If you like mysteries (and I do) and you see recommendations from some of your favorite mystery writers (Louise Penny, Lee Child, and John Grisham) for a debut novel called Need to Know by Karen Cleveland on Net Galley’s advance reading copy offerings (and I did), you have a tendency to take their word for it and add it to your Kindle reading queue, and maybe start reading as a lead-in to a good night's rest.
In a very slight spoiler, the first chapter ends with CIA analyst Vivian Miller finding her husband’s face on the file she opens of a Russian sleeper cell. You might guess that I did not turn over and go to sleep. The trouble was that each chapter after that kept me in suspense as CIA investigations, family anxiety, and questions of who Vivian can trust leaves something hanging at the end. Then there is the question that recurs about her own ethics beginning with her deletion of that file and her loyalties to country, family, and colleagues. The ending, which I will not give away, had me returning to read it again and asking, “Really?”
The author’s authenticity comes from her own background in eight years as a CIA analyst focusing on counterterrorism which brings to mind the old and sometimes reliable saying that one should write what she knows.
The release date for the Need to Know is Tuesday, January 23, but I was not at all surprised to see that movie rights are already in the works. In the meantime, if you are looking for a nice quiet book to lull you to sleep at night, this is not it.