Valley of Spies by Keith Yocum

Dennis Cunningham has had an interesting life. A lifer at Langley, but he wasn’t a spy per se. The bulk of his time was spent in the Office of the Inspector General - CIA’s version of a police department’s Internal Affairs. He looked into Agency folks who went off the rails. When his wife died (an earlier book I assume), he became clinically depressed and went to Dr. Forrester, an Agency-approved clinical psychologist.

Now he’s been retired for about a year and living in Perth, Australia with Judy, an agent for the AFP – the Australian Federal Police (think Aussie FBI). He’s learning to love golf, Aussie Rules Football and cricket. 

He gets a call from Langley. He has been recommended by Louise (an ambitious woman wanting to become the first female director of operations) to be an impartial investigator into the disappearance of Dr. Forrester. Seems she was in New Zealand for a conference and simply disappeared. This initial investigation targets an Iranian couple thought to be manning a NZ-based listening post. The new Director of the CIA wants independent confirmation before approving retaliation on the Irani Intelligence directorate (meaning, you took one of ours, we are coming for 6 of yours). His Agency contact is Philip Simpson, Deputy Chief of Operations. A guy Dennis has no love for.

Oh, and by the way, he has 2 weeks to submit his report.

He starts out with what the Kiwis found and starts to wonder if Dr. Forrester’s disappearance was less about intelligence and more about her other Agency clients. He hops a flight to DC over Simpsons objections. In DC he meets up with Forrester’s husband, Louise, Simpson, and some former friends at CIA. Each time he thinks he has a lead, it dries up. Then, he disappears, Judy’s paranoia meter redlines and she too heads to DC to find out what happened to Dennis. Whether Forrester’s disappearance is solved is not Judy’s concern.

This is the first book by Yocum that I have read and I must say that I’m very impressed. Published by an independent press, Cunningham and Judy are an engaging couple and the plot is exceedingly thoughtful and complex. Friends are not so friendly and former enemies just might turn out to be important friends. There appear to be 2 or 3 other Cunningham books as well as a couple standalones set in Vietnam and the Civil War. From where I sit right now, I think Yocum is definitely worth a further look.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

ECD