The Echelon Vendetta

by David Stone

Book Overview

An international spy thriller of the highest order that traverses from Venice to London to Washington, D.C. Micah Dalton is not paid to ask questions. He's the man the CIA sends to clean up the mess when something goes wrong-an agent gets in trouble, or worse. But when his colleague and friend Porter Nauman turns up dead in an idyllic Tuscan hill town, as a result of an apparent and unimaginably gruesome suicide, Dalton can't help but ask questions...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399154086
• ISBN13: 9780399154089
• Release Date: February 2007
• Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
• Length: 419 Pages
• Weight: 1.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.4" x 10.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Excellent spy thriller

This novel runs along at quite a frenetic pace and keeps the reader glued to the pages waiting to find out what happens next. For a first novel it is very good and I hope to see more from Mr. Stone. It is pretty much standard thriller fare, with a bad guy killing a bunch of supposedly good guys and a weary spy with his own demons trying to catch him. But Mr. Stone plots this story very well and the characters are a cut above most spy novels. Be warned that there is some fairly graphic violence and several very brutal murders so this is not for the faint of heart. One minor point is that several of the secondary characters have some type of cancer, mostly attributed to the use of tobacco products. Could the author be trying to make a statement here? It doesn't really take away from the story, but I found it a little strange. In any event, it is a very good book. Highly recommended.

fantastic debut

Reading alot of books in this genre, it is always a struggle to find something fresh and new. This book is definitely not your run of the mill spy thriller. Its got a unique yet flawed leading character(Micha Dalton) along with some great supporting characters as well. The best being the ghost of one of Dalton's slain CIA collegues. Dalton travels from Venice to London and finally ends up in the badlands of New Mexico trying to track down the brutal killer who is taking out former members of the CIA project called Echelon. The murder scenes in the book are not for the faint-of-heart. They are very graphic and the book has almost a macabre feel to it at some points. The twists and turns keep coming to the very end and leaves the reader aching for the sequal. Stone is one to keep an eye on.

LeCarre's heir

Michah Dalton, a "cleaner" for the Company is called to Cortona, a small Italian town where his friend Porter Naumann has met a horrific end. Before the day is over Dalton is fighting for his own life with Croatian thugs and then a bright green spider. Determined to avenge Naumann's death Dalton traverses the globe from a horrendous crime-scene in London to Langley to the badlands of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. At every turn he he encounters danger and loss of life. Yet he perseveres, sometimes by pure luck and sometimes by cunning and sometimes by military savvy. George Smiley, LeCarre's quintessential Cold War spy confronted betrayal behind operation. Here it is duty that drives Dalton onward. But Dalton is also bright, literate and angst-riddled. If there is some betrayal lurking, it is not for me to say. But this book never lets go, never compromises, and never can be put down. A new master spy designed for the Long War has emerged. May we see him again!

Terrific!

I got to read an advance reading copy of this book, and found myself buying two copies for friends of mine. At first I thought "great, here's another CIA-thriller from some unknown author"...only to find myself immersed in the novel within only pages, and suddenly thinking "where did this author come from?" Many surprises, a few violent deaths, and wonderful scenic settings. It's rare that all the elements come together as well as they do in this novel thriller. But one warning -- the emphasis is on VIOLENT in the "violent deaths" sentence above. We're talking SIlence of the Lambs violent. Still, it's entertaining and fast paced, and truly surprising! I can imagine the folks in those studio offices in Hollywood jumping over each other to buy the movie rights.

A surprising page turner fraught with spine-tingling chases, scary near misses, and several nasty de

"Vendetta: Italian, from Latin vindicta, revenge; see vindictive." On a late August night in an Idaho trailer camp, a man dies a horrible death. It was a murder so gruesome, it could only be revenge. Before the killer finished off his victim, he wanted to know just one thing: Who was the man in the long blue coat? His victim could not --- or would not --- tell him. A few weeks later, another man is found dead, this one on the streets of a Tuscan hill town. Again, the murder is too horrific to be a mere mugging gone wrong. Witnesses report hearing voices from his room but none claim to have seen anything. Major Brancati of the Italian carabinieri summons Micah Dalton, who purportedly knew the dead man, to identify the body. Dalton is sad to see his old friend so mutilated, obviously the result of a slow and painful death. He answers the major's questions, but volunteers nothing. Brancati has a feeling that Dalton is not being totally forthright with him. Dalton's job description is "cleaner," and his employer is known as Burke and Single, a bank, but even Brancati doesn't buy that. Dalton's skills and acuity are simply too sharp --- and the manner of death of his colleague too methodical and personal --- for Dalton to be anything but CIA. Keeping his true employment a secret becomes the least of Dalton's worries when more corpses start to pile up. The connection? They all were associated with a project called Echelon, a seemingly harmless, even mundane, operation. Its purpose was vague, but no red flags come up when Dalton does some digging. So who would want to kill the members of such an innocuous group? Several likely suspects pop up, one especially interesting fellow who Dalton desperately wants to follow up on. Unfortunately, his superior, Jack Stallworth, reins him in and sends him to interview another ex-Echelon operative, a man named Willard Fremont. Dalton can't understand why the sudden interest in Fremont since Fremont seems to have just had a really bad day and gone postal with a postal worker. Even considering that he was attached to Echelon, the idea of checking Fremont out smacks of a ploy to derail Dalton's investigation. Is Stallworth trying to lead him away from the truth, or is he protecting one of his best operatives from certain self-destruction? In fairness to Stallworth, Dalton has been drinking pretty heavily and saying some pretty weird things, weird enough to question his fitness for duty. He has been alternating between normal function and hallucinations, yet he denies any psychotic break from reality --- most likely trying to convince himself as much as anyone. But, since his choices are to have a little chat with Fremont or nothing, Dalton chooses the former. And wisely so, for some of what Fremont has to say puts Dalton back on track. Fraught with spine-tingling chases, scary near misses and several nasty deaths, THE ECHELON VENDETTA will keep you turning pages to the surprising end. --- Reviewed by Kate