A Firing Offense: A Novel
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4.1 • 90 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"A dynamic thriller with the coolest, smartest journalist that fiction ever produced." —Ben Bradlee, Washington Post
When rising-star reporter Eric Truell accepts information from a maverick CIA agent, he becomes enmeshed in an international trade war in which even his own newspaper may be an unsuspecting participant. When Eric's sources tell him there is a spy inside the newsroom, he is tempted to cross a dangerous professional line and risk his career—possibly even his life—to find the truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Just how far will a journalist go to get a story? What happens when he crosses the line from observer to newsmaker? Those questions are at the heart of this smart thriller, in which reporter and narrator Eric Truell's every action forces him into a moral dilemma involving the conflict between the private and the public good. Beginning with the funeral of respected New York Mirror reporter Arthur Bowman, Truell tells the story behind Bowman's death, which is also the story of how Truell started painting himself into an ethical corner. A hostage situation in a French restaurant leads Truell to contact a CIA source, who hooks him up with disaffected agent Rupert Cohen. Wanting to parlay his government experience into a reporter's job, Cohen feeds Truell secrets, and the moral stakes keep rising. Truell finds himself in the thick of the downfall of a French government, a senator's forced withdrawal from the U.S. presidential race, and a laboratory in Beijing where a deadly new biological weapon is being developed. Truell's actions become more and more catalytic, and less and less objective. Using a cleverly detailed plot, Ignatius (
Customer Reviews
A firing offense
I had a hard time putting this book down. Ignatius does a wonderful job of integrating the moral issues of one's professional life while following the rules. The twists and turns in this story are so compelling. It makes one wonder about the workings of all the organizations he describes. In the end one can conclude that those who run these countries and it's' organizations are all capable of human error or worse. Of course we all like the individual who steps up to the plate and does the "right" thing. I loved this book.