeks-months) of facilities. At the end of the novel the Delta team going into Indian Country is described pretty much as perfectly blending into the population, but as readers of “First In” by Gary Schroen knows, no matter how long US servicemen are in-country or how well camouflaged they are still immediately identified as outsiders by the local populace.
The first couple John Wells novels were worth buying in hardback, this one excise waiting for the paperback or even the used bookstore route.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
After reading his previous books i was tickled to see this latest relief in the John Wells series. I was so disappointed by the plot, the setting, even the theme matter.
If Alex wants to write a different kind of book that is fantastic but he should not ruin a franchise character like john wells in the process. he should have made a different main character for this tale line. I will be very cautious before buying another book of his.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I agree with the 2 and 3 star reviewers. His earlier work and all the stars led me to this one, but it is very poorly done.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5