Beirut Station by Paul Vidich
A stunning new espionage novel by a master of the genre, Beirut Station follows a young female CIA officer whose mission to assassinate a high-level, Hezbollah terrorist reveals a dark truth that puts her life at risk.
Lebanon, 2006. The Israel–Hezbollah war is tearing Beirut apart: bombs are raining down, residents are scrambling to evacuate, and the country is on the brink of chaos.
In the midst of this turmoil, the CIA and Mossad are targeting a reclusive Hezbollah terrorist, Najib Qassem. Najib is believed to be planning the assassination of Secretary of State, who is coming to Beirut in ten days to broker a ceasefire.
They turn to a young Lebanese-American CIA agent. Analise comes up with the perfect plan: she has befriended Qassem's grandson, and will use this friendship to locate the terrorist and kill him. As the plan goes into action, though, Analise begins to suspect that Mossad has a motive of its own.
She alerts the agency but their response is for her to drop it. Analise is now the target and there is no one she can trust: not the CIA, not Mossad, and not the Lebanese government. And the one person she might have to trust -- a reporter for the New York Times -- might not be who he says he is...
A tightly-wound international thriller, Beirut Station is Paul Vidich's best novel to date.
About the author
Paul Vidich has had a distinguished career in music and media. Most recently, he served as Special Advisor to AOL and was Executive Vice President at the Warner Music Group, in charge of technology and global strategy. He serves on the Board of Directors of Poets & Writers and The New School for Social Research. A founder and publisher of the Storyville App, Vidich is also an award-winning author of short fiction. His novels, An Honorable Man, The Good Assassin, The Coldest Warrior and The Mercenary, are available from No Exit Press.
Review
After reading and loving ‘The Coldest Warrior’ I was looking forward to picking up ‘Beirut Station’ and it did not disappoint. It's a moody and claustrophobic read, that reads like a historical memoir, full of nuanced characters and historical details. Philosophical questions were addressed - how does one cope with being a spy and being themselves, do nations have the right to play God and many more. I enjoy works of spy fiction and I believe Vidich is up there with the best. It's reminiscent of Le Carre but with a slightly more human touch, as this is essentially a character story of how a spy comes to certain realizations and conclusions.
Beirut 2006 - Analise is a young CIA agent who has been given the mission to assassinate a high ranking, Hezbollah terrorist. The Irsael-Hezbollah war is tearing Beirut apart, bombs are raining down every night, residents are scrambling to evacuate and there is chaos on every street. The CIA and Mossad want to assassinate Najib Quassem and Analise is trying to plan his death by gaining access to the family via his grandson as his English tutor. Will their plan work?
This is a multi-layered look at the tensions in the Middle East during 2006. Also, it feels a very apt read at the moment, with the invasion of Gaza and the Hamas terror incident. It shows us that history is always repeating itself, we never learn and some people love chaos! Do we as those ‘first-world’ nations have the authority to play in these games of state and war? But essentially this is the story of Analise and how she reconfigures her world and how one deals with the subterfuge and secrets of that existence. Her world is one of smoke and mirrors, guessing people’s true intentions and one where every step can be fatal. She has an inner core of strength but also shows vulnerability which might be her undoing.
‘Beirut Station’ is very compelling and I devoured it in a few sittings. It was one of those novels that has you doing extra research and it becomes all the more richer for it. Based on true events, it gives it an air of authenticity and a sense that this could have actually played out at some point! This was a rich narrative that hooked me from start to finish and I can't wait to see what Vidich does next.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
