The Deceivers by Alex Berenson

If you think all the hoopla surrounding potential collusion by Russia to rig the 2016 election is even remotely horrifying, you really do need to read Alex Berenson’s take on Russian meddling.

Ahmed Shakir is a two-bit dealer in Dallas. Deals enough to get by and not get on anyone’s radar. Doesn’t love the life, but it works for him. He may be Muslim by birth, but he has little use for Islam. He does have a couple cousins who talk a big game, but that’s it. Ahmed gets cornered by the FBI. Told that if he helps the FBI nab his cousins, they will make all his drug-related crimes disappear.

Through his FBI contacts, Ahmed starts to egg on his cousins. Promises them guns and money. Arranges for firearms training. Even joins them at the mosque. A target is set. The American Airlines arena where the Dallas Mavericks play. A date is finalized. The FBI tells Ahmed to go ahead. A car for them will be parked close to the arena with all the tools needed. But don’t worry, says the FBI. The firing pins will all be removed. The cousins just need to open the truck and pull the rifles. The FBI will sweep in and stop the attack before it gets started.

But it all goes horribly wrong. The cousins grab the guns and start firing at the crowd coming to the game. Ahmed rushes to the trunk. The place for the spare tire is loaded with C4. Once the smoke settles, over 400 people had been killed. The worst terrorist attack since 9/11.

Post slaughter forensics reveals little. President Duto calls in his own ‘police force’, John Wells and John's long-time CIA contact, Ellis Shafer. While John and Ellis remain CIA tight, ex-DCI Duto isn’t part of this little inner circle (see some of Berenson’s recent books for that backstory). Wells wants to dig into the Dallas bombing, but Duto sends Wells off to Colombia to try and track the drugs Ahmed was dealing.

Tom Miller, a former Army sniper, two tours in Afghanistan, post head injury, some PTSD, and 60% disability lives in nowhere western Washington. He’s in a bar and steps in when he sees a couple former army officers hassle a woman, Allie. She has her own issues having been sexually assaulted as a young girl, but she is grateful for what Tom did for her. Over the coming weeks, this chance meeting turns romantic.

The trail Duto put Wells on doesn’t quite go as planned, sending Wells into Colombia, then to Quito, Ecuador, back to Dallas, then Mexico City tracking money that gradually begins to smell suspiciously Russian. If what he is finding is true, the Russians are out for far more than anyone thought possible.

As the relationship between Allie and Tom grows, she opens about her history and convinces Tom to help her settle some scores. They hit the road to use Tom’s sniper skills.

The FBI are still stumbling in their attempts to work the Dallas bombing case. Wells may have started looking at the drugs supplied to Ahmed, he veers off and comes to realize Miller is behind a couple recent sniper kills. Only Wells and Shafer seem to believe the two are connected. And it’s up to them to stop the next kill, this time it's Duto’s nemesis in the Senate and likely opponent in the next election.

This is the 12^th John Wells series from Berenson. While I still think #1 (The Faithful Spy) was the best of the bunch, from #2 and onward, each is better than the previous. The Deceivers, however, differs from previous John Wells adventures. In previous books, Wells sets of for some of the world’s most dangerous locations to face off with a few dozen jihadi fanatics and take them down hard. A high body count was one of the hallmarks of Wells’ presence. This book is more of a police investigation and less brute muscle and a few thousand bullet casings. We watch Wells track clues from one source to the next and next with little of what Wells normally leaves in his wake. Good investigatory police work, that’s what this is.

But it’s no less riveting. Body count is not correlated with enjoyment. Just be prepared to devote a couple long days without disturbance. Trust me, you won’t want to be distracted. 

Available Feb 6, 2018. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.