To Live Among Wolves

Alan Simon
PublishAmerica (2006)
ISBN 1413728855
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (2/07)

Sean Brogan walked off of his job as a Counter Terrorist Branch Chief with the CIA when the opposition arranged a hit for him and killed his beloved wife instead.  Ten months later, an early morning call has him back in the office of his old division chief, Lou Stark. 

Hank Ingalls, a top field agent who knew more about nuclear proliferation than any man alive, and the man who once saved Sean’s life is missing.  The Agency, that had fired him right before he disappeared, will not authorize anyone to look for him. Determined to try and find Hank despite orders not to, Lou turns to Sean, knowing he could be trusted to do the job without worrying about be bureaucracy might say or do.  After all, when he lost Jennifer, he lost everything in his life that mattered.

Now, with few leads other than reports that Hank was killed by a lion near Zaire, Sean sets out to find him.   Searching through Hank’s files, Sean discovers that highly classified reports are missing, removed by high-level government bureaucrats.  In order to recreate the files, Sean decides to start his search in Germany, Hank’s last assignment. 

There, Sean picks up a trail that leads him to Zaire, to an Odessa-controlled research laboratory that is preparing nuclear weapons.  Sean, with the help of Mossad agent Rachel Allon, local businessman Jean-Pierre Bolenge and his niece, attempt to stop the Nazis and their Arab co-conspirators before the nuclear warheads are unleashed on Israel, a fact known to the U.S. Government who is prepared to destroy Israel in order to hold on to the Arabian oil resources.

A good fast read, “To Live Among Wolves” contains a lot of background information on the behind the scenes workings of the CIA and how the Agency finds itself losing the power to go about its business by the watchdogs on Capitol Hill who worry more about what’s in something for them than what best serves the country’s security.

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