Blow the House Down
Robert Baer
‘Baer is obviously giving vent to all the things he knows but cannot say, speculating about all the things he he can’t prove and probably just making a lot of stuff up. But it is a heady mix of fact and fiction, with Baer taking real people and real events and knitting them together with the fabric of this “alternative history” of what happened before the terrorist attacks on American soil … Read as pure fiction, it is a rattling good read. Read with the knowledge that a lot of it just might be true, it becomes whole lot more frightening.’
Lucy Clark (Sunday Telegraph)‘The film Syriana was based on an earlier book by Baer and this is equally compelling.’
Simon Hughes (AFR Magazine)‘Pulses with the gritty details only a former intelligence officer could know ... a harrowing tale of the struggle Baer risked his life fighting for over two decades against America’s enemies in the Arab World. Watch out, Tom Clancy, there’s a new storyteller in town — and he’s actually lived the life he writes about!’
David Ignatius, author of Agents of InnocenceBlow the House Down creates a riveting, terrifying version of the events that led to 9/11.
Veteran CIA officer Max Waller has long been obsessed with the abduction and murder of his Agency mentor in Beirut in 1984. Years of digging yield the name of a suspect an Iranian maths genius turned terrorist but the trail seems too cold to justify further effort. Then Max turns up a photograph of the man standing alongside Osama bin Laden and a mysterious Westerner whose face has been cut out of the photo. When the first official to whom Max shows the photo winds up dead, the out-of-favour agent suddenly finds himself the target of dark forces within the intelligence community who are desperate to muzzle him.
Displaying a dazzling understanding of spy-craft and an array of richly textured backdrops, and filled with real names and events, Blow the House Down deftly balances fact and possibility to become the first great thriller to spring from the war on terrorism.
Fiction this real can only come from someone who knows the truth.
‘Bob Baer knows Arabic, knows the Middle East, knows the CIA, and he spent years working its most important target — terrorism. Now he’s written a lively novel about agency infighting on the eve of 9/11, when so many managed to get so much so wrong. Blow the House Down is an insider’s tale about the one unforgivable sin of the intelligence world — not wanting to know.’
Thomas Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Man Who Kept The Secrets, Intelligence Wars and the novel, The Confirmation‘In what is sure to be a very controversial fiction debut, ex-CIA agent Bob Baer weaves a gripping account of a sinister plot leading up to the events of September 11, 2001. Blow the House Down is one of the finest espionage novels I’ve read since the end of the Cold War. Sharp, witty, and chilling; do yourself a big favor and read this.’
Nelson DeMille, author of Night Fall and The Lion's Game‘Engrossing and challenging — how do you act when you know what really happened on September 11? Baer is so persuasive, one wonders whether he in fact did know. He certainly writes as if he did.’
William F. Buckley Jr., author of Miles Gone By and Last Call For Blackford OakesA ‘riveting plausible alternative theory of 9/11.’
(Pittwater Life)‘Thought-provoking.'
Daniel Price (Townsville Bulletin)‘A crackling spy thriller [that] moves at jet speed and will leave readers wondering how much may be true.’
David Wise, author of Spy‘Unputdownable … Bob Baer has developed great characters and put them in situations that are devastatingly authentic.’
Joseph J. Trento, author of The Secret History of the CIARobert Baer
Author photo
Robert Baer is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: Sleeping with the Devil, about the Saudi royal family and its relationship with the United States; and See No Evil, which recounts Baer’s years as a top CIA operative. See No Evil was the basis for the acclaimed film Syriana, which earned George Clooney an Oscar for his portrayal of Baer. Baer writes regularly for Time.com and has contributed to Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East. He lives in Colorado, USA.
Extent: 304pp
Size: 234mm x 153mm
ISBN (10): 1920769 862
ISBN (13): 9781920769864
RRP: $32.95
Pub date: June 2006
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