Vivian Miller works long hours but, thank heavens, for her reliable work-at-home husband. He has dinner ready when she gets home, takes the kids to school and has always supported her advancement as a CIA analyst. Vivian’s current project, pluming the murky depths of Russian sleeper agents, has become an obsession. Her success at identifying these illusive cells could result in a desperately needed promotion.
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Vivian is getting close. As she delves into a suspected Russian spy’s computer files, she comes across a folder with five photographs of ordinary looking Americans who fit the perfect profile for embedded plants. She flips through the pictures until she lands on one that freezes her in her tracks. In that moment, her job, country, her family and all that matters to her becomes precarious.

I stayed up late reading this one. Not only does it make you wonder about the strangers you pass on the street, it makes you question the people you know. High stakes suspense right up to the end!

As an ESL tutor, many of my students come from Russia.
They will love this book, and it will stimulate lots of discussion !
The book presents a moral dilema and it is interesting to see how it is resolved.
The style of flashbacks to provide basis for the story makes this a compelling read

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland

A pox on you, Ms. Cleveland, you’re the reason I’m bleary eyed today! Did you have to write such an engrossing novel? I began reading an ARC of Need to Know yesterday evening and I just could not put it down. Nonstop excitement, believable characters, suspense, twists you don’t see coming, this novel has it all. I’ll keep the synopsis minimal as it would be a crime to give anything away, suffice it to say it’s set in the Washington, D.C.and the CIA.

I loved this book! Highly recommended.


ARC provided by NetGalley. My opinion is my own.

I had trouble putting this one down. It is easy to imagine oneself in a woman's shoes who stands to lose her entire life as she knows it if she doesn't do this "one thing". Usually I feel impatient with indecisive female characters, but this one had every right to be! Despite this, she did use the knowledge she had gained in her early training for the FBI to take some decisive actions. Nevertheless, the ending is chilling.