The Traitor

The Traitor by Stephen Coonts

The Traitor is the most recent and fourth novel in the Tommy Carmellini series by Stephen Coonts. Another outstanding effort by Coonts, this is a classic spy/mystery novel which keeps the reader guessing about what will happen next from beginning to the end. Carmellini is joined by a few characters from previous Coonts work including Jake Grafton, the former protagonist as well as well as Carmellini’s on again, off again romantic interest Sarah Houston.

Set in present day Paris just two short weeks before a G-8 economic conference the American CIA has information that Al Qaeda plans to assassinate the eight most powerful leaders in the world in one dramatic terrorist event, but the head of French intelligence has a source within Al Qaeda which could stop this terrible event. Unfortunately, the head of French intelligence will not share any information from his source and outsiders are ambivalent if the source truly exists.

Characters begin to arrive in Paris and fit into the stereotypes that many of us have about each of them; diplomats are more concerned about appearances than doing the right thing, intelligence officers have long ago forgotten which side they truly work for, the President will come to the conference no matter what personal risk and many more.

With a ton of plot twists, break ins, car cashes, explosions and what does seem to be a realistic battle between a well funded and advanced terrorist organization and several intelligence services which are naturally skeptical of each other this is an interesting read and look into the thriller genre from one of the true masters.

The Traitor