Traitor
A Thriller
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
This “smart, thought-provoking, rising crescendo of suspense” (The Real Book Spy) pits the intelligence of one man against one of the most successful spies ever to operate against American interests.
When a young Israeli walks into an American embassy and offers to betray his country for money and power, he has no idea that the CIA agent interviewing him is a Russian mole. Years later, the Israeli has risen in the ranks to become a trusted advisor to Israel’s prime minister and throughout his career, he’s been forced to share everything with the Kremlin.
Now, however, a hint that there may be a traitor in the highest realms of power has slipped out and a top-secret team is put together to hunt him down. The chase leads the team from the streets of Tel Aviv to deep inside the Russian zone and, finally, to the United States, where a most unique spymaster is revealed. The final showdown—between the traitor and the betrayed—can only be resolved by an act of utter treachery that could have far-reaching and devastating consequences for all of humanity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
De Shalit, "a former high-ranking member of the Israeli Intelligence Community," has the credentials to pen a solid spy novel centered on a mole hunt, but veteran genre readers will find nothing that they haven't seen before in his plodding debut. In 1983, Alon, a young Israeli parliamentary aide, walks into the American embassy in Rome and tells an official, John Roberts, that he wishes to work as an intelligence asset for the U.S. The ambitious Alon boasts that within two decades he will be in a position to provide top-level strategic information. Roberts, himself a traitor, will pass on Alon's offer to the East Germans, for whom Alon unwittingly becomes a spy. In 2013, the betrayal of the man code-named Cobra by the East Germans comes to the attention of Aharon Levin, the retired head of Mossad, who is authorized by the Israeli president to put together an off-the-books squad to identify and apprehend him. It soon becomes clear that Cobra is Alon. Readers will struggle to sympathize with the colorless Alon, whose motives never cohere.
