A Spy at Home

By Joseph M Rinaldo
       
       This very different story starts out with the disclaimer that if you are reading it, the author is already dead. It reads like journal entries as the protagonist tells about his adventures with the CIA alternating with scenes from his home life.

He tells of the baby, Noah, being rescued from a catastrophic house fire unscathed and happy, and handed to his wife by a fireman on the scene. Louisa and Garrett immediately bond with and fall in love with the beautiful baby. With no other survivors in the fire, and the baby being rejected by relatives because he has Down Syndrome, Garrett and Louisa are able to adopt him.

Garrett works for the CIA, and his specialty is in toppling foreign governments that are hostile to American interests, and in funneling money to more cooperative factions in return for their help in deposing these governments. He is absent from home for long stretches at a time, but now he wants to spend more time with Louisa and Noah. In his final job for the CIA, he transfers $500,000 to a radical group, with an additional $9,500,000 due upon completion of the coup...but he sees his chance to double cross and eliminate these radicals, and keep over nine million dollars for himself. No one will ever know if he is careful.

Louisa is horrified by this turn of events, but eventually agrees with Garrett that he really deserves the money. They buy a villa in Martinique, but spend sparingly when in the U.S.

I thought at this point that I knew where this story was going, but I couldn't have been more wrong. With great characters and non-stop action, this is a thriller you won't want to miss. I couldn't put it down, and would love to read more by this talented author.