A subtle and masterful novel from a prescient voice on the cutting edge of spy literature.David Ignatius is known for his uncanny ability, in novel after novel, to predict the next great national security headline. In Phantom Orbit, he presents a story both searing and topical, with stakes as far-reaching as outer space. It follows Ivan Volkov, a Russian student in Beijing, who discovers an unsolved puzzle in the writings of the seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. He takes the puzzle to a senior scientist in the Chinese space program and declares his intention to solve it. Volkov returns to Moscow and continues his secret work. The puzzle holds untold consequences for space warfare.The years pass, and they are not kind to Volkov. After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who'd been too tough on corruption, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA. He writes: Satellites are your enemies,...

"A riveting imagined world, so real in fact that one always wonders if it is imagined at all." —Scott TurowMade restless by the tightening restrictions of CIA bureaucracy, agent Alan Taylor oversteps moral and legal bounds in a top-secret mission to destabilize the Soviet Union. His new recruit—the beautiful Anna Barnes, who struggles with complex feelings for Taylor—receives a deeper education than she signed up for in David Ignatius's trademark world of shifting international and domestic pressures, hidden loyalties, and secret agendas.

From Library JournalThe factional strife in Lebanon feeds on rumor, deliberate lies, and half-truths, and spawns mercenaries and agents of every ideological stripe. Most share a harsh morality that allows terrorism to advance. A very few others are committed to relationships built on trust, honesty, and a sense of mutual responsibility. One such is Tom Rogers, a CIA agent who penetrates a prime Palestinian unit and makes a secret agreement with a young deputy chief of Fatah intelligence. This first novel is a suspenseful account of the excruciating ambiguity of the undertaking. Ignatius, a former Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, writes with a fatalistic affection for his subject and deep understanding of its complexity. As a storyteller, Ignatius deploys drama, pace, and character to make this a spy novel of formidable power. Barbara Conaty, Library of CongressCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. ReviewAn uncommonly informative and intriguing espionage thriller. (_Time_ ) An unparalleled and hauntingly accurate portrait of how the intelligence game is really played. (Bob Woodward ) A first-rate achievement in the best tradition of Graham Greene. (_Los Angeles Times_ )

From the best-selling author of The Director and Body of Lies comes a thrilling tale of global espionage, state-of-the-art technology, and unthinkable betrayal. A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb; whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. The winner of the race to build the world's first quantum machine will attain global dominance for generations to come. The question is, who will cross the finish line first: the U.S. or China?In this gripping cyber thriller, the United States' top-secret quantum research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, inciting a mole hunt of history-altering proportions. CIA officer Harris Chang leads the charge, pursuing his target from the towering cityscape of Singapore to the lush hills of the Pacific Northwest, the mountains of Mexico, and beyond. The investigation is obsessive, destructive, and—above all—uncertain....

ReviewStarred Review. [C]ontinues his series of top-notch CIA thrillers with this fast-paced new entry.... Ignatius writes with authority and skill about a shadow world in which nothing is as it seems and money is power. This may be fiction, but in the end the reader will be struck by how feasible the story really is.... A terrific, believable novel about the intersection of politics, ethics and finance. (Kirkus Reviews) Product DescriptionFrom the author of the best-selling Body of Lies and The Increment: in a tragedy of revenge, the CIA falls victim to its own daring operation in the Middle East.Someone in Pakistan is killing the members of a new CIA intelligence unit that is trying to buy peace with America's enemies. It falls to Sophie Marx, a young CIA officer with a big chip on her shoulder, to figure out who's doing the killing and why. Her starting point is Alphabet Capital, the London hedge fund that has been providing cover for this secret operation, but the investigation soon widens to include the capitals of the Middle East and the cruel hills of South Waziristan. Sophie thinks she has the backing of her hard-nosed boss, Jeffrey Gertz, and his genial mentor at headquarters, Cyril Hoffman. In addition, she gets help from the well-mannered lieutenant general heading Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. But the closer Sophie gets to her quarry, the more she realizes that nothing in this gallery of mirrors is quite what it seems. This is a theater of violence and retribution, in which the last act is one that Sophie could not have imagined. David Ignatius has written a disturbing and compelling novel where the price of unchecked government is paid in blood, and peace can be bought only through betrayal.