The New Neighbor

May 2, 2022
At the start of this clever national security cyberwar thriller cum suburban status-envy mystery from bestseller Cleveland (You Can Run), CIA counterintelligence analyst Beth Bradford drops her youngest child off at college, then sees her life unravel. As she mourns the sale of the suburban Virginia house where she raised her family, her husband announces he’s leaving her. She’s sidelined at work, shunted into a training role instead of continuing her 15-year pursuit of a U.S.-based covert Iranian operative known as “The Neighbor.” Dazed by the speed at which everything in her life is upended, she cultivates an increasingly unhealthy obsession with the new occupants of her old house, Madeline and Josh Sterling, conflating her personal crisis with an off-the-books investigation of the Neighbor’s identity. She digs into the Sterlings’ backgrounds, sets up surveillance of a cul-de-sac in her old neighborhood, and appears increasingly unhinged to her friends and former neighbors. The strong plot takes several convincing twists that vindicate Beth’s initially outlandish suspicions as it builds toward a well-paced, if not entirely surprising, conclusion. Cleveland consistently entertains. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Co.

June 1, 2022
"How well do any of us know our neighbors?" This question anchors Cleveland's latest novel as a CIA analyst fights against the clock to keep Iranian intelligence from infiltrating the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System. Beth Bradford's life is in transition: Her youngest son has just started college, and she and her husband are moving out of the house where all three of their kids grew up, away from the McLean, Virginia, neighborhood where their best friends still live. Their marriage is also fading; Beth's only solace is that she will have more time to devote to preventing Iranian intelligence from infiltrating the network using an asset only known as "The Neighbor." Despite her almost 20 years on the case, however, she is suddenly reassigned to a teaching gig, losing her high-level security clearance and her professional raison d'�tre. The last bit of intelligence she (surreptitiously) accesses is a short message: "The Neighbor has found a new cul-de-sac." Determined to figure out the identity of The Neighbor before national security is compromised, she begins to surveill her old neighborhood, noticing for the first time how most of her friends, in addition to the woman who bought her house, have their own secrets and could potentially be guilty. But no one will believe her; her family, friends, and co-workers chalk up her suspicions to midlife crisis paranoia. Will she uncover the identity of The Neighbor before it's too late? Despite a rather predictable pattern--no one seems to understand that Beth's concern is rooted in more than her chaotic life changes--there are a number of satisfying twists in the second half of the book. To answer the rhetorical question: No, it's clear that we never really know our neighbors--or our own families--but must rely only on ourselves. A stark takeaway, yes, but that doesn't make it wrong. Cleveland engenders deep paranoia for the susceptibility of U.S. intelligence--under the guise of entertainment.

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June 30, 2022
In the new thriller from the author of You Can Run (2021), Cleveland has carefully constructed a story about Beth Bradford, a CIA counterintelligence analyst who's trying to identify a traitor living in a quiet suburban cul-de-sac--or, and the narrative makes this seem like a distinct possibility, perhaps Beth is becoming steadily more ensnared by a paranoid delusion. The author, a former CIA analyst specializing in counterintelligence, uses her insider knowledge of tradecraft and the workings of the CIA to imbue the novel with realism; in Beth Bradford, she's created a character of substantial complexity. We want Beth to unmask the traitor known as The Neighbor, but, at the same time, we see some of the things Beth does, and they seem like the actions of someone who's definitely confused. Full of surprises and revelations, steeped in paranoia and fear, this is a thriller that keeps readers guessing right up until the final moments. A sequel is hinted at and much to be desired.

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