We are pleased to bring you debut author Susan Ouellette, talking about her book "The Wayward Spy." Susan isn't just an author, her background in the CIA made her the perfect fit to become a writer.
As a child, I wanted to be Nancy Drew, or even better – a spy! Technically speaking, I never became either, but for much of my career, I worked in intelligence and analysis. In the early 1990s, I worked as a CIA analyst covering the Soviet Union. I researched and wrote a variety of analytical pieces, including several items for the “President’s Daily Brief.” I also earned a commendation for the work I did during the failed 1991 Soviet coup.
After graduate school, I worked as a Professional Staff Member for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). As a HPSCI staff member, I investigated allegations that the U.S. allowed Iran to funnel weapons to Bosnian Muslims. At the request of senior congressional leaders, I wrote several reports on the Intelligence Community’s capability to collect and analyze information on threats to U.S. national security. I also wrote a study on the intelligence requirements process and assisted in the structure and development of the Committee’s program, “IC21: The Intelligence Community in the 21st Century.”
Since my time on the Hill, I’ve worked as a government contractor and freelance researcher, analyzing issues such as terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. In 2015, I was named a National Review Institute Washington Fellow. In my spare time, I write fiction. I’ve completed the first two novels in my espionage thriller trilogy, and am working on the third.
"The Wayward Spy": The terrorist threat has changed. The consequences haven't.
When her fiancé, a CIA operative accused of treason, is killed overseas, intelligence analyst Maggie Jenkins smells cover-up and sets out to clear his name. Maggie disobeys direct orders and travels to Tbilisi, Georgia, to follow a trail littered with secrets and lies, corruption and deceit, risking her own life to expose the terrorist threat at the intersection where the Russian Mafia, Chechen rebels, Al Qaeda and ... US government officials meet.
From the halls of power in Washington, D.C. to the political chaos of the former Soviet Union, Maggie must confront players from the intelligence, political, and criminal worlds who will do anything to stop her. How far will Maggie go to uncover the truth?
"Susan Ouellette has written a well-crafted page-turner that benefits not only from her imagination and way with words -- but from her experience. She has walked the halls of the House Intelligence Committee and the CIA and knows those institutions as very few novelists do." - Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, Former CIA Assistant Director for Analysis; Former Staff Director, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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