To Free a Spy

Fans of high-octane Tom Clancy–esque thrillers will most enjoy Ganaway’s fast-paced first novel. Cam Warfield left the army to establish his own counterintelligence center, but he’s called back into service by President Garrison Cross, who served as CIA director before his election to the Oval Office. Warfield agrees to handle debriefing Harvey Joplan, a mole detected in the agency, in an effort to track down nuclear material stolen from a Russian facility. Immediately after the ticking-bomb setup, Ganaway introduces a whole separate cast of characters, including Karly Amarson, a high-priced escort whose clients include members of the Washington elite, and whose efforts to blackmail one of them ends in violence. Later, the focus shifts to Fumio Yoshida, a Japanese transportation minister, in what appears to be another subplot unrelated to the main one. The action sequences compensate for characters drawn with little depth. [em](BookLife) [/em]